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The Idiot: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Elif Batuman (Author)

178 customer reviews

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A New York Times Book Review Notable Book

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction

"An addictive, sprawling epic; I wolfed it down.”
—Miranda July, author of The First Bad Man and It Chooses You

“Easily the funniest book I’ve read this year.”
—GQ

A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself.

The year is 1995, and email is new. Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard. She signs up for classes in subjects she has never heard of, befriends her charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate, Svetlana, and, almost by accident, begins corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student from Hungary. Selin may have barely spoken to Ivan, but with each email they exchange, the act of writing seems to take on new and increasingly mysterious meanings.

At the end of the school year, Ivan goes to Budapest for the summer, and Selin heads to the Hungarian countryside, to teach English in a program run by one of Ivan's friends. On the way, she spends two weeks visiting Paris with Svetlana. Selin's summer in Europe does not resonate with anything she has previously heard about the typical experiences of American college students, or indeed of any other kinds of people. For Selin, this is a journey further inside herself: a coming to grips with the ineffable and exhilarating confusion of first love, and with the growing consciousness that she is doomed to become a writer.

With superlative emotional and intellectual sensitivity, mordant wit, and pitch-perfect style, Batuman dramatizes the uncertainty of life on the cusp of adulthood. Her prose is a rare and inimitable combination of tenderness and wisdom; its logic as natural and inscrutable as that of memory itself. The Idiot is a heroic yet self-effacing reckoning with the terror and joy of becoming a person in a world that is as intoxicating as it is disquieting. Batuman's fiction is unguarded against both life's affronts and its beauty--and has at its command the complete range of thinking and feeling which they entail.

Named one the best books of the year by Refinery29 • Mashable One • Elle Magazine • The New York Times • Bookpage • Vogue • NPR • Buzzfeed •The Millions

Length: 427 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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Product details

File Size: 1245 KB
Print Length: 427 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (March 14, 2017)
Publication Date: March 14, 2017
Sold by: Penguin Group (USA) LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B01HNJIJ3U
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray:

Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,314 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #24 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > Russian
- #165 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical > Cultural Heritage
- #307 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > United States

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Jessica Sullivan

She's a great writer, but I found most of this completely tedious

April 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

2.5 Stars.

I had a really complicated relationship with this book. On the surface, it appears to have everything I enjoy in a novel—a quirky protagonist, smart insights, dry humor, a character-driven narrative—but if I'm being honest, it was completely tedious and desperate for some more extensive editing.

It's a Bildungsroman story about a Turkish-American girl named Selin who begins her freshman year at Harvard University. Selin is awkward, insecure and unprepared for this next part of her life. She meets Ivan, an older Hungarian mathematics major, in one of her classes, and they begin something of a courtship that culminates in her traveling to Hungary that summer to be near him.

It's basically a right of passage for a college-age girl to go through that phase where she falls in love with an intellectually exciting but emotionally inept jerk. And Batuman does a really good job of capturing this to the point of nearly painful nostalgic discomfort for readers like myself who have been through that: the coy back and forth, the anxiety of waiting for that next email, the inevitable disappointment just around the corner.

Selin is a linguistics major, and so language and communication play a big role in both her internal monologue and her relationship with Ivan. Ivan, and the feelings she has for him, are so obscure and perplexing to her that there's a constant sense of disconnect. Again, this is something that felt familiar to me and reminded me of my own college years.

Batuman writes in sharp, incisive prose, and there is clearly a lot of potential in her writing. But I'm not sure how to adequately convey how boring and tedious parts of this book were. We go through every single step of Selin's first year of college and the summer following it, and much of the narrative and dialogue feels completely unnecessary. I skimmed pages and pages of this book because I cared so little about what was happening. I almost bailed on it several times. And then the sky would open and I'd come across a section that I loved. It was a very uneven and frustrating reading experience.

I would have given this a solid 2 stars, but it gets an extra .5 for Batuman's obvious talent.

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woahwoahwoahwhat

You'll Only Find It Tedious If You Need A Packed Plot and a Clear "Payoff"

November 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

A lot of readers may describe this book as pedantic or tedious or dull. I understand why they're saying that, but I'll have to disagree for this reason: the beauty of this book is in its craft, not its plot. The narrator's idiosyncratic observations about the world, her matter-of-fact exchanges with both close friends and strangers, and her quaint attempts at describing how she's feeling are all so beautifully human that if you resign yourself to the fact that nothing out of the ordinary is going to happen here and there are no "events," you can purely enjoy a funny, authentic narrative voice from a character who is trying to find her place in the world. I found myself underlining about a third of this novel because there is so much brilliance and eloquence. It reminded me of Catcher in the Rye with a much more insightful, mature, compassionate narrator. Besides, when you reach the novel's heartbreaking last paragraph, you realize that form complements function. In other words: the novel was designed for nothing to happen. That's kind of the point. Life, more often than not, is just life. The question is: can we, like Batuman, find wonder and beauty and humor in it all?

Despite being over 400 pages, this is a whip-quick read. It's broken up into sections that are rarely more than four pages and are often hardly a page. It's a perfect commuting book, if you are often forced to pause, but it could also easily be breezed through in a week or two. I highly, highly recommend it. It left a very positive impression on me.

38 people found this helpful

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christopher

contemplative and funny

May 10, 2017

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This isn't a book with lots and twists and turns, it's a novel of the mind, an 18-year-old Harvard student. It's basically a novel about gaining confidence, wrapped around an obviously doomed near-relationship. It's a very particular college experience, but it's expertly rendered. I'm ready for Sophomore year.

15 people found this helpful

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S. ONEILL

So gently funny and true

August 5, 2017

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So gently funny and true. I might be biased because I went to a liberal arts college in the late 90s, so some parts of the story's setting felt familiar. But the realest parts of the book were the personalities and psychologies of 19 to 22 year olds trying on the clothes of adulthood. I was transported back into the feelings I hadn't felt in 20 years and recognizing they kinds of personalities I haven't seen in 20 years. A great read.

9 people found this helpful

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May 1, 2017

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Heard Elif Batuman on NPR and loved her storytelling. How she wrote the book many years ago, put it down, reflected and redirected. I wanted to love the book as much as i did her interview. The book had beautiful prose but was indulgent, slow and at times downright dull

20 people found this helpful

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Adam L. Waring

Great writer, Weak story

May 29, 2017

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I enjoyed this book despite myself. The writing is so funny and droll and deadpan, and the observations so unique, that I laughed out loud throughout. But the story was all over the place and ultimately a bit boring and not terribly satisfying. I actually don't think the novel format is Batuman's strength. If she becomes a New Yorker writer or something, I'll be a devotee.

5 people found this helpful

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P. Bolton

worth a read for the distinct voice

October 24, 2017

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She has a very distinct voice. This is not a 'child of immigrants goes to Harvard' story. Not sure it is a type. She arrives and meanders through her freshman year and then goes off to Hungary (of all places) for a summer program. This is not a plot driven book but worth a read for her view of the world. Will read whatever she writes next.

3 people found this helpful

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Doug and Jess Hughes

This book was a delight

June 24, 2017

Verified Purchase

I loved this book. Other reviewers have said that it was slow or meandering, but I enjoyed spending time seeing things through the eyes of this protagonist and was sad to say goodbye to her when the book ended. I found her teenage confusion and insecurity relatable and her personality quirky and charming. Her way of seeing the world was so humorous! This book was a delight.

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