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The Idiot

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About this listen

It is September 1995. Selin, a Turkish-American college freshman from New Jersey, is about to embark on her first year at Harvard University, where she is determined to decipher the mysteries of language and to become a writer. In between studying psycho­linguistics and the philosophy of language, teaching ESL to a Costa Rican plumber, and befriending her classmate Svetlana (a Serbian refugee from Connecticut), Selin falls in love with a Hungarian maths student in her Russian class. She spends the summer in the Hungarian countryside teaching English to village children, where sad and comic misunderstandings ensue. Full of the razor-sharp evocations of character and place that have long delighted listeners, The Idiot tackles literary ambition, female friend­ship, the American dream, Chomskian linguistics, the Russian novel and romantic love.

©2017 Elif Batuman (P)2017 Audible, Ltd Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
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The best book I've read for a while, fantastically narrated and laugh out loud funny. But this is not just a comedy - it's a deep and thought provoking novel about real life.

Relatable

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I found it relaxing to follow the main character around her life, elements were funny & relatable - I especially liked the bits about language and east European cultures as it’s not something that comes up a lot in books. Unfortunately I found the narrator very difficult - she read it in such a deadpan way and it was difficult to connect to. Might have been better with a more animated narrator or just in physical format.

Might have been better with a different narrator

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As the title suggests, Elif Batuman's novel explores linguistics and Russian literature through the eyes of a young Harvard undergraduate, Selin. The character falls in love with an older, neurotic Hungarian mathematics student, and travels to his country to be near him. It is occasionally humorous, and describes a rite of passage - but no more than that. Unfortunately, at times it is rather banal and tedious.

While Batuman's writing is to be desired, the content fell short as the narrative varies between sharp and rambling. The naivety of Selin also appears slightly unbelievable, and would probably be better geared at a younger audience.

A rather juvenile romp

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The narration is a bit dry making it hard to know if things are meant to be funny or not. I downloaded it as it was the "editors pick" and it turned out to be a struggle to finish.

Falls flat

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There are many interesting aspects to this roman a clef, and long excruciating passages of a young person's experience of being out of place among others and within themselves. The author's sometimes monotone reading voice adds to the overall effect. But the narrative pulls you in and flashes of humour provide moments of contrast. Overall though I cannot escape a feeling of 'stasis', of being trapped on an alien planet with no clear sense of the possibility of escape. But maybe this is 21st century realism?

Moving but painful exploration of alienatiin

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