Items related to The Idiot
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 readers of Batuman’s non-fiction, The Idiot tackles literary ambition, female friendship, the American dream, Chomskian linguistics, the Russian novel and romantic love. ‘There is hardly a single action we perform in that phase which we would not give anything, in later life, to be able to annul,’ Proust once wrote, ‘but adolescence is the only period in which we learn anything.’
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 readers of Batuman’s non-fiction, The Idiot tackles literary ambition, female friendship, the American dream, Chomskian linguistics, the Russian novel and romantic love. ‘There is hardly a single action we perform in that phase which we would not give anything, in later life, to be able to annul,’ Proust once wrote, ‘but adolescence is the only period in which we learn anything.’
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
"I loved it and could have read a thousand more pages of it. It presented this almost moment-by-moment experience of life, in a way that I just felt Batuman had so much control. There’s so much wit and pleasure in her writing you feel very comfortable being in the world she’s created." (Emma Cline, author of THE GIRLS)
"Elif Batuman surely has one of the best senses of humour in American letters. The pleasure she takes in observing the eccentricities of each of her characters makes for a really refreshing and unique bildungsroman; one more fascinated with what's going on around and outside the bewildered protagonist, than what s going on inside her." (Sheila Heti, author of HOW SHOULD A PERSON BE? and TICKNOR)
"Each paragraph is a small anthology of well-made observations... Batuman has a rich sense of the details of human attachment and lust." (Dwight Garner New York Times)
"Beautifully written... a wry, funny coming-of-age story set at the dawn of email among a group of Harvard brainiacs too nerdy and self-involved to even think about sex, drugs and drinking." (Daily Mail)
"[A] masterfully funny debut novel... Erudite but never pretentious, The Idiot will make you crave more books by Batuman." (Sloane Crosley Vanity Fair)
Book Description:
"Elif Batuman surely has one of the best senses of humour in American letters. The pleasure she takes in observing the eccentricities of each of her characters makes for a really refreshing and unique bildungsroman; one more fascinated with what's going on around and outside the bewildered protagonist, than what s going on inside her." (Sheila Heti, author of HOW SHOULD A PERSON BE? and TICKNOR)
"Each paragraph is a small anthology of well-made observations... Batuman has a rich sense of the details of human attachment and lust." (Dwight Garner New York Times)
"Beautifully written... a wry, funny coming-of-age story set at the dawn of email among a group of Harvard brainiacs too nerdy and self-involved to even think about sex, drugs and drinking." (Daily Mail)
"[A] masterfully funny debut novel... Erudite but never pretentious, The Idiot will make you crave more books by Batuman." (Sloane Crosley Vanity Fair)
The hilarious campus novel from the prizewinning author of The Possessed.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherJonathan Cape
- Publication date2017
- ISBN 10 1910702706
- ISBN 13 9781910702703
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages432
- Rating
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The Idiot
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Vintage Publishing, United Kingdom, London
(2017)
ISBN 10: 1910702706
ISBN 13: 9781910702703
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 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 readers of Batumans non-fiction, The Idiot tackles literary ambition, female friendship, the American dream, Chomskian linguistics, the Russian novel and romantic love. There is hardly a single action we perform in that phase which we would not give anything, in later life, to be able to annul, Proust once wrote, but adolescence is the only period in which we learn anything. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR009262315
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