The idiot
Batuman, Elif, 1977-2017
Book
Selin, a tall, highly strung Turkish-American from New Jersey turns up at Harvard and finds herself dangerously overwhelmed by the challenges and possibilities of adulthood. She studies linguistics and literature, teaches ESL and spends a lot of time thinking about what language – and languages – can and cannot do. Along the way she befriends Svetlana, a cosmopolitan Serb, and obsesses over Ivan, a mathematician from Hungary. The two conduct a hilarious relationship that culminates with Selin spending the summer teaching English in a Hungarian village and enduring a series of surprising excursions. Throughout her journeys, Selin ponders profound questions about how culture and language shape who we are, how difficult it is to be a failed writer, and how baffling love is. At once clever and clueless, Batuman’s heroine shows us with perfect hilarity and soulful inquisitiveness just how messy it can be to forge a self.
Main title:
The idiot / Elif Batuman.
Author:
Batuman, Elif, 1977-, author
Work:
Imprint:
London Jonathan Cape, an imprint of Vintage Publishing, 2017.©2017
Collation:
422 pages ; 24 cm.
ISBN:
9781910702703 (paperback)9781910702697 (hardback)9780099583172 (pbk)
Language:
English
Subject:
BRN:
324208