Elif Batuman: Either/or (2022, Penguin Random House)
English language
Published June 18, 2022 by Penguin Random House.
Selin returns to Harvard for her sophomore year, spends lots of time thinking about Ivan, then moves on.
"Was that what a novel was: a plane where you could finally juxtapose all the different people, mediating between them and weighing their views?"
Loved, in a heady sort of way, although it was more Helen DeWitt this time around than Rachel Cusk.
I love a coming of age story set on a college campus – or so I thought. I wonder if I couldn't get into this one because it was too similar to my own college experience so I found myself cringing and bored instead of appreciative? Maybe. Ir struck me as the book I might have written when I was 23 and still overly-fascinated by myself... there's a lot of self-important navel-gazing, sexual exploration, bad romance, and Big Questions. Now that I'm twice that age, it's a yawn. I will say, however, that there are some LOL and poignant moments that suggest this author will be one to watch.
