{"id":42586,"date":"2017-08-18T11:04:42","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T15:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=42586"},"modified":"2017-08-18T10:44:43","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T14:44:43","slug":"idiot-elif-batuman-library-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/idiot-elif-batuman-library-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Idiot by Elif Batuman [in Library Journal]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-42301\" src=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/05\/Idiot-by-Elif-Batuman-on-BookDragon-526x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"526\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/05\/Idiot-by-Elif-Batuman-on-BookDragon-526x800.jpg 526w, https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/05\/Idiot-by-Elif-Batuman-on-BookDragon.jpg 612w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 526px) 100vw, 526px\" \/>Batuman makes her fiction debut already a literary darling: a <em>New Yorker<\/em> staff writer since 2010 and the author of a much-adored essay collection, <em>The Possessed<\/em>, about the pleasurable intricacies of reading Russian literature.<\/p>\n<p>The year is 1995, and Turkish American 18-year-old Selin enters Harvard. She takes classes and makes friends, but her most important connection develops via email \u2013 new and enigmatic back then \u2013 with Ivan, an older student she rarely sees although she pines for his virtual missives. With freshman year over, she stops through France on her way to Hungary \u2013 because Ivan is there \u2013 where she&#8217;ll be teaching English in a small village. Back at Harvard in the fall, she realizes, &#8220;I hadn&#8217;t learned anything at all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In 2006, Batuman&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/nplusonemag.com\/issue-4\/essays\/short-story-novel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Short Story &amp; Novel&#8221;<\/a> contribution to highbrow literary journal <em>n+1<\/em> included the line: &#8220;Write long novels, pointless novels.&#8221; <em>The Idiot<\/em> is just that. As if to add further emphasis, Batuman plods through almost 14 hours of narration. With a novel so thoroughly hyped, listed, and award-predicted, perhaps disappointment is inevitable.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verdict<\/strong>: Despite Batuman&#8217;s obvious erudition, crafting gorgeous phrases and being fluent in both philosophy and philology aren&#8217;t enough to redeem this <em>Idiot<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review<\/strong>: <a href=\"http:\/\/bookverdict.com\/details.xqy?uri=Product2017-08-01-606163.xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8220;Audio,&#8221; <em>Library Journal<\/em>, August 1, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n<p><strong>Published<\/strong>: 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Batuman makes her fiction debut already a literary darling: a New Yorker staff writer since 2010 and the author of a much-adored essay collection, The Possessed, about the pleasurable intricacies of reading Russian literature. The year is 1995, and Turkish American 18-year-old Selin enters Harvard&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,6,60,6535,7455],"tags":[6608,58,7457,11,7456,70,13,39,173],"class_list":["post-42586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-audio","category-fiction","category-nonethnic-specific","category-repost","category-turkish-american-origin-ethnic-backgound","tag-bookdragon","tag-coming-of-age","tag-elif-batuman","tag-friendship","tag-idiot","tag-library-journal","tag-love","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-travel"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Idiot by Elif Batuman [in Library Journal] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/idiot-elif-batuman-library-journal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Idiot by Elif Batuman [in Library Journal] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Batuman makes her fiction debut already a literary darling: a New Yorker staff writer since 2010 and the author of a much-adored essay collection, The Possessed, about the pleasurable intricacies of reading Russian literature. The year is 1995, and Turkish American 18-year-old Selin enters Harvard....\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/idiot-elif-batuman-library-journal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-18T15:04:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-18T14:44:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/05\/Idiot-by-Elif-Batuman-on-BookDragon.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"612\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"930\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Idiot by Elif Batuman [in Library Journal] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/idiot-elif-batuman-library-journal\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Idiot by Elif Batuman [in Library Journal] - BookDragon","og_description":"Batuman makes her fiction debut already a literary darling: a New Yorker staff writer since 2010 and the author of a much-adored essay collection, The Possessed, about the pleasurable intricacies of reading Russian literature. 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