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READING JOURNAL #1
Approach “The Idiot” by Elif Batuman Like a Visit to a Foreign Country
You don’t need to understand to be interested and engaged
I enjoyed reading The Idiot by Elif Batuman, but couldn’t recommend it to others. It’s too quirky! Most of the women in my Book Group (5 out of 7) did not like this book. But for me, it was delightful to be inside the mind of such an original, funny, and innocent freshman girl experiencing her first year at Harvard. I was interested in learning about the Ivy League experience, and I loved that nothing terrible happened to the main character— she wasn’t raped or humiliated and didn’t become a drunk and flunk out, which are all scenarios I’ve read (or experienced) before. Nope. Not Selin. She just went about her day quietly observing the absurdities of the world around her. And there were a lot of absurdities!
Some in my group found Selin pompous, but I didn’t see her that way. She was so paralyzed with insecurity that she could barely speak when in the company of Ivan, a student who impressed her with his big math brain. Most of her observations are kept inside her head. She isn’t a show off. Yet I still admire her for her originality and strength of character. She doesn’t conform to the group. She doesn’t feel that pressure to conform. She is a…
