The Idiot
Elif Batuman
Penguin
The Idiot is the semi-autobiographical first novel of Elif Batuman, staff writer with The New Yorker. Set in 1995, the novel spans 18-year-old future writer Selin’s first year at Harvard. An intelligent, quirky and slightly nerdy protagonist, Selin is the New Jersey-born daughter of affluent Turkish immigrants. Set apart and uneasy in her new setting, Selin obsesses about the meaning of things and admits that she has no idea what she is ‘supposed to be thinking about.’
At its core, Batuman’s novel is a sustained reflection on semiotics and language; Selin enrols in a series of courses on ‘Psycholinguistics’, ‘Constructed Worlds’ and the ‘Philosophy of Language’. New-found theories from Chomsky to Sapir to Whorf start to seep into her everyday thought processes, disturbing her to the point that she cannot interact comfortably with others, so all-consuming is her observation of the form and structure of her language-utterances. Selin’s cyber relationship with older student, Ivan, through the then-new medium of email, provides another perspective on these linguistic issues.
This is a peculiar book. In terms of plot and storyline, not much happens. With the exception of Selin, many of the characters including the love interest are bland, uninteresting figures – an intentional move by Batuman, designed to heighten the reader’s awareness of Selin’s playful observations of the world around her. All in all, The Idiot is a baffling, if brilliant, first novel.
Words – Paula Clarke
