The Idiot
by Elif Batuman · first published 1969
4mentions
1recommended by
4HN commenters
2017–2026first – last mentioned
25% recommend75% neutral
Embarking on her freshman year at Harvard in the early tech days of the 1990s, a young artist and daughter of Turkish immigrants begins a correspondence with an older mathematics student from Hungary while struggling with her changing sense of self, first love and a daunting career prospect.
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The Idiot by Elif Batuman So funny that my face was basically fixed in a smile the entire time reading.
on “Books I Loved Reading in 2024” ↗I liked The Possessed by Elif Batuman. I had read The Idiot in high school, a death march for a term paper. But I liked Batuman's reading of it better than mine (but not enough to re-read it). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elif_Batuman
on “Dostoyevsky Isn't Difficult” ↗In Elif Batuman's 2017 novel The Idiot, about a naive Harvard student, her not-really-a-boyfriend Ivan, a math student, enthuses to her about Emacs. The book is set in 1995. It was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
on “Emacs Appearances in Pop Culture” ↗Elif Batuman is a fabulous writer; I suggest anyone who likes this article to check out her stories on Gobekli Tepe and Turkish soccer hooligans as well. She also just published a novel, The Idiot, and is promoting it. I haven't read the book, but I plan on seeing her give a reading this Tuesday in D.C.
on “The Big Dig: Istanbul’s city planners have a problem: too much history (2015)” ↗