From the acclaimed and bestselling author of The Idiot, the continuation of beloved protagonist Selin's quest for self-knowledge, as she travels abroad and tests the limits of her newfound adulthood Selin is the luckiest person in her family: the only one who was born in America and got to go to Harvard. Now it's sophomore year, 1996, and Selin knows she has to make it count. The first order of business: to figure out the meaning of everything that happened over the summer. Why did Selin's elusive crush, Ivan, find her that job in the Hungarian countryside? What was up with all those other people in the Hungarian countryside? Why is Ivan's weird ex-girlfriend now trying to get in touch with Selin? On the plus side, it feels like the plot of an exciting novel. On the other hand, why do so many novels have crazy abandoned women in them? How does one live a life as interesting as a novel--a life worthy of becoming a novel--without becoming a crazy abandoned woman oneself? Guided by her literature syllabus and by her more worldly and confident peers, Selin reaches certain conclusions about the universal importance of parties, alcohol, and sex, and resolves to execute them in practice--no matter what the cost. Next on the list: international travel. Unfolding with the propulsive logic and intensity of youth, Either/Or is a landmark novel by one of our most brilliant writers. Hilarious, revelatory, and unforgettable, its gripping narrative will confront you with searching questions that persist long after the last page.
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04.5*
This book felt like a warm hug I needed from an old friend. It was so comfortable to return to Selin because she was just as I had remembered her - sarcastic, witty, genuinely confused by so much in life, cerebral, a little pretentious. I was impressed by Batuman's prowess that she could continue a character so smoothly into a new book and add depth to the voice, one that comes with Selin having one more year of college and an unrequited love under her belt.
SPOILERS:
It felt satisfying to see Selin deconstruct the magic of Ivan and realize he was just a weird, annoying man playing with a young girl's feelings. I loved seeing Selin in new contexts - parties, Turkey - and old ones too - Russian class, the dining hall, her bedroom. I love Selin because she reminds me of the person I wanted to be in college - deeply thoughtful, studying new wondrous philosophies, so genuinely affected by literature that it changed her worldview constantly.
I think I wholeheartedly loved this book until we reached the last fourth - Selin's summer. I felt that the tone shifted in a strange way. Selin started hooking up with everyone in sight and I think I didn't completely understand what was happening or why Batuman had Selin have such an unexplainable character shift. I'm not sure if we were to take it to be Selin breaking out of her sexual repression in an extreme; but it felt unsettling and out of character for her. Because Selin normally divulges every single thought in her brain, I expected her to explain a little more. The shift from that sequence to her reading on a train/plane to Russia felt abrupt. But I did find the ending so masterful and well written. The last 5 pages were rich with such poignant reflections on the woman as an artist, marriage, and writing.
0Selin has to be one of my favorite Literary characters to exist, and I'm so glad Elif Bateman decided to continue her story from The Idiot. She is back with more social aloofness and now a craving to do everything else her peers have been doing while she was obsessing her Russian class during her first year at Harvard. Selin is one of the only characters who you want to take under your wing to show they're the social literacies of the world, reward her with a gold star sticker when she tries something new, but also spray her with water like a cat who is misbehaving. When reading, I question if my social superiority is because I'm looking at her 1997 life with my 2023 experience, where I can stalk a guy's instagram instead of seeing how long ago he was online checking his email, or if I am rooting for Selin and laughing at her mistakes because deep down, I possess the same amount of social aloofness in a future context.
Rarely does a sequel level up to the first book, but I can promise this sequel made Selin & her navigation through college social life so much more enjoyable.
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