Chantel's Reviews > Either/Or

** spoiler alert ** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on mental health, suicidal ideation, promiscuity, & others.

When a reader first encounters the character who will lead the way, jaunt them through a laneway of memories, new adventures, mystery, intellectual reflection, & prose, the reader is to have—ideally—met their match. This does not mean that the main character is one who poses a struggle; is something of a troll marooning the underpass of a desecrated & lonely bridge. More so, this is to mean that their match, like sticks set to light a flame against the backside of their box, are different & similar in all the ways that count towards encouraging the reader to pursue the tale of a thousand eves set forth by the main character. Selin is such a character as need never have been revisited upon a final parting word.

Though my review for “The Idiot” (2017) was one that reflected a genial enjoyment, I retain my opinions; this was not a book that needed to be read & certainly not a book that many people would enjoy reading mostly because nothing much happened. I admit that I am not someone for whom SparkNotes-style stories bode well. I find this approach rather tedious as it leaves me feeling that the author in question hadn’t much gumption to write their own work & rather relies heavily on that which has already been written to slather hardened jam into the crevices of rye.

Batuman has lost her way, or perhaps, she never had her sights set on a path to begin with. I cannot say for certain, I am not her. Nor am I the person who set out to write a sequel to a story that did not necessitate one, leaving me to feel that the author in question must have lost a sense of themselves & their path given the absolutely abhorrent second instalment in the dull & despairingly pretentious life of Selin.

To begin, I want to delve further into my first critique which is that a story whose sole intent is to rehash the written word of others is, generally speaking, not a story worth reading. Certainly, most veteran readers have come upon a story that linked the characters' experiences or their surroundings to events that were beautifully explored within another work of fiction. In this vein, I can appreciate the draw to include references to the Classics & philosophies of thought that allow the story at play to run its course whilst leaving the reader with a taste of the sweetness that lies in other wonderful stories.

What Batuman has failed to do, or perhaps has altogether neglected to attempt, is weaving references in the ways in which we are taught before beginning secondary school. There is a colossal difference between writing a double-digit number of pages, wherein these other books/stories are totally rehashed & being able to reference aspects of these works so that the character’s entity is reflected in a dimensionality surpassing fiction. I did not need to have every single book explained to me as though I were cramming for a test. I did not need a play-by-play of every single word ever written in these books & the background information to go along with them, to understand why Selin felt a connection.

Instead of granting Selin the ability to weave her way through a new chapter of her life, Batuman has simply formatted a textbook-style informational booklet in which a great number of Classic works of literature are used in place of the plot of this very book. One is left asking oneself what the purpose was behind writing this book if the author had no idea how to craft a story in the first place.

There is no point in formatting a story under the guise of it being a continuation of a series that saw its end with the very appropriate termination of the first novel. Did we need another 300+ pages to discern that Selin was at once horribly pretentious as to almost be cruel whilst simultaneously being a person who was safeguarded from every basic human experience up until the age at which she left for University? No, we did not. Nothing that is presented in this novel brings forth any new form of the information nor any series of events which lead the reader to feel any feelings of fondness or gratitude.

I had first heard of “The Idiot” (2017) after coming across “Either/Or” (2022)—I was intrigued by the premise & the promise of an intellectually stimulating story. By this point in time, the first book had garnered something of a controversial reputation & I enthusiastically read the polarizing reviews from those who proclaimed a dying adoration & those who felt a dying pang whilst reading the story. Having been someone who has consumed books voraciously during the many moons of my life, I had nothing to lose but faith in the publishing world, by endeavouring to read both books.

With so much of a reputation preceding “The Idiot” (2017) one might wonder why Batuman felt the need to come back to Selin all these years later. Certainly, nothing was left unsaid—no stone left to turn over for, Selin spent pages on end philosophizing about the many probabilities that she might encounter under & over, every rock. Therefore, I ask again—why was this book written? At a glance, one might wonder that Selin didn’t have more to say; having left her at the end of her friendship with Ivan, pondering whether or not what she felt for him was romantic, intimate, love.

Yet, with all those reflections, questions, & possibilities, Selin returns to us as a shadow of a real person & unlike in the first instalment, she is a shadow because the person that she is, so lacks substance that she cannot but be a ghost child wandering the earth in search of some mandate to fulfill. It is not difficult to discern that I did not like Selin in this story. The girl who was once at an age that many of us have come upon & who was faced with the adult version of the person she never learnt to comprehend, became a brut barbarian in the form of a pretentious Harvard attendee.

Given that there is very little of unique substance to this book—i.e. rather little in terms of un-cited, pre-existing literature—the bouts of conversation that take place are excruciating &, to be frank, boring as all hell. I honestly thought I might lose my mind if I had to listen to Selin wonder at Ivan’s decision to move along with his life when his friend (Selin) developed sentiments of love towards him due to her hyperactive imagination. So strange that an adult person might want to distance themselves from another adult person who couldn’t keep their sanity under wraps & persisted in creating an atmosphere of chaos in every interaction. (reads—sarcasm)

Throughout the first book, I wanted to give Selin the benefit of the doubt. It can be confusing to maneuver relationships. Especially for people like Selin who have spent their entire lives over-analyzing everything while subsequently sheltered from life. Within this instalment, this conflict was cruelly apparent & rendered the story a difficult one to read. Did Selin ever think to wonder that, if indeed, Ivan was pursuing an intimate relationship with her, he did so whilst in a committed relationship with Eunice? Did Selin never wonder at the fact that he was already in an outwardly long-term romantic relationship?

Why did we have to read about her back/forth regarding a friendship? After Zita explained to Selin what most of us could garner in the first book—that Ivan is culturally a free-flowing person & most Western people do not read into his behaviour as being respectful to his partner—Selin persists in committing to the idea that she was in love with Ivan & he was in love with her. It grew tiresome to have to go back & forth about what might or may, or would have, happened. All the while. I did not care. Ivan was living his life, the situation was explained at length & there is nothing more to say. Except, Batuman wanted to SparkNotes an entire series of books over & over again to really drive this point home.

It made me feel conflicted to feel so strongly that this story was a waste of my time whilst also appreciating that there were points within the first half of this book that were worth exploring. The ties between Selin’s obtuse naivety & her preposterous pretension were fascinating. At once, we see how this character was who she is & had been that way all along; a person who is, kind of a banana-brained meany. Is it acceptable to postulate that people are too dumb to understand literature if read outside of a post-secondary institution? Is it acceptable to stand around with people who are pretty rotten human beings while they douse on those who don’t have the means of pursuing a prestigious post-secondary education? No, it’s not.

Yet, Selin seeks out these types of people, she longs to be close to them because they reflect her essence in extroverted ways. At once we read about the casualty of her mentioning spending summers in Turkey & yet read about her pinching pennies to buy a winter coat. I am born & raised in one of the colder parts of Canada, I know how expensive winter coats are. The point I’m trying to make is that the disparity between what we are told—i.e. that Selin lives in financial insecurity—& the truth—that her mother & father are well-off & can afford a multitude of luxuries for themselves & their children—so starkly contrasts that one gets lost in the middle.

There were too many instances when Selin appears to be too naïve, that it is almost improbable that she would have so little awareness of the aspects that surround her. To have this story veer into sexual promiscuity & scenes on end describing the insertion of genitals & the movements that might take place throughout intercourse was ridiculous. Selin is a free-moving adult in the late 90s in what world is she pondering—after describing sex scenes in movies—what constitutes ‘having sex’? What part of this fits into the textbook-style approach of the philosophical thoughts of the first 60% of the story?

Had this section been slimmed down to a scene or two, the premise might not have felt so dreary & underwhelming. After listening to Selin drone about how much she loved Ivan then acknowledge that she might just love men who don’t have any interest in her, as the scene with ‘The Count’, was boring. This premise was repeated until it annihilated the positive attributes held within the story's first half. I cannot think of the reason for including such a tremendous level of smut if not to satiate some demand. From whom, I cannot begin to know.

When all is said & done, this second book ruined any fond feelings I might have held toward Selin. She was daft in a way that was uncomplimentary to her person—a person who was studious, thoughtful, curious, diligent, & intrigued by the aspects of life she had yet to know firsthand. She became a bully, someone resting on the premises of their titles; an entity snuggled into the classifiers she deigned worthy. What happened to the girl who loved to learn? Where did the girl who enjoyed running & roaming disappear to?

I am glad to see mental health approached within this book because I feel that there was much to study & yet I realize that what was said was minimal & quite inadequate. Selin lives to defend her mother, to keep her safe, & to follow her every word. Selin does not live for herself. In the same way that she was becoming her own person, she decided that whom she had become under the guidance of her mother’s watchful eye was enough & so she sought other people who were dedicated to their own causes & she moved forward with their message.

I wanted to see Selin grow to be the person I believed she could be. I had a glimmer of hope that she knew she was capable of that too. Unfortunately, as in real life, we can seldom shape the path of the person who walks ahead of us, especially if we are the ghosts in the tree trunks & flowers lining the stones.