Review of Either/Or by Elif Batuman

A while back, I read The Idiot, which is Elif Batuman’s big novel, in the middle of the summer. I remember fondly sitting outside on the grass for one part of the novel, a beach towel haphazardly thrown on the ground that I was on top of. Those were the days, truly.

Granted, I had mixed feelings about that book. You can read my review on this blog, as I posted a blog post not long after the fact of reading it, and because I needed to sort through my personal feelings on the book. My overall thoughts were that I didn’t like the final arc of the book where Selin is chasing after the guy.

That said, I did enjoy the first half of the book very much. It was very much in the vein of how I saw myself when I went off to attend school, and I could really sympathize with Selin and even saw myself in her. I understand the decision to include Ivan, but I couldn’t roll with it.

It was that enjoyment of the first half that led me to pick up Either/Or when I wandered past it in my local library. I picked up the copy of the book, and a few days later, after checking it out, I had already finished it.

Here’s my review!

Selin, a Harvard student, returns to school after the summer break and grapples with her studies and love life after the events of the first book.

This novel picks right where we left off in The Idiot; Selin has wrapped up her time abroad and chasing after Ivan, and now, in 1996, she’s back in the USA and trying to pick up the pieces of her life after that time.

Like the first book, Selin is dealing with a lot. She’s studying literature and Russian, and is taking a bunch of new classes to try and help her figure out where she wants to be. Everyone seems to be involved in the local literary magazine, so she starts going to their events and exploring publishing in that way.

Because this is an academic girlie kind of novel, we see a lot of philosophy and contemplations about Selin’s life, especially after Ivan helped her get that job in Hungary. She checks the computers every so often to see if Ivan’s online, if he responded to her messages.

Eventually, his ex-girlfriend starts coming into the picture, complicating Selin’s feelings even more about the entire situation. There comes a time where she also wants to go back abroad, and finds herself having to think about traveling Turkey for the local tour publication and dusting off her Turkish skills.

There’s an entire section of the novel dedicated to time in Turkey, which is something I really enjoyed. We don’t often get Turkish American protagonists in literature, which is why I maybe initially felt drawn to Selin as a character. As a Middle Eastern American myself interested in academia and philosophical thought, I could see myself in her.

While the first book feels like a lost college student trying to get her bearings together, this novel felt more like her trying to navigate the world from the way she thinks can understand it now. She does some typical college age girl stuff throughout this, seeing boys and exploring sexually. Nothing wrong with that.

At the same time, there are some rifts in the friendships she has made and new friends as well. It really feels like we’re following her throughout her journey, and while I’m not sure, in the moment of writing this, we’ll get another sequel, I could see this being a television show in itself.

Overall Thoughts

I enjoyed reading through this one, and kind of found it less grating than the second half of the previous novel. Y’all, I really found it so hard to get through The Idiot in its final arc. I was trying to concentrate so hard and just couldn’t.

But this book, I sped right through it. I found myself wanting to shake my head at Selin sometimes, but when I was her age, I made some of the same dumb mistakes. And maybe that’s why I ultimately picked Batuman’s work: it felt real.

I recommend picking this one if you haven’t already, and finished The Idiot within your own reading.

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