Total Page : 304
Publisher : Farrar Straus and Giroux
Publication Date : 2010 02 16
>> More a Series of School Notes than a Memoir
I had high expectations with this book because I too fell in love with Russian literature in university and contemplated a life in academia However apart from a few amusing and insightful snippets of the author s actual life her brief encounter with the New England writers colony her encounters with Uzbeks her trip to Yasnaya Polyana the book was heavily dominated by what appeared to be transcribed notes from her various literature courses and readings Page upon page is dedicated to the life of Isaac Babel various obscure Uzbek writers Tolstoy etc This is not in any sense an adventure with Russian literature but a brief and very random selection of re hashed biographical snippets of various writers Russian and otherwise What I had been hoping for was an actual account of how the author fell in love with Russian literature how that changed over time and over the course of her studies how that affected her personal relationships etc Every character she introduces is but a brief usually caricatural sketch with no real depth Her one love interest Eric makes a brief appearance but one is left with no understanding of what brought these two together and what eventually led to their parting Bizarrely the trip to St Petersburg to write an article for the New Yorker reads exactly like a New Yorker article My final impression was that the author was less interested in giving a personal and moving account of her adventures as she was of putting to use years of accumulated study notes Still although I was disappointed by this book I more or less enjoyed reading it
>> So much more than a book on Russian literature
On the surface Elif Batuman s The Possessed seems to be a book concerned with one scholar s experience with Russian literature In the end however it is an eclectic mix of comical and absorbing personal tales from Batuman s life intertwined seamlessly with the lives of the authors novels and fictional characters her studies/career revolve around The topics range from the author s graduate school experience Issac Babel s personal belongings Tolstoy s death the Ice Palace in St Petersburg and the sad state of modern Uzbek literature No matter what the subject may be Batuman continuously keeps the reader entertained while providing insight into many different languages peoples cultures and types of literature
As a current graduate student The Possessed was particularly engaging as I find myself constantly wondering the same question which seems to have provoked Batuman to write this book How did I end up committing my life to the study of this field and what is the larger significance of it if there is one
Nevertheless this book is not directed toward a single audience Whether you love literature are interested in foreign cultures enjoy humorous books are a graduate student especially in the humanities or just want an engaging and rich quick read you will appreciate The Possessed
>> This book is hilarious and can make you smarter too
I have lived a long time and read a lot of books Some were totally trashy and probably made me dumber but they were totally engrossing Other books were a much tougher slog but they usually improved my knowledge of some subject and sometimes inspired a better overall understanding of my own long life
This book is unlike anything my eyes have ever seen First and foremost it is absolutely hilarious Reading this book was as fun and addictive as watching the first season of Jersey Shore GTL Grad School Travel Literature Except each passing chapter gave my brain the sensation of a bounteous feast instead of giving it brain ulcers That is the book not only increased my knowledge of familiar and unfamiliar books from Russia and elsewhere but it also made me think about such books and my own life in new ways By combining personal insight and wisdom literary theory and a body of grueling journalistic service visiting Slap in the Face squatting or leaping over pits in Samarkand depending on the type of pit the author really provoked a lot of things for me to think about
Like to what extent is the goal of controlling your own life achievable or even desirable Most people would like to control at least partially what happens to them i e to minimize slaps in the face But do you also want to control what you like or love and is this even possible On the one hand the heart is supposed to want what it wants On the other hand Woody Allen has been viewed to some extent as a nasty pedophile Probably what you love is controlled by your own outlook and personality in the sense that you want yourself to want certain things like a crush where you love to love someone according to your interests and world view On the other hand why do you want yourself to want certain things This comes down to your life and experiences which are partly under your own control or responsibility but are partly determined by the actions of other humans in the world grappling with the same apparatus
This is one example of the sort of train of thought that my brain did not expect to take upon reading about some grad students and Russians The book is truly unique in genre and content if you read it you will have your own variety of thoughts It is certainly possible that you will not like the book as much For instance if you don t feel that what you love has much control over the rest of your life or that it should then maybe this book will make you really mad Or if you feel like it is inappropriate to make jokes or to learn about crazy ancient things or to use literary theory when there is poverty in like Haiti or because 9/11 and some associated wars happened then it will be hard for you to enjoy many of these essays Finally the author is evidently a lively young talented babe so if you feel that people should only learn from the lives and thoughts of older men with distinguished personas and grave attitudes then you should ignore this book
Having characterized the least ideal audience for this book as loveless humorless and sexist let me emphasize my opinion that almost everyone will at least enjoy this book even if it doesn t explode their brain Now the author is definitely honest about her experiences and opinions many of which will necessarily differ from people who are not six feet tall first generation Turkish women from New Jersey This is personal story So if she says for instance that creative writing workshops are a big problem for her it doesn t mean you are stupid if you are or were in a creative writing workshop it may feel that way because she is smart and funny but the book does not ridicule anything it is just ridiculously funny I mean how could she develop this feeling about creative writing workshops unless she was in them herself Did you know when Tolstoy thought of the idea for Anna Karenina the point was to totally rip her And then as he was writing more and more about what was originally supposed to be a fatuous selfish bourgeois woman he was like this is my own life My point is that even if you tried to write an objective world account about like Modern Islamic Thought you will ultimately be including your own experiences And if you are honest about your likes and dislikes the result will be all the more warm and humane
In summary the author is really smart but not a punk I think that almost everyone will enjoy this book and hopefully you will even enjoy it as much as I did
