While the book was on my reading list for a while, actually picking it up was triggered by a series of seemingly whimsical connections to others: I had just binged through four seasons of Yellowstone the tv series. Jim Harrison used to live in Montana towards the latter part of his life. A couple of years ago I’d read Tom Bissell’s collection of essays called Magic Hours, in which one essay was his meeting with Harrison in Montana. Harrison was a family friend of Bissell’s. The essay mentions Harrison being a fan of Batuman. Also apparently Bissell and Batuman had a public feud. But this did set up an intrigue. Tangentially related Harrison also made an appearance in two episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. I’ve been meaning to go there since it’s within 10 hrs driving distance from Seattle.
I liked The Idiot. I loved first half of it, particularly the deadpan/dry humor, the references to other literature, such books by Dostoevsky, Dracula, etc., the parts where Selin’s character discusses language and the its use in capturing concepts, but also inability to capture it completely as we want. I also loved the Nina in Siberia part. I want to read Vera in Siberia, which is supposedly the basis for that. I was hoping for more of that, but alas. The understated romantic undercurrents of her relationship/dynamics with Ivan was very refreshing. I was rooting for a closure, but I was not surprised when the twist occurs. I could see it coming towards the end and I actually liked how she approached it. However the very last part of the book post her last meeting with Ivan was where I was lost. While I could see a point about rest of her time in Hungary, and I guess I could see a point in sharing the after part of the relationship while in Turkey, it didn’t fit as well for me as the rest of the parts. The way she ties it at the end with Alp killing the snake and Selin making a note about writing a story that ends with that while interesting, for me it broke with the character, particularly the dry humor bit. But perhaps that’s a sign of Selin’s coming of age.