PositiveThe RumpusThe novel’s college scenes are electrified by the thrill of self-discovery ... Batuman has a gift for imaginative description, brilliant digressions, and deadpan comic delivery ... The reviewers who have been critical of The Idiot have focused on Selin’s pursuit of Ivan, and it’s true that when the couple are together the novel loses its brisk pace and antic charm...But I think Batuman made those scenes drag on purpose. Selin, a master of the tools of language, is drawn to the idea that her life should tell a story—specifically a love story between her and Ivan. Maybe she is mistaken. Maybe she is trying too hard. In any case, her effort to construct that story leads her astray, if not to Siberia, at least to its emotional equivalent. The Idiot, Batuman has said, is about life 'falling outside of narrative.' It dramatizes a semiotic tragedy perfectly suited for its brainy Harvard undergraduate—the alienation, and even heartbreak, of losing the narrative thread of your existence.
Etgar Keret
RaveThe Rumpus...every personal essay in The Seven Good Years is very short, very funny, and surprisingly profound. Together, the essays that make up Keret’s memoir tell the story of a family’s history—the arrival of the next generation and the departure of the last—in scenes that pass as quickly as a lifetime’s days ... Almost every story in The Seven Good Years is imbued with absurdity, a dash of sentiment, and a moral point ... Each tale is a small, perfectly formed, storytelling gem.
