The Idiot

4 stars
Literary fiction following a young Turkish American college freshman as she navigates her first year at Harvard, meeting different people and visiting Europe while teaching summer classes. 
The writing was evocative and sharp, and I love how the authors approached various themes (academic or otherwise), especially relating to language and communication. She did a great job showing the life of a university student and showing the academic atmosphere, the different countries during the 90's era. I really liked the main character, Selin, her fantastical personality and smart insights, loved how her intelligence and curiosity was mixed with awkwardness and surrealist humour. I liked the side characters, though I didn't care for the love interest.  The author did a great job showing us her personality and life on a university campus.  I personally preferred the first part and felt the novel was a bit too long for my taste and the pacing uneven, so some parts I felt bored. Plus it felt more character centric than plot centric so it wasn't a page turner kind of book.  Still despite my reservations about this novel, I'm looking forward to read the sequel.