The Possessed

I thought this book would be mainly literary analysis of Russian authors, but it is actually more of a memoir/travelogue of the author's graduate study. And it was quite entertaining! She writes with such a deadpan sense of humor about her travels and how they relate to her studies that I found myself carried along through the book and learning something about the authors and books along the way.

It's a hard book to categorize because it isn't strictly a travel memoir, nor is it a scholarly analysis of Russian literature. However, I would say that I'm more likely to read some of these Russian authors simply because I was intrigued by the little-known facts and history surrounding their writing, all developed by this author in this book.

I got bored of it and stopped with 50 or 60 pages left. The Possessed is only marginally about adventures or Russian books. Instead it consists mostly of travelogue and a series of Elif's personal stories about her experiences in grad school, with a vague thread of Russianness connecting them all. Some are interesting, some are funny and a few possibly even poignant, but as a cohesive work, the book feel flat with me.