“Beautiful people lived in a different world, had different relations with people. From the beginning they were raised for love.” – “The idiot” by Elif Batuman

When talking about adolescent years, what keywords will come across your mind?   Many people may mention public examinations, university lives, especially dorm life and participation in extracurricular activities, part time jobs, careers, dating, first love, etc.  During the transitional period from childhood to maturity, various changes may have to be faced, such as education, family, moral values, features of the body, social life and personal development. 

“The idiot” is a semi-autobiographical novel.  It tells the story of an 18-year-old young woman, Selin who was a freshman of Harvard in the year of 1995.  Selin was pretty lost as most freshmen had experienced before.  To escape from mother’s strong control, Selin shared the same dorm with two hallmates, who were of different ethnicities and different characters.  It was a big challenge on how to react with different people.  The experiences that Selin encountered resulted in excitement and overwhelm. With a love of languages and literature, Selin later devoted herself to the world of writing and tried to hide her real emotions without disclosing them to anybody.

The latter half of the novel described Selin’s weird relationship with Ivan, a classmate of the Russian class.  They communicated by email, which was a new communication tool in 1995.  It described that “each message contained the one that had come before, so your own words came back to you — all the words you threw out, they came back.”  Interpersonal communication has always been a crucial part of our daily lives.  In the novel, it involved not only face-to-face communication, but also email.  Selin’s behavior reflected the present situation on over-reliance on digital instant communication tools.  Undoubtedly digital communication tools could enhance efficiency and productivity, but the same might adversely affect face-to-face social skills and relationships with others.  Similarly in the novel, Selin could communicate with Ivan smoothly by email but not during face-to-face communication. 

After reading “The idiot”, I remembered the exchange programme joined during my university life.  I met various people from different nationalities.  It was a valuable tour for self-growth and enhancement of communication skills.  I enjoyed reading the novel as Selin’s experience recalled my valuable memory.

“The Idiot” was nominated as the 2018 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Fiction.  Both hard copies and e-Books are available at the Hong Kong Public Libraries.  Please visit the Libraries and start your journey of reading.