Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

A lot of readers may describe this book as pedantic or tedious or dull. I understand why they're saying that, but I'll have to disagree for this reason: the beauty of this book is in its craft, not its plot. The narrator's idiosyncratic observations about the world, her matter-of-fact exchanges with both close friends and strangers, and her quaint attempts at describing how she's feeling are all so beautifully human that if you resign yourself to the fact that nothing out of the ordinary is going to happen here and there are no "events," you can purely enjoy a funny, authentic narrative voice from a character who is trying to find her place in the world. I found myself underlining about a third of this novel because there is so much brilliance and eloquence. It reminded me of Catcher in the Rye with a much more insightful, mature, compassionate narrator. Besides, when you reach the novel's heartbreaking last paragraph, you realize that form complements function. In other words: the novel was designed for nothing to happen. That's kind of the point. Life, more often than not, is just life. The question is: can we, like Batuman, find wonder and beauty and humor in it all? Despite being over 400 pages, this is a whip-quick read. It's broken up into sections that are rarely more than four pages and are often hardly a page. It's a perfect commuting book, if you are often forced to pause, but it could also easily be breezed through in a week or two. I highly, highly recommend it. It left a very positive impression on me.