I'm on tour with my new book, Either/Or!
US + UK event dates here: elifbatuman.com/events/
Pls check back for fall dates (if we live that long) in NYC + elsewhere. (The NYC events sold out in an unexpected way.)
I'm sorry Twitter makes me nuts. Ty for checking my lame website!
Follow
Elif Batuman
@BananaKarenina
EITHER/OR/EITHER/OR/EITHER/OR/EITHER/OR/EITHER/OR/EITHER/OR/EITHER/OR/EITHER/OR/EITHER/OR
Lapsed Twitterer Current Capitalist Subject w a new book out
Lapsed Twitterer Current Capitalist Subject w a new book outElif Batumanโs Tweets
Now I am going to go hide in the wilderness and avoid social media. I will periodically update the News page on my website - just like I think this bear (or his publicist) probably does.
Elif's news: elifbatuman.com/news/
Bear photo source: bearstudy.org/website/update
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Unrelatedly, sometimes when I am feeling sad I just remember that there is a character in The Golden Bowl named Fanny Assingham.
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Akiko Takeyama's book on host clubs (mentioned briefly in the article) is full of amazing and moving stories.
Indiebound: indiebound.org/book/978080479
Amazon: amazon.com/Staged-Seducti
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Many brilliant people were generous with time / energy, including , , , , , @carlahblumen, , Yasmine Al-Sayyad, Han Zhang, + Akiko Takeyama.
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The Idiot was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for fiction! Congratulations to fiction winner and dear friend !
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Edith Whartonโs copy of Anna Karenina: she underlined the parts about Kareninโs ears
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Oh just my giant floating head at @beowulfsheehanโs photo exhibit at the Dostoevsky Museum in St. Petersburg:
md.spb.ru/kalendar_sobyt
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Camped out feet away from the bed where Edith Wharton wrote The House of Mirth <3
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got in a "who's on first loop" for like 8 minutes w a supermarket checker who was like "is that a meyer lemon" + I just kept saying "yes that's my lemon"
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Will Hollywood ever be brave enough to celebrate my full-bodied love for a half-fish half-artichoke? Doubtful.
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Some of the biggest baguettes out there belong to Idiot readers ๐ฅ
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Congratulations to Elif Batuman, Imogen Hermes Gowar and @vintagebooks for making this year's #WomensPrize longlist on #IWD2018!
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Where is my pipe fox?
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1. I really dug this story "Missing" by Hiromi Kawakami. 2. Additionally, it made me really want a "pipe fox."
3. "Pipe foxes" are a thing.
(Hiromi Kawakami: pushkinpress.com/product/record ; Pipe foxes: pushkinpress.com/product/record)
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Holy smokes this reissued 1983 novel is so good! + so similar to "Shape of Water"! Guess there is something archetypal about Cold War-era passion of US woman for big-eyed tortured music-loving Latin American frogman.
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and the award for most trenchant hotel elevator goes to the Chicago Loews
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Just devoured the first 50+ pp of 's new memoir about Doris Lessing + it's basically the Applied Golden Notebook 2018 edition.
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Dear - thank you yet again for depleting my bank account. Congrats to your judges for the First Fiction category for incredible choices by @carmenmmachado Gabriel Tallent and Jenny Zhang (congrats to all!).
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So excited !
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We're excited to host Elif Batuman @BananaKarenina next Monday (2/26) for a reading from her novel "The Idiot" at the @MenaProgramNU Monday Night at the @evanstonpl. If you're in the Chicago/Evanston area do not miss this event! planitpurple.northwestern.edu/event/522901#.
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The Idiot Tour is on its last leg! Northwestern UV tonight, L.A./ Chevalier's tomorrow, Portland/ Powell's Wed. Come hobble to the finish w me!
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All flesh is ๐พ
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Memento โmoji. theparisreview.org/blog/2018/02/2
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Arm schoolchildren
Arm cats
Make it so a table can just shoot u
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So excited to chat w supereditor @carlahblumen at tonight! Hoboken! Don't let it pass you by like a barrel in the river of time!
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This Thursday at 7!
. . . we stood watching the luggage pass us by like barrels in the river of time.
โElif Batuman, The Idiot
Seriously I love this novel so much.
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(Tolstoy-style family novel set in Osaka/ Tokyo during lead-up to WWII, published serially 1943-48 (!!) by Junichiro Tanizaki - there is a minor character called Vronsky - I've read it 3x and it just gets better.)
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I just got to the end of The Makioka Sisters w that incredible last line, + feel bereft.
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Get out the vote for lady protagonists!
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Who was your favorite protagonist of 2017? Cast your vote in the Bookish Awards for one of these literary leading ladies ow.ly/466p30ixBte
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Shoutout to all the amazing readers I've met on pb tour, incl 1 who read The Possessed on a plane, got off the plane, tried to recount the whole book to someone, + got so excited that she threw up. <3
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Enjoy negativelife go ahead log on do it!
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. will be here TONIGHT to discuss her bestseller THE IDIOT, in conversation w/ of ! #dc #authorsATkramers nyti.ms/2EQmcZW
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When defensive window shades are not enough
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It will be both, plus audience QA!
SUNY Purchase tonight you guys purchase.edu/live/events/90
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thinking of going to Purchase tomorrow to hear @BananaKarenina. wondering if it's a reading or a talk? (I'd prefer a talk but don't change your plans for me)
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Give your valentine this hilarious, brainy, and very PINK novel โ now in paperback! littlecitybooks.com/book/978014311
(And come meet Elif Batuman in the store next week.)
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My attempt to fantasize a fun career:
I'll write about a dog detective!
His name will be Inspector Dagleish (pron Dogleash)!
He'll solve... dog murders
Wait does that mean murdered dog or dog murderer?
Lethal dog-on-dog crime?
How does Dagleish cope w the shit he has seen?
Heroin
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Confession: when I first saw the cover design for The Idiot I wasn't sure about the pink and asked to see other colors. I was a fool. One might say an idiot. Paperback out tomorrow - get one for your valentine!
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Whoops actually the paperback release of The Idiot is tomorrow!! Please join me and at !
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