surprise! the idiot by elif batuman is no longer our season finale, as she wrote another book about selin that we'll cover next episode: either/or. today, though, we're kicking things off with the (presumed?) start of a series as we discuss autofiction, bob's embrace of "boring" as a theme, and yet another book about language (including, finally, math as a language!). we note the importance of it being set in the 1990s, appreciate yet another narrator native to new jersey, and talk about how terrible ivan is. we admire the book's humor and discuss its feelings of isolation and its near-total lack of politics. bob mentions the book of wall, mankind's great unpublished piece of art. joey confuses the belushi brothers.
reading list for season two
the bell jar by sylvia plath, 11/4
prep by curtis sittenfeld, 11/18
the art of fielding by chad harbach, 12/2
nickel boys by colson whitehead, 12/16
the virgins by pamela erens, 12/30
my education by susan choi, 1/13
giles goat-boy by john barth, 1/27
end zone by don delillo, 2/10
loner by teddy wayne, 2/24
the secret history by donna tartt, 3/10
sweet days of discipline by fleur jaeggy, 3/24
college novel by blake middleton, 4/7
real life by brandon taylor, 4/21
the instructions by adam levin, 5/5
the idiot by elif batuman, 5/19
either/or by elif batuman, 6/2
teenager by bud smith, 6/16