Thanks to @hogarthbooks for sending me The Life of the Mind. Unfortunately I did not love it. I honestly don’t know why I finished it. I think because I’ve been picking up and then never picking back up lots of books recently, and I just wanted to finish a book.

This book follows Dorothy after she has a miscarriage, as she goes about her days as an adjunct professor of English. What didn’t work for me is that the life of Dorothy’s mind seemed to constantly be trying to hard to make quippy little funny observations, that just filled the pages, but then nothing really happened in the book. I’m down with a book where nothing happens but give me SOME small modicum of plot or character growth or an epiphany or even just something interesting to say... this book kind of felt... pointless?

This book got a great review in the New York Times this morning, so maybe I just don’t get it. The review says that Smallwood is a shrewd cultural critic. I mean, maybe? I felt like Dorothy’s character was bitter that she was stuck as an adjunct professor and jealous of her more successful peers. I don’t mind a character like this, but it didn’t work for me here. I think because... I was bored the whole time? I don’t know. I’m rambling. The NYT review also says this book has great prose. My feeling the whole time was “this book is trying too hard to have something interesting to say.” I thought the prose was nothing special. The NYT review compared Smallwood to Elif Batuman but to me this book feels like imitation Batuman, never living up to actual Batuman. (I love Elif Batuman.)

I’m being harsh but I’m trying to explain why I didn’t like it, and I’m doing a bad job! It’s hard to pinpoint. Just wasn’t for me. But might be for you!