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Scaffolding
Scaffolding: A Novel | Lauren Elkin
2 posts | 2 read | 4 to read
A novel of Paris, desire, love, psychoanalysis, and the turbulent affairs of two couples across time. After a miscarriage and a breakdown, Anna, a psychoanalyst, finds herself unable to return to work, obsessing instead over a kitchen renovation and befriending a new neighbora younger woman called Clmentine who has just moved into the building and is part of a radical feminist collective. Forty years earlier, in the same apartment, Florence and Henry are renovating their kitchen. Florence is finishing her degree in psychology and attending feminist meetings and Jacques Lacans infamous seminars. She is hoping to conceive their first child, though Henry isnt sure hes ready for fatherhood. Two couples in two separate but similar timesset against a backdrop of political disappointment and intellectual controversy face the challenges of marriage, fidelity, and pregnancy. Lauren Elkin's Scaffolding is about the way our homes hold communal memories of all their inhabitants and their stories; about the bonds we create, and the difficulty of ever fully severing them; about the ways people weve loved live on in us.
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Scaffolding: A Novel | Lauren Elkin
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Mehso-so

I‘m not sure what I think of this. I like the story split into part 1 and 3, but the story in part 2 was bewildering on audio. It took me half of it to realize the perspective kept switching back and forth between husband and wife (read by one person with no vocal changes to inform the listener), making it hard to follow and make sense of. I can‘t quite give it a pick.

#TOBlonglist

squirrelbrain Oh dear. I have the ARC of this but was dissuaded by mixed reviews in the press. @barbarabb ‘s review bumped it up again, but now as it hasn‘t made the shortlist I fear it may disappear into the Kindle ether. 😳 3w
BarbaraBB @squirrelbrain I‘d give it a try, especially if you don‘t do audio because I know what Holly means regarding part 2. And it‘s a quick read but less mainstream than some of the shortlisted ones. 3w
squirrelbrain I‘m sure I will read it sometime @barbarabb but *when* is the question! 3w
youneverarrived I have this in print and I haven‘t read it yet but flicking through I can imagine it being confusing to listen to - especially just having the same narrator. 3w
37 likes5 comments
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BarbaraBB
Scaffolding: A Novel | Lauren Elkin
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Pickpick

#ToB25Longlist In the 1st part of the book a woman, living in a Paris apartment, is coming to terms with a miscarriage and the fact that her husband works in London.
The 2nd part is set in the same apartment, years earlier. A couple lives there and the wife is very much into female liberation
Both parts are terrific. The 3rd part is a continuation of the 1st and that one fell a bit short. I‘m not sure what it adds even though it was engaging

Ruthiella You take the best pictures! 🤩 3w
squirrelbrain Looking forward to this one! 3w
ChaoticMissAdventures I am going to pick this up, I am trying to pick #ToB 25 that might show up on the Women's prize list and this sounds right up their alley. 3w
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BarbaraBB @Ruthiella Thank you 🤍 3w
BarbaraBB @ChaoticMissAdventures It‘s good and indeed very possible to end up on the women‘s prize list as well! 3w
Megabooks Sounds better than I thought it would. I‘m interested but it‘s expensive here! 3w
Suet624 The important question though is are you left handed? I can't take a photo with my left hand. :) 3w
BarbaraBB @Suet624 Funny question, I never realized that. I am right handed but do a lot of thinks with my left hand. I used to smoke left handed too 😉. No idea why I take my photos that way, I do it automatically I notice! 3w
Suet624 That‘s funny. 3w
Megabooks I‘m left handed and smoked left handed, but a lot of righties do here because they learned to smoke out the window while driving. Hmmm… 2w
BarbaraBB @Megabooks I did that too 😀 but I smoked earlier than I learned how to drive(we can have driving lessons from 17 and have our licenses at 18). 2w
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