"Was this the decisive moment of my life? It felt as if the gap that had dogged me all my days was knitting together before my eyes -- so that, from this point on, my life would be as coherent and meaningful as my favorite books. At the same time, I had a powerful sense of having escaped something: of having finally stepped outside the script." -- Elif Batuman, Either/Or

    At the climax of Elif Batuman's novel Either/Or, a young woman steps out of an airport. Here is the triumph of self-authorship: after the confusion of understanding our truest desires, after the shame that keeps us from reaching for them, here is the quiet euphoria of at long last wanting what we want and bringing it into being for no one's pleasure but our own.