Have you ever been at a party surrounded by people that are much more intelligent and witty and insightful than you, and you want them to like you so you do that thing where you nod and grin a lot even though about 80% of the conversations are going straight over your head?

Yeah, that's what reading this book is like. In spite of my (self-proclaimed) well-read background, I definitely missed about 80% of these literary references. The idea in "An Unnecessary Woman" is that the narrator has been socially isolated for so long (mostly by choice) that she has completely immersed herself in the literary world. So when trying to recall past events or life moments, she seamlessly weaves in references to Lolita, Chekov and how some of her favorite authors dies. It's high-brow name dropping, but rather than making me feel excluded, it was comforting in an odd way. It's a little esoteric but it doesn't feel malicious. You have to be in the right mood for this book and it's not for simpletons.

Favorite quotation: "I stopped loving Odysseus as soon as he landed back in Ithaca. I love the idea of homeland, but not the actual return to one." UGH. Alameddine packs so much sadness and longing and isolation into two @#$ing sentences.