So I enjoyed part 1. I didn’t like the change of scene/relationship in part 2, and by the time we went back to part 3, I realised this book was way way over my head. I just didn’t ’get it’ and the writing made me feel stupid. And I’m really not.

Bold and brave, this book explored the intricate details of womanhood and longing. I loved the writing, it was so beautiful and enchanting. There was something incredibly addictive about the way Elkin writes, it’s full of life and love. The two couples that this novel focus on may be separated by time, but their struggles were timeless. I especially enjoyed the different relationships Anna had and what they all meant to her, and how she lost herself in everyone she loved.

I have no idea what I think about this. It is very very French. Whilst it beautifully examines the nature of individual relationships and how much one individual can truly know another, it occasionally felt like it wandered into the pseudo intellectual, or perhaps a parody thereof. I couldn’t not read it but I’m not sure I could say I enjoyed it.

Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin is an intelligent and beautifully written novel that delves into relationships and marriage, infidelity, friendship, fertility and loss, feminism, identity, psychology, language. It also creatively plays with the places and spaces we inhabit and reminded me of Holly Pester's The Lodgers in that sense.

Scaffolding follows the lives of two couples, set over two different timelines: present day and 1970s Paris. Both couples have lived in the same apartment in the edgy French neighbourhood of Belleville. Anna is a psychoanalyst, on leave from her job following a miscarriage. Her husband David is working temporarily in London. Anna quickly forms a relationship with her young neighbour, Clémentine. Florence and Henry, our 1970s couple, are at odds over whether to have a child. Florence is a student of psychoanalysis who has fallen in love with an older man.

Both couples navigate relationship difficulties against the backdrop of a growing women’s movement, from the burgeoning feminist protests of the 70s to the #MeToo movement of today. The book identifies themes of identity,
gender and sexuality. While I enjoyed the multi narratives and the Parisian setting, I found some of the chapters exploring Lacan and psychoanalysis, too cerebral and quite difficult to follow. 3stars for me.

The story of two couples whose only connection is that they both live in the same apartment, albeit one couple in the 1970s and the other in the late 2010s. Lauren Elkin's prose is crisp and precise, and she explores the emotional lives of her principal figures with skill. This is not a plot driven novel, and its short, often fragmentary chapters create dream-like moments. Elkin scatters her novel - which us set in Paris - with lots of philosophy, Lacan in particular, and so the novel evokes a certain French style of narrative. There is a lot to admire here, and I fully expect to see the novel on a lot of best of lists at the end of the year.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Scaffolding is in an incredibly clever book mainly about two couples who live(d) in the same apartment in different decades, and their relationships between, with and within themselves, each other, and others. The setting is 1970s and 2019 Paris.
This book is also about Brexit, in a way (joking, it is only a very minor point).

This is a quick read, despite the length. First of all, Elkin’s prose is curious and flows well. Second of all, the chapters are short, stream of consciousness, journal entry-type and length narrations by the characters. Third of all, the characters’ voices read authentic, circle back to my first point: poetic and modern, relevant, casual prose all at the same time.

The plot is not complex but the characters are. They authentically talk about their inner struggles, observations and make some social commentary too.

It may be momentarily hard to grasp who is talking when the POVs change but one gets the hang of this quickly picking up the clues.

I liked the writing style, the setting, the different periods and how they blend, and the themes. I also enjoyed the flawed characters.
As for the plot, I wish there was a bit more happening or rather this was longer.