Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin

This is an unusual novel, in that I found myself having all sorts of visceral reactions to it. In fact reading it was uncomfortable in parts, leaving me confused and claustrophobic at times. It also took a while to get into due to the very slow pace and how introspective it is, but there are things that reward the thoughtful reader. Set in Paris, the author takes us on a journey through several important themes - romantic love, women’s rights, becoming a mother and monogamous relationship - always through the sophisticated lens of Parisian society. The story is split between two timelines, the 1970’s and 2019, but takes place in the same Paris apartment in the Belleville area of the city. This is a very different area in the 1970’s with a diverse population but has recently been gentrified. Anna has had a miscarriage and is recovering alone in the Paris apartment while her partner is living and working in London. She was meant to be joining him, but her recovery has delayed her move. She is a psychoanalyst so is very self-reflective and aware. She meets a girl called Clementine who lives in the same complex and they become friends. Clementine lives with her boyfriend but identifies as queer and a radical feminist. We then shift back fifty years to the previous residents, following three characters; Max, Henry and Florence. Before finally moving back to Anna and the present day.

Touching on intellectual and political subjects from a personal perspective helped us understand how they touch on ordinary lives. We often see them as intellectual theories that we’re somehow detached from, but they do weave in and out of everything we do. I could see how empathetic and sensitive the author is in understanding women, their lives and experiences. The setting is often limited to the flat and that becomes very claustrophobic and insular. I almost wondered whether Anna actually existed beyond it’s walls. When the building starts to be covered with scaffolding to replace the rendered surface that claustrophobia becomes unbearable and reminded me why we’ve put off having our kitchen ripped out and redesigned. The constant noise was written about so effectively, because it actually made me wince. Anna soldiers on, even deciding to replace the apartment’s kitchen at the same time. I couldn’t imagine living through the noise and disruption and I’d have been on the first train to London, but she doesn’t go which I found intriguing. There’s more to the distance in this relationship than meets the eye. I was also fascinated with her relationship with Clementine who wants to lure her out to feminist meetings and addresses the misogyny in today’s society. However, Clementine is bisexual and I wondered if there was more to her overtures than friendship. I also felt that in her vulnerable state, Anna might be open to it. Ultimately, I felt that the link between the current and future residents wasn’t clear enough and perhaps missed it’s mark. The author was a brilliant with character and ideas, but I wanted a meatier story behind it. Beautifully written and observed though.

I really enjoyed this book although it took a while to get into; I read it over a longer period and it was quite hard to dip in and out of due to a fairly slow pace.
An intelligent, sophisticated novel about love, relationships and the philosophy of their related morals, I found the writing style accessible even though it was peppered with French, this made it pleasantly immersive into the Parisian culture. A thoughtful take on various important topics (romance, monogamy, feminism, motherhood), but told through a personal lens that made them feel relevant, visceral, relatable - interesting and provocative viewpoints included from the various characters.
Ultimately I did get slightly weary of the navel-gazing and I would have liked a touch more detail in the ending - something satisfying to bring more emotional weight to teh conclusion of Anna's tale, as well as how it interlinked to Florence and Henry and Max's, earlier, tale - I loved the hints at this but felt there must have been something I was missing. Overall though, enjoyable, intriguing, clever, sensitive.

This book is stunning! I wasn't really sure what to expect when I picked it up but it pulled me in very quickly and then I didn't want to put it down. It's told in three parts: first we meet Anna, a psychoanalyst who is off work following a miscarriage. We see her struggles within her marriage as her husband is working away, we see some of her theories and her budding friendship with a new woman who has moved into her building. The second part follows Florence and Harry in 1972, they live in the same apartment so we see what their marriage is like but also them redoing their kitchen (which in the present day Anna is figuring out how to renovate) and I loved this connection through the years. The third section goes back to Anna and we see how complicated her relationships have now become. This is a slow novel, and it feels quite suffocating and claustrophobic at times as we're so much in the characters heads but it's absolutely stunning at the same time. I just adored this book, the story being told and the way it was written. I will definitely read more from this author in the future and I'll be rehoming this one to everyone!

unfortunately i ended up dnfing this, i found it really hard to get into and found the subject matter very difficult - i did know what it would be about but reading it was really difficult for me personally.

i did enjoy the setting and style of the book, i would be tempted to attempt to give it another go once i'm in a better headspace and i'll definitely be giving the author's other works a try!

thank you so much to netgalley, the publisher and the author for the arc 🫶🏻

A complex and fascinating novel looking at trauma in an individual and the scaffolding that helps her overcome the loss of a child and of a future. It also examines the still echoing effect of French involvement in the Holocaust, straight and gay relationships and how we can ever really know another person. The Paris setting is evocative although the French quotes would have read more easily if they'd been quoted in context rather than at the end of the book.

This is a novel of procrastination and indecision, where Anna can’t finish her home renovations or decide whether to leave her long-distance husband for her neighbour, and I loved it. Set around one Paris apartment block in both 2019 and the 1970s, I could probably have done without the sojourn into the past, but I didn’t resent spending time there or that the majority of the novel gets stuck in Anna’s pondering loneliness.

I wasn't really sure how to rate or review this because it's so different from anything else I've read - very French, very philosophical, very evocative, academic and focused on the protagonist's inner world more than anything else. Elkin's writing is meticulously researched; the voice of the novel is a psychoanalyst on hiatus to recover from her own trauma, preoccupied with the work of Jacques Lacan and especially his work on desire.

The prose is sparse but poetic - at times the structure is difficult to follow (there are three parts that seamlessly flow into each other and feel like they're overlapping) but there is so much depth in here about love, relationships, women's agency along with grief.

Available now but thank you to RandomHouse UK, Vintage and NetGalley for the ARC.

Set in Paris, this novel follows the lives of Anna and Clementine, both living in the same apartment block but decades apart. This was such clever writing and I loved how Elkin threaded themes of psychoanalysis along with womanhood, sexuality, grief and infidelity. Really thought provoking and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to read this book.

Very much a stream of consciousness introspective novel, Scaffolding is beautifully written. Set in Paris in 2019 it explores the lives of two women living in an apartment building in Belleville, which is a character in itself. Anna, a psychoanalyst, has just suffered a miscarriage and is alone while her partner works in London. Clementine is a young, troubled woman who identifies as queer, with whom Anna becomes friends with. The story is told in three parts, the second taking place almost fifty years before, visiting the lives of the earlier residents of Anna's apartment. The third part returns to Anna in the present.

I found Scaffolding rather claustrophobic and had to put the book down and come back to it at different times. Ms Elkin manages to cover many themes including philosophy, psychology, bisexuality, motherhood and feminism. She displays great understanding and empathy with women's lives in doing so. Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin/Random House for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Introspective, character-driven, rich.

Scaffolding is set in Paris and told in three parts. It tells the story of two women living in the same apartment 50 years agart. Psychoanalysis and Lacan inform how both characters perceive the world and their actions. They both grapple with independence, fidelity, pregnancy and societal norms. Elkin draws these parallels well and without it feeling shoehorned.

My first-time reading Elkin - not my last - and I loved how the big ideas and questions were flirted with with ease and lightness. The novel flows between timelines, characters and languages fluidly. Desire, history, revolution, identity, connection are just some of the themes explored. Feels very Parisian.

An intimate and exciting novel. Also, what a beautiful cover! Contender for the best of 2024.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

Scaffolding is a captivating character driven, lightly plotted narrative, exploring the lives of two women and their relationships, set decades apart but intricately weaved together by the shared space of a single Parisian block of flats. This novel delves into large thematic areas including psychoanalysis, sexuality, the ebbing dynamics of relationships, and how changing societal norms impact the realisation of these ideas.

This is my first-time reading Elkin and I enjoyed how effortlessness the uniquely French style came across, often playful and rich. Altering between different lives and different relationships with sensitivity as shared struggles of desire, intimacy, identity, and change are explored.

The prose are fluid and effortless, capturing deep emotional introspection and vivid ideas of the changing urban landscape. But throughout, a deep interconnection of the human experience and shared space connects the characters through time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

“TU TROUVERAS TOUJOURS NOTRE SOUTIEN SUR LES MURS.”
I had never read anything by Lauren Elkin before (I know, SHAME on me) but what an entry point to her writing, I’m so happy I started with her debut novel. I find it really hard to be eloquent when a book has moved me way beyond language. I think Scaffolding might be my favourite book of the year and will become a classic to me that I will revisit often. I am sure some notions and passages will resonate with me more in the future, in certain points of my life. As a French person, this book was so French in many ways, not only through the French language dotted here and there, the cultural references, and the quartier de Belleville becoming a character in itself, but also through the lingering melancholia, sticking on everyone’s skin and all the way through to the wallpaper of the apartment. Also, I’m a sucker for a split timeline and seeing different people living and evolving in the same space years apart added so much to the story for me. Lauren Elkin explores bisexuality, claustrophobic marriages, motherhood, feminist activism, desire, transgenerational trauma (and more!) through psychoanalysis. Even though this can sound daunting, she makes it so accessible and relatable. I know that this book won’t be everyone’s cup of tea because of the lack of punctuation, the unconventional format, and the stream of consciousness writing style, but for me, it definitely worked.
A lot of passages were just reflections, small vignettes and thoughts on some random things and I first thought to myself “it has nothing to do with the story?” but actually had EVERYTHING to do with it. Anyway, sorry for not making it justice, I could go on and on and on… But just go to your library or local (INDIE!!!) bookshop and get yourself a copy. You’re welcome.

Thank you Netgalley for the digital ARC & to Vintage Influencers for sending me a finished copy.

This is such a thought-provoking book.

Starting in 2019, Part 1 tells the story of Anna, who recently suffered a miscarriage, and is laying low in her apartment on sick leave from her career as a psychoanalyst in Paris. Her husband is working in London and is keen for her to join him, but something is holding her back. The impact of the miscarriage has jumbled their relationship into a complex stasis. In trying to understand her current detachment Anna reflects on the teachings and theories of the man who inspired her into becoming a psychoanalyst when she was a young woman, and who was also the father of her then lover.

Anna meets a young woman, Clementine, a resident of a neighbouring building, and they begin a tentative friendship, one which will come to change everything. Clementine is passionate, energetic, troubled, and tries to enlist Anna in her subversion.

Anna’s story is paused just as she takes some decisive action and we are shifted, in Part 2, almost 50 years back in time to observe the couple who were then resident in that same apartment. We follow Henry and Florence through a year or so of their marriage and begin to see how, directly and indirectly, their actions will come to impact Anna.

In Part 3 we return to her story, better informed than she is.

This book explores the philosophy and psychology of love - how it can be known, show, and communicated, how to bear it being lost, or it coming at the wrong time - within a rich, accessible, narrative. It does feel very Gallic - to the degree that at least one character reflects on how their situation resembles a classic of French film - ripe with politics, ideology, thought, and, of course, sex.

There’s a lot to take in, conflicting views, rage and loss, jealousy, infidelity, and the tenets of various approaches to psychoanalysis, but it’s never didactic, and you never feel left out of the conversation.

What is love? Maybe you only know what it was when it’s gone.

Translator and cultural critic Lauren Elkin’s debut novel’s partly inspired by her interest in the theories of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and took over 16 years from conception to completion. It features two timelines, the primary - set in the years just before the Covid pandemic - centres on Anna a psychoanalytic therapist. Anna’s in her late 30s and struggling to get past a recent miscarriage. Her husband David’s working in London while Anna holes up in their apartment in rapidly-gentrifying Belleville, in Paris. Anna’s on medical leave. her only outside contact’s with her own therapist Esther. But when a younger woman Clémentine moves into Anna’s apartment complex they gradually form a bond.

Anna spends much of her time alone, obsessing over her identity and desires, using her knowledge of Lacan – particularly his lectures on female sexuality – as a kind of framework through which to analyse her thoughts and feelings. These partly relate to her ambivalence about her marriage, potential motherhood, but also her inability to move past a grad school relationship with a Jewish man Jonathan, who left her supposedly because she was too potent a reminder of the French people who betrayed his family during WW2. Her link to Jonathan is intensified by his parentage. His father’s the renowned psychoanalytic theorist Max Weisz. His work on Lacan proved formative for Anna, particularly his take on Lacan’s notions of the relationship between desire and lack, the impossibility of fully merging with the ‘other’ and the loved one as an object of desire only when lost. This notion of loss, of the inevitable thwarting of desire even as it surfaces, haunts Anna.

Clémentine lives with an older man but identifies as queer, less self-conscious about her needs and wants, she’s also a feminist activist. She’s a member of Les Colleuses (the gluers) – Elkin’s group replicates the actions of the real-life group Les Colleuses who operate throughout France and beyond. Clémentine performs guerilla actions, flyposting enigmatic messages around Paris intended to critique and expose France’s appalling record when it comes to violence against women and femicide – France’s femicide levels are unusually high compared to other western European countries. Clémentine’s lack of knowledge of Lacan opens up a space for Elkin to introduce Lacan and highlight his anti-essentialist, reformulation of Freudian theory. If the emphasis on Lacan sounds daunting, it needn’t be: key theories are explained and don’t go much beyond the kind of basic Lacan frequently encountered on lit degrees, including the famous ‘mirror’ stage often brought up in relation to Althusser and ideology.

The secondary timeline moves between Henry and Florence, a Jewish couple living in Anna’s apartment in the early 1970s. A resentful Henry charts his dissatisfaction with his marriage while Florence charts her involvement in a consciousness-raising, feminist group and is embroiled in an affair with her tutor Max Weisz – father of Anna’s Jonathan. Together with Max, Florence attends Jacques Lacan’s in-person lectures. She too is interested in France’s emerging feminist movement particularly the work of now-famous lawyer Gisele Halimi and the collective Choisir. Apart from cementing Elkin’s fascination with feminist historiography, these characters’ interactions and approach to life seem to form a kind of Lacanian case study – I found their storylines frustratingly open-ended and overly contrived. But their experiences also parallel aspects of Anna’s, conjuring other aspects of psychoanalytic theory particularly ideas around repetition and trauma. Embedded in the overall narrative are a range of references including the films of Rohmer and Sally Rooney’s fiction; and notably the feminist novella The Yellow Wallpaper and ways in which women might escape everyday patriarchal structures. This is further symbolised by Florence’s and later Anna’s apartment renovations, removing the old, kitchen wallpaper and replacing it with designs that suit the tastes of their respective eras.

It’s difficult to talk about developments in Elkin’s narrative without revealing crucial plot developments – although Elkin’s more interested in ‘situation’ than storytelling, following in the footsteps of writers like Sheila Heti and Teju Cole. Elkin’s invested in exploring issues around women’s bodily autonomy and desire – although the attempt to derail an emphasis on heterosexuality through Clémentine’s queerness doesn’t fully succeed or convince. The mix too of feminist history, psychoanalytic theory and musings on Jewishness felt awkward, unbalanced and mannered at times, and the pacing too leisurely. Although not unusual for a first novel to be overpacked in this way. The resolution to Anna’s dilemmas surprised me in its conventionality, and the restoration of the patriarchal, nuclear family that appeared to be the very structure Anna was trying to evade. I felt that queerness introduced via Clémentine could too easily be read as a temporary disruption to the status quo - rather than an underlining of Lacan’s refusal of essentialist gender roles.

So, for me, a fascinating, ambitious novel but not an entirely successful one – I should also admit that I’m not a fan of psychoanalytic theory in general or the concept of interpreting the self through one set of theoretical frameworks. But I did find this absorbing. I particularly enjoyed Elkin’s detailed portraits of the city, especially the Belleville area with its rich history, and her nods to recent developments in relation to migrants particularly the influx of Chinese sex workers and their policing. I also liked the ways in which Elkin built on her earlier work on the woman flaneuse in an extended section detailing Anna’s journey through the city.

I thought that I would really enjoy this, the subject matter and it being based in Paris. Unfortunately I could not get into it, too long winded at the beginning and too introspective for me…..so I gave up..sorry author, I rarely do this, you worked hard to write it and I honestly tried.
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I will admit that I am a sucker for any sort of Paris-set novel, but I thought this one was extraordinary. I was equally interested in the dual times of Florence and Henry and Anna and David, a feat that is tricky to pull off. Elkin is such a smooth, capable writer, and I enjoyed reading her sentences for the sheer pleasure of them as much as for the propulsion of her stories.

This is a story of two women living in an apartment block in Paris, but decades apart. Their lives are linked by psychoanalysis, desire, fluid sexuality and differing feelings towards their partners and motherhood. I enjoyed the first third of the book but the sudden departure into the 1970s felt disjointed despite the similarities between the stories. I also felt pretty bogged down by the psychoanalysis detail - at times it read like a textbook and I did skim over a fair chunk of all the Lacan and Freud... For me it detracted, not added to the story and reduced my enjoyment of the book.
Thank you#Netgalley for the ARC

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for giving me the opportunity to read this novel by Lauren Elkin.

Scaffolding predominantly follows the lives, thoughts, and feelings, of two women called Anna and Clémentine. They both live in Paris, in the same set of apartments. Over the course of the book, they build a friendship, finding kinship and similarity in unexpected places.

Midway through the book, we get a glimpse into the lives of previous inhabitants of Anna's apartment. Their stories share similarities, and their lives are connected by the walls in which they live, and the way in which their bodies connect to womanhood.

Elkin writes thoughtfully about the human psyche, and questions why we do what we do. The story is full of ethical dilemmas, moral blurred lines, and it really challenges the reader to ask oneself how we really feel about concepts such as marriage, monogamy, loyalty, and faith.

Scaffolding is a novel of loss and longing, coupled with a hazy kind of listlessness that permeates Anna's life. It is more of a character study than it is driven by plot and, certainly, the characters of Anna, Clementine and Henry are vividly realised.

The backdrop of feminist activism within the two different time periods highlights how far we still have to go in terms of addressing sexual violence against women. I found the use of real-life phrases used by feminist activists really brought to life the struggles faced by women the world over.

Scaffolding succeeds in weaving together themes of sexuality, (in)fidelity, grief, and parenthood through the events of the novel and the musings of its central characters.

Where it fell down slightly for me was the ending; it felt rather abrupt and rushed. It gave a feeling of the preceeding events having been some kind of 'break from reality' for Anna, with 'normal service ' resuming at the end.

Firstly, let’s talk about the amazingly beautiful cover! It is absolutely stunning and it completely intrigued me. I knew I had to read it and that I was going to love this book. It’s written with such atmospheric vigour, it tantalised all the senses, as if I had stepped into the book.

I could feel the inertia and sadness resonating off the pages in such a tender and painful way, I could empathise with the characters. The pain and loss ruminating in each word is written so eloquently.

I love how the timelines interact with each other and bounce so neatly, expressing how mysterious life can be with its cycles and patterns in its quantum force.

The characters are likeable and extremely well developed, enticing a, ‘want,’ to know more about them. I couldn’t put this book down once I started it and I let life go by the wayside for a time.

I really wish I could have read this book in French, I’m sure it would add even more to its beauty and delivery.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and all involved in allowing me an ARC copy, in return for an honest review. Such a wonderful book! What are you waiting for, get out there and get yourself a copy! Enjoy! 🤗