Yes, another academic novel, another coming-of-age novel — but My Education is wonderfully original and all-consuming, even if slightly let down by the 80-page coda at the end of the work. The narrator, Regina Gottlieb, is knowing and self-deprecating, retelling the story with the benefit of adult hindsight. Such a device allows Choi to satirise effectively not only the pretensions of academia, but some of the more naive ideals of feminism. Much of the action around My Education is centred on a lesbian affair between Regina and the wife of the most eligible English professor on campus. Some of the sex is captured rather heavy-handedly, but the affair and its breakup is captured well, particularly how Regina's and Martha's (the other party) lives disintegrate and are then rebuilt. This is partly the point of the coda, although the introduction of some bit-part characters does feel somewhat superfluous. Choi nonetheless is a powerful and original voice to be watched. Eight out of ten.
By Susan Choi