Scaffolding is filled with messy relationships. Love triangles and unearthing the morality of fidelity dominate the plot of this novel. Personally, I was not a fan of how the novel developed and found it difficult to sympathize with any of the characters because they are so focused on their extramarital affairs at the expense of other facets of life.

I wish more of the book had been devoted to Clemintine, who I thought was the most interesting of Elkin’s characters. She offers the reader a more nuanced version of feminist thought (one that extends beyond sexual liberation). Unfortunately, she remains a mysterious figure throughout the novel until the last quarter or so, when we learn about her past but through other people.

One huge misstep for me in Scaffolding is the author’s decision not to articulate our main characters’ desires to enter motherhood. We hear Anna discussing that she thinks it’s what’s expected of her, but both Anna and Florence ultimately say very little as to why it means so much for them to have children. Given that pregnancy drives so many decisions and feelings throughout the novel, I can’t understand why we don’t see any deeper reflection, especially when the book is marketed with feminist subthemes.

I think other readers will likely enjoy the fluid prose in Scaffolding, but unfortunately the book was just a miss for me. A big thank you to FSG for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I can't believe this is a debut! The writing was so impressive. It has a quiet intensity that really crept up on me and I loved the story.

Elkin wrote such a succinct and sensual read that encompassed psychoanalysis in a really approachable way while also using it to explore desire and fidelity, relationships and gender.

I definitely need to own a copy of this book the prose I as fluid and I want to highlight so many passages of our characters inner dialogue.

Look forward to anything she writes next, brava.

It was very lovely book. It reads very well and has a nice pace. It was my first book from the author and I was pleasantly surprised.

This book is rife with themes and motifs, ideal for an English class or serious book club. It tells the story mostly of a woman in modern Paris (Belleville, to be exact) who is dealing with a recent miscarriage and becomes embroiled on the relationship of her neighbors. In the middle, though, is also the story of a young couple living in the same apartment fifty years earlier. Lacan is present throughout, so if you don’t want to hear about psychoanalysis, steer clear.

Set in Paris, this three part novel begins around 2019. We're in Belleville, a bit removed from the city center, in Anna's apartment building. Her husband is working in London, she's recovering from a miscarriage, taking some time off from work (she's a psychoanalyst), and contemplating a major renovation of the apartment when she runs into a new tenant in the complex. Clementine is young, vivacious, an art history student and model, full of life and ideas and energy. We're very much in Anna's head - it's all told from her POV - her memories, associations, observations, conversations, desires. It's very heady. Part one ends with a truly WTF cliffhanger before moving on.

Part two is set in 1972, in the same apartment, with ties to part one that become evident over time. Part two follows Florence and Henry, told from their two perspectives. They're a youngish couple (I think he's a little older), she's studying at university, feminist causes are making the headlines, and she wants to have a baby. Henry adamantly does not. Yes, another cliffhanger ends part two.

Part three finds us back with Anna. I enjoyed seeing how the three parts fit together.

I loved being in this world, listening in on these conversations. The themes varied: psychoanalysis - in practice, history, study, dreams, themes, Freud and his acolytes and detractors, Lacan; the feminist movement(s) and abortion rights in the 70s to the misogyny and demonstrations of Anna's time [Elkin references the posters plastered all over Paris denouncing the treatment of women, and translates them]; desire, its sources, conflict, fidelity, infidelity, motherhood and marriage; loads of sex; the city itself. Elkin immerses the reader in her Paris (with a side jaunt to London).

It's hard to believe this is a debut novel. It's a powerful container for some beautiful writing, humor, strong characters and cultural references (Sally Rooney wink wink, I Love Dick !!!). It's a novel I want people to read so we can talk about it. Scaffolding comes out today so get started!

My thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the digital ARC.

The conceit of Laura Elkin’s debut novel is that she focuses on two couples who reside in the same apartment in the Belleville section of Paris, a haven for artists and immigrants, decades apart. The opening section set in 2019 is narrated by Anna, a 39 year old psychoanalyst whose life consisted of working on herself, her patients, and her apartment, until she suffered a miscarriage and “everything stopped except the therapy, which intensified.” Anna is married to David, a lawyer, who Anna finds exciting,“but not threatening.” David is working on a project in London. The plan was for Anna to settle in London, but in the end she couldn’t bring herself to go, so David returns to Paris periodically.

Anna neglects to contact her employer when her medical leave concludes, and she is sacked. Her apartment block is being covered with scaffolding so that the walls can be refaced. She spends her days suffering through the noise of the construction (“THE BANGING. THE BANGING. The banging.”), while increasingly isolated, except for the runs she takes in the neighborhood where she reads the feminist posters affixed to the walls, enjoys baguettes purchased for her by a bakery regular, and looks through old journals, focusing on what she wrote about a former boyfriend, Jonathan, whose father was a prominent psychoanalyst. Anna’s staid existence is shaken up when she strikes up a friendship with a new neighbor, Clementine, a 24 year old art history student, art model and feminist activist who lives with her boyfriend and identifies as queer.

The second section is set in 1972, and focuses on Henry, a 27 year old paralegal, and his spirited new bride, Florence, a psychoanalyst. Both Henry and Florence are Ashkenazi Jews who lost family in the Holocaust. Their Belleville neighborhood is festooned with fliers about the growing “revolution of women” and Florence attends feminist meetings with other women who, as Henry summarizes it, discuss their freedom “or the ways in which it is checked and curtailed, usually by us husbands.” Florence is having an affair with Max Weisz, a married professor. “I am sleeping with a man who is not my husband and I refuse to feel shamed for it.” Henry learns of the affair and, when Florence, eager to embark on motherhood, announces that she will no longer take the Pill, he laments, “[m]y wife is having sex with two different men and she chooses this movement to get pregnant?” Henry embarks on his own dalliance.

The final section returns to 2019, and the events of the present are shown to echo those of the past. We follow a bed-hopping Anna, a woman who, by her own admission, “seemed built to be unhappy” although she suffered no particular trauma, but only the “an entirely ordinary topography of discontent, disappointment, the standard feeling of insufficiency and fears of abandonment.” This section reveals the hidden connections between people, and the history that haunts us, from the former boyfriend to the “food rotting in a pipe for thirty years” in the kitchen, to a calendar from 1973 with owls for every month, to the legacy of the Holocaust. Although Elkins’ characters at times wander off into some pretentious tangents, this is a novel that explores marriage, fidelity, desire, love, and psychoanalysis through the perspectives of two couples living 50 years apart. Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advance copy of this steamy novel.

The story follows two couples who live in the same apartment in Paris almost fifty years apart. In 2019, Anna, a psychoanalyst, is processing a recent miscarriage, while her husband, David, takes a job in London, leaving her to spend her days obsessing over renovating the kitchen while befriending a younger woman called Clémentine who has moved into the building and is part of a radical feminist collective. Meanwhile, in 1972, Florence is finishing her degree in psychology while hoping to get pregnant, even though Henry isn’t sure he’s ready for fatherhood.

It took me a minute to get into the story, but once I did, I couldn't put this book down. I did struggle a bit when it got to part II, as I found the switch in narratives quite sudden, and it took me out of the story for a bit. It was still interesting at parts, but I didn't really connect with it as much as I did with the previous one. When we got back to the last part, it did take me, once again, a bit to get back into the story, but once I did, it was just as enjoyable as it had been before. I did have a great time with it overall, I enjoyed the themes it covered and it was very entertaining. It is very much a slice of life kind of book, which is something I always gravitate towards, so I'm not surprised in the slightest.

Many thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux & NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This book makes me feel like I was just let in on the most esoteric of secrets. It has torn down any ideas I used to have about desire and has replaced them with a new framework.

Structured into three parts with short, accessible chapters and multiple points of view, Scaffolding is a book that heavily relies on feminism and the psychoanalytical studies of Lacan to allow its readers to break open and peer into the minds of its characters.

It’s very heady, deliciously so, and the language is intentional and intellectually rewarding.

We mostly follow Anna, a psychoanalyst herself, and it’s through her sultry affairs and the renovation of her kitchen that we discover how the concept of desire can be both lack and liberation.

You feel smarter after reading a book like this, full of curiosity, full of a nagging fascination for learning new things. You can feel it swimming in your brain, this new impulse for discovery. It has a motivational force, this book, a real push-and-pull feeling that wants you to really break down those walls in your life, to peel away the paint, to rip off the old wallpaper, to retile the floor, to rebuild, rebuild, and rebuild, till you can finally call yourself at home.

Thank you to NetGalley and FSG for this eARC.

Scaffolding is a delight. I loved how Elkin relishes in dialogue, it feels naturalistic, conversational, and I adored following the ebbs and flows between characters. Not to mention the inventive structure to the novel, and it's scope. Scaffolding is a muscular work. Fascinating. I can't wait to see what others think. Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley.

i liked this the more i read it. some wacky little sentences at the beginning esp as lacan is concerned but i think she writes her way into something very cool and very horny and thoughtful about desire.

ty to netgalley and fsg for the arc.

Really beautifully written and I loved how they weaved through culture and the dynamics between the characters. Unfortunately found the portions about psychoanalysis a bit dense.

Scaffolding was a beautiful gem of a book. The writing was sublime - so beautiful and smart without being pretentious, and I loved how this was very much a character-driven story. Set in France, the book is told through two timelines and focuses on many themes: relationships, parenthood, and miscarriages to name a few.

Some books I want to fly through, but this one was meant to be savored. I'm always looking for an utterly absorbing novel, and this one had me glued to my seat until I reached the final page. I'll be recommending this one to anyone on the hunt for a novel with memorable characters and gorgeous prose.

In Scaffolding, I found a thought-provoking exploration of modern life played against the backdrop of urban spaces. Elkin's prose is beautifully crafted, weaving personal anecdotes with insightful commentary on architecture and belonging. I especially appreciated her ability to make the reader reflect on how our environments shape our experiences and identities.
However, at times, the narrative felt a bit disjointed, shifting focus in ways that made it hard to maintain a cohesive flow. Additionally, while some sections were incredibly engaging, others felt overly academic, which could alienate readers looking for a straightforward narrative.
Despite these inconsistencies, the book sparked my curiosity and left me contemplating the intricate relationship between our lives and the structures that surround us.

scaffolding tackles a little bit of everything: desire, marriage, motherhood, feminist politics, psychoanalysis, home remodeling, queerness, religion, past/present/future… we see how all of those topics interact with the lives and relationships of two different women, anna and florence, who live in the parisian same apartment 40 years apart.

there are some loose plot points that mirror each other in both women’s lives, including affairs, pregnancy, and careers in psychoanalysis, but it is not a super plot heavy novel - it’s a quiet look at the ideas and inner turmoil of the characters. ultimately, i really loved the experience of reading this book. the way that elkin paints the picture of both characters and their home somehow felt comforting to read. her language remains accessible even as it presents interesting ideas about who and what we are allowed to desire through the lens of lacanian psychoanalysis. some of the context went over my head but was still thought provoking to read about.

i’m really glad to have enjoyed lauren elkin’s fiction as much as i enjoyed her nonfiction exploration of feminist art, art monsters. there is very strong connective tissue between both books, without it feeling like she’s repeating herself. i’m excited to see how those themes are expanded upon in her other work! i’m not sure how much of scaffolding will fully stick with me but it was an enjoyable novel to get swept up in.

“I always thought of scaffolding as something supportive that goes around or next to something else, but there is always at least one point of damage, they can't just pile it up free-standing.”

I was honestly so excited for this book strictly because of how beautiful the cover was. I can't say I was deceived but it definitely did not turn out to be something I loved. The text was dense and cold. I felt disconnected from the story and the characters. Overall it was just not for me.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙡𝙘𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙙, 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙧𝙖𝙯𝙤𝙧 𝙗𝙡𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙪𝙥 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙠𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙞𝙙, 𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧.
This novel manages to be many things, dipping its toes in psychoanalysis, feminism, fidelity, miscarriage and renovation. It is 2019 and Anna is recovering from a breakdown after her miscarriage. A French America living in a Paris apartment, Anna works as a psychoanalyst, one who is unable to get back to normalcy in her career or with her partner David, a lawyer, who is living in another country for his job. When he isn’t at their apartment for brief visits, asking her if her therapy with Esther is helping (necessary sessions for Anna to be cleared to get back to treating her own patients after being put on medical leave), she spends her time swallowed in the comfort of her solitude, wondering about the woman who lived in the apartment before them, also a psychoanalyst like herself. It is August, a time of year when most Parisians are away, including Esther, leaving treatment on hold.

One day Anna meets her new neighbor Clémentine, a feminist who lives in the same building with her boyfriend Jonathan. Anna invites her over for tea and it is not long before they form an intimacy. Anna is impressed by her confidence, experience, and intelligence, shocked that she is only twenty-four. Identifying mostly as queer, though unsure who she is really attracted to or why, Clémentine is not easy to pin down, ‘she is thoroughly herself’ and takes the place of all the friends Anna no longer sees. Through Clémentine, Anna thinks of the young girl she used to be, of past loves and how they change us. Despite wishing new love could erase all the feelings we had for those who came before, it is an impossibility. Remodeling her home, facing other people’s choices is like ‘fighting with the past,’ much as she is doing with her own heart during this emotional upheaval. Leaning into her new young friend is a fresh way of seeing, Clémentine challenges societal norms like marriage, having children or not, and the purpose of love, whether believing it should be eternal or not.

The time spent with Clémentine is bringing up buried feelings about her ex-boyfriend, whose name was also Jonathan. Finally, she is invited to Clémentine’s for their house warming and everything changes.

Part 2

It’s 1972, in the same apartment as Anna in 2019, Florence and her lawyer husband Henry live. Florence is obsessed with ‘women’s liberation’, according to her husband, and comes home one day telling him she has signed up for a masters at the university. How can that be when she wants to start a family? Through psychotherapy, she will be tied to strangers, and poor Henry will be stuck raising children they might have. What nonsense! What troublemakers such women are. The feminist ideas are liberating, to Florence’s mind, why should she feel shame for her passions? She spends her time at Jacques Lacan’s seminars with her friend Claude and falls into an affair with Max. But there is no way she can remain free to explore with other people as witness. Henry isn’t ready to be a father, and he certainly isn’t ready to be a fool whose wife is running around on him. Soon mixing up love and passion, questioning her marriage, her place in the world as a woman and the world’s expectations with Lacan’s words lighting fires in her head, nothing is going the way she hoped. What do we make of desire? How do we build a life we want loaded down with endless restrictions?

Back to Anna and the scaffolding, people working on the building outside, the endless noise, and the renovation within her own kitchen, it is enough to drive her insane, but the ghost of her past is the real punch to the gut. This is a hell of a read, sexuality, desire, how to remain faithful to ourselves when giving others what they need, the impact of society’s norms on our relationships, the past that will not stay behind us, there is a lot to explore and question here. What feminism looks like from different angles, at different time periods. Yes, read it!

Publication Date: September 17, 2024

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Scaffolding tells the story of two women separated by time, but living parallel lives in the same Paris apartment decades apart. We follow Anna, a psychoanalyst in 2019, and Florence, a psychoanalyst-in-training in 1972.

Character-focused books are something that I always enjoy, and from the first chapter, I knew that Scaffolding would become one of my favorites. This is my first introduction to Lauren Elkin’s writing, and I am a new fan.

Anna is such a compelling character to read. There is so much going on with her, but also there is a lot that she is avoiding. So much of the book is an exploration of relationships, sexuality, identity, desire, love, and feminism. But through all these lies an undercurrent of grief of the personal (Anna’s recent miscarriage) and the collective kind (protests surrounding the rise of femicides in France).

Lacanian theories of desire also play a significant part in this book. Anna is a psychoanalyst who subscribes to Lacanian views. Florence is also learning from him and attending his seminars. Both women use his theories as a framework for understanding their identities and their self-exploration. I had no knowledge of Lacan before reading Scaffolding. But it was interesting how Elkin added his theories into the book and how much it ties into the story. Did I get a little confused by these Lacanian ideas at times? Yes. But I always welcome those moments as an invitation for further reflection. I love it when a book pushes me to pause and think, a little break from passive consumption.

One thing I would have wanted was a bit of closure for Florence and Henry’s arc. When I finished the book, I had to go back to the end of their section to remind myself how it concluded. And although it was a banger of an ending (iykyk), I still wish I got to know what happened to them in the aftermath of it all.


Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the ARC!

"Scaffolding" by Lauren Elkin presents a tale of two halves, much like the scaffolding that often shrouds Parisian buildings. The novel, set in Elkin's beloved Paris, initially captivates with its crisp prose and compelling storytelling. Fans of Elkin's non-fiction work "Flâneuse" will find familiar ground in her astute observations of urban life.
The first part of the book shines brightly, with well-crafted characters and an engaging narrative that pulls the reader into the Parisian setting. Elkin's writing is sharp and evocative, successfully translating her keen eye for detail from non-fiction to the realm of the novel.
However, the second part of "Scaffolding" fails to maintain the momentum. It feels somewhat superfluous and contrived, lacking the natural flow and authenticity of the opening section. This jarring shift in quality suggests that the novel might have been more impactful as a shorter work, focusing solely on the strengths of its initial chapters.
While "Scaffolding" showcases Elkin's talent for bringing Paris to life on the page, the uneven structure of the book ultimately undermines its full potential. Readers may find themselves wishing for a more concise exploration of the themes and characters introduced in the first part, rather than the extended narrative provided.

I probably would have liked this book better if the dialogue had quotation marks. I really don't understand why authors choose not to use them. It's an odd choice especially in writing general fiction. Also, this story really dragged around the 50% mark. I really wanted to like this novel more, but it was lackluster and forgettable.