thank you netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review. what gorgeous and fresh style of writing, elkin is so skilled at writing. i thought the stories were about themes and situations that you don't read about/hear about in mainstream publishing and it was really nice to read something new to me.

beautiful, allusive writing - good character descriptions - sensual and engaging - I suppose, very much one world - rich people (despite being bohemian) playing with each other's faithfulness and. relationships - all ends well, I suppose - after a miscarriage unhinges our psychiatrist narrator she relives an earlier relationship with husband of a woman she meets by accident (who is bisexual) - and while her own husband is way at work, she rebuilds their flat, reassesses her life, and opts to return to her husband - last we hear, she's working again as an analyst and has a baby. so gritty only in parts but beautiful anyway. i love Elkin's works on Paris and this is another one, really - the city is set out wonderfully..

“The word you think is the most right may in fact be the most wrong. We force words into place and they don't want to stay there. I love you, we say to someone, when we mean don't leave me. Don't leave me, we say to another person, when we mean to say I want to leave you but I'm a little worried you'll throw yourself in the Seine. Don't throw yourself in the Seine, we say, when we want to push them in. We can't stand each other but we love each other too much to leave.”

It’s 2019 and Anna lives in an apartment in the Belleville neighbourhood of Paris with her husband David. She’s a Lacanian psychoanalyst who is currently on leave as she hasn’t been doing well since losing a pregnancy. Each day she goes for a run, buys a baguette, contemplates renovating her kitchen, and anticipates the upcoming refacing of the building. She meets a new neighbour, Clémentine, an artist who it turns out, is involved in a feminist guerrilla art project posting messages around Paris about women’s rights, sexual assault, and femicide.

For nearly half the book, we live inside Anna’s increasingly distracted and troubled mind as she struggles to find meaning and motivation. Her own therapist has told her to write and the book often feels like journal entries, some long, but increasingly, as Anna’s own mind becomes fragmented, as short as one or two sentences, the structure reflecting the construction metaphor suggested by the title, that one must sometimes break down before, with a supportive structure, you can rebuild.

And then, as though with a freeze frame, record scratch, we are whisked back fifty years to Max and Florence who, we come to realize, are living in the very same apartment. Chapters alternate between their POVs allowing us to view their crumbling relationship from both sides in ways both poignant and at times, quite funny.

Scaffolding is a deeply feminist novel about women’s rights and relationships, about the life-changing effect of pregnancy, about female desire and agency. Elkins embeds the work of the real life “colleuses” (gluers) into the story, including the messages in French (there’s an appendix at the end that provides translations) and she references the Bobigny abortion trial of the 1970s and I couldn’t help but reflect on the throughline to the current trial in France which, one hopes, will also lead to change (they’re even connected by a name, Gisele, who is the lawyer in the first one and the courageous victim in the current one).

Alongside these main themes, Elkins weaves in other threads. The Holocaust continues to echo, sometimes loudly, sometimes more quietly. There are oodles of references to music, art, Lacan, Freud, and so much more, and while I should have taken the time to look them all up, I frequently found I didn’t want to lose the flow of the book, so I didn’t. And it was all set in what felt like a bit of a love letter to Paris (or maybe I just get that feeling about anything set in Paris).

Scaffolding is one of those rare things: a really smart novel that manages to be very readable at the same time and I loved reading it. Elkins plays with structure and narrative voice in interesting ways that suit the themes and ideas she’s exploring. While it didn’t show up on any of the prize lists this fall, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it might be a perfect candidate for the Carol Shields and Women’s Prizes.

I love books that take you on the interior journey of its protagonists (think Deborah Levy, Rachel Cuck, Sheila Heti) and Lauren Elkin gives us this in spades. With a bit of Paris thrown in for good measure.
But I never felt fully drawn into Anna and Clemintine's world. For some reason I was left outside, looking in (perhaps the scaffolding got in the way!)
Yet the mood and tone and feel of this book has stayed with me for days afterwards.

[a review link to my blog will be posted here when it is published]

Only read the first third. This book was written so sickeningly pretentiously that it felt suffocating. Endless references to trends, styles, etc that were so desperately reaching that it hurt. I prefer subtle pretension, something that you don’t even consciously identify as overtly exclusionary or referential.

This book reads quickly and I enjoyed the prose. However, while I was intrigued by the elements - two couples through time in the same apartment, love, desire and psychoanalysis, feminism and motherhood and relationships, France and the legacy of the Holocaust - I never felt it quite came together. I liked most of it, it just never became more than that. And in the end, the building blocks from which the story was constructed were not really innovative, but remained within the expected. Another semi-French novel about psychoanalytical theories, infidelity and desire, with a big metaphor for reconstruction and change through the renovation of the apartment (and its exterior). I enjoyed the read and loved the cover, but will not think much about it.

I was easily absorbed into this atmospheric and sensual story of the affairs of two couples in different time periods. The pace was perfect and I especially enjoyed the layers of history as they unfolded. This intriguing story twists and turns in all the right ways and will certainly leave you feeling satisfied.

*Scaffolding* by Lauren Elkin intricately weaves together the lives of two couples navigating the complexities of marriage, fidelity, and motherhood in the same Parisian apartment, fifty years apart. As Anna grapples with her personal struggles in 2019, including a heartbreaking miscarriage, her obsession with home renovation leads her to connect with Clémentine, a vibrant member of a radical feminist collective. Meanwhile, in 1972, Florence confronts her own uncertainties about motherhood while immersed in the feminist movements of her time. Elkin's narrative deftly explores how our living spaces are repositories of memories and emotions, highlighting the interplay between personal and political turmoil. Readers will be drawn to the rich character development and the thoughtful commentary on the evolution of relationships, making this a compelling read for anyone interested in the intertwining of personal histories and societal changes.

If possible, I would actually give this book 4.5 stars, rather than four. Although I enjoyed the book overall and was very drawn into the story and interconnectedness of the characters, the hardest part for me was keeping focus during discussions of psychoanalytical theory. But I've already recommended it to other people, and I look forward to any novels Lauren Elkin writes in the future.

wow! this was an amazing read with gorgeous writing, immersive scenes and characters that i'll be thinking about for a while after reading. i had been anticipating this read all summer and it did not disappoint!

Scaffolding was my most anticipated release of the year. I am a big fan of Elkin's translations (particularly of Michelle Pierot's The Bedroom) and her criticism ( Art Monsters ), and was thus thrilled to discover that she was coming out with her debut novel.

The book follows two plots, one in 2019 and the other in 1972. Both examine the concepts of pregnancy, desire, (in)fidelity, and how such incorporealities are contained and propagated within a city's architecture. On another level, Scaffolding examines Judaism, in particular French Judaism, the recent surge of immigration into provincial France--unfortunately Elkin gets the date of Chinese New Years wrong and this wasn't caught by the editor--and the birth of feminism and the sexual liberation movement in Europe. The final, overarching concern of this novel is Freudian psychology and Lacanian thought.

In short, this is a very ambitious project that has a lot to contend with on its plate. Elkin isn't entirely successful at drawing all of these loose threads into cohesion. To start with, there are many strengths of the book: I loved the stream-of-consciousness prose, the short chapters contrasted with longer ones, and there were many lines that I found disarming in their beauty. Moreover, I really loved the inclusion of two story lines and thought that they complemented each other well. However, some characters and storylines, for instance David and the main character, Anna's, miscarriage, were dropped. Insights into Judaism occur throughout but are rarely explored on anything deeper than a surface level. Another disappointing part of the book was Elkin's use of increasingly trite phrases, such as "we are still writing our histories"--part of my frustration derives from the fact that the reader knows that she can write better than this. The triteness doesn't stem from a lack of ability but rather, in my opinion, an exhaustion with the editing process. I also thought that the "Dinner with Andre"-esque last scene was also a bit cheesy, especially considering her academic interest in the flaneuse. I thought she could have used some more imagination.

That being said, I did love this book a lot and am glad I read it. There is so much to think about.

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.

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.