Scaffolding

by Lauren Elkin
Scaffolding cover
Good Books rating 3.94
Literary Fiction
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  • ID: 473
  • Added: 2025-09-12
  • Updated: 2025-11-01
  • ISBN: 9781529926453
  • Publisher: Random House
  • Published: 2024-06-13
  • Formats: 80
  • Reviews: 4

Set in a Paris apartment across two distinct eras—2019 and 1972, Scaffolding follows two couples grappling with the complexities of marriage, fidelity, and personal desires. In the present day, Anna, left alone when her husband moves to London, forms a complicated bond with her young neighbor Clémentine, blurring emotional and sexual boundaries. Decades earlier, Florence and Henry face similar challenges, with Florence pursuing psychoanalysis and pregnancy despite Henry's reluctance. /n/nThe novel weaves these parallel stories together, revealing how the characters and their ghosts unknowingly share the same space, offering a philosophical and intimate look at how people justify their desires and navigate the shifting frameworks of relationships. Praised for its elegance, humor, and atmospheric depth, Scaffolding is a bold and intelligent examination of love and human behavior across time.

Reviews
BookBrowse · 2025-09-12
intelligent 3.80

The novel offers a rich and intelligent portrayal of desire, fidelity, and the emotional legacies within relationships, though some connections between timelines feel somewhat forced.

This review praises the novel for its depth and intelligence in depicting the emotional experiences around desire and relationships, set against a backdrop of political and intellectual change. It notes the dual timeline structure as a means of exploring similar challenges faced by two couples decades apart, emphasizing how homes and memories intertwine. However, it also points out that the links between the two couples can feel a bit contrived at times, though this does not detract significantly from the novel’s overall impact and thematic richness.

Quick quotes

    The links between Florence and Anna feel a bit forced, but there's a great deal of depth and intelligence to the descriptions of their feelings around desire.

    Readers will find much to sink their teeth into.

    Lauren Elkin's *Scaffolding* is about the way our homes hold communal memories of all their inhabitants and their stories.

Books Are My Favourite and Best · 2024-12-09
absorbing 3.75

The novel is appreciated for its absorbing and thoughtful narrative, though it demands effort from the reader. It explores complex emotional dynamics between characters who have a love-hate relationship.

The reviewer reflects on the novel as an engrossing experience that rewards the reader's patience and attention. They note the tension in relationships portrayed, emphasizing the complicated nature of affection and conflict coexisting within the characters' interactions. The book's depth in exploring emotional and psychological nuances is praised, even if the pacing or plot might feel demanding at times. Overall, it is seen as a worthwhile literary effort with meaningful insights into human connections.

Quick quotes

    I found Scaffolding to be an absorbing novel that was worth the time and effort.

    We can't stand each other but we love each other too much to leave.

    Most of the novel's emotional complexity is carried through its characters' intricate relationships.

Brona's Books · Brona · 2024-10-11
absorbing 4.00

The novel is absorbing and rewarding, offering a reflective look at trust, self-acceptance, and the emotional complexities within relationships.

Brona found 'Scaffolding' to be a deeply absorbing novel that rewards readers willing to engage with its thoughtful exploration of psychological and emotional themes. The story focuses on Anna’s journey to trust herself and embrace her past, highlighting the nuanced ways personal histories shape present relationships and self-understanding. The reviewer appreciated the novel’s pacing and depth, noting that while it requires some effort, the insights it offers into intimacy and transformation make it worthwhile. Brona’s reflections suggest that the book resonates on a personal level, emphasizing the importance of self-acceptance and the intricate emotional scaffolding that underpins human connections.

Quick quotes

    I found Scaffolding to be an absorbing novel that was worth the time and effort.

    Anna needs to learn how to trust herself, to be comfortable with herself and to accept how her 'past was formed.'

    The novel offers a reflective look at the emotional complexities within relationships.

Chicago Review of Books · 2024-09-26
intimate 4.20

The novel is a bold, intimate exploration of desire and the complex justifications people make for their actions within relationships, framed through parallel stories of two couples in Paris a generation apart.

This review highlights how the novel uses the lives of two couples, separated by forty years but inhabiting the same Parisian apartment, to delve into the philosophical and emotional complexities of desire and fidelity. The characters' struggles with their impulses and the murky boundaries of their relationships offer a compelling examination of human wants and the rationalizations we construct around them. The reviewer appreciates the novel's rich psychological and emotional texture, emphasizing its challenge to conventional relationship norms and its nuanced portrayal of how people navigate their desires over time.

Quick quotes

    "Scaffolding. Has the ring of the gallows to it."

    Grappling with desire and how we justify our own hurts and wants, *Scaffolding* is a philosophical journey all ought to embark on.

    The boundaries of their relationship become murky, both sexually and emotionally.

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