Julia May Jonas - Vladimir
4 ⭐
Genre: General Fiction, Literary Fiction, Character Exploration, Fiction
Pages: 256
Format: eARC on NetGalley
Publisher: Pan Macmillan, Picador
Date Published: 26th May 2022 (UK)
Big Thank You to Picador and NetGalley UK for a copy of eARC to read and review!
Book Blurb:
When I was a child, I loved old men, and I could tell that they also loved me.
And so we meet our deliciously incisive narrator: a popular English professor whose husband, a charismatic professor at the same small liberal arts college, is under investigation for his inappropriate relationships with his former students. The couple have long had a mutual understanding when it comes to their extramarital pursuits, but with these new allegations, life has become far less comfortable for them both. And when our narrator becomes increasingly infatuated with Vladimir, a celebrated, married young novelist who’s just arrived on campus, their tinder-box world comes dangerously close to exploding.
With her bold, edgy, and uncommonly assured literary debut, Julia May Jonas takes us into charged territory, where the strictures of morality bump up against the impulses of the human heart. Propulsive, darkly funny, and surreptitiously moving, Vladimir maps the personal and political minefield of our current moment, exposing the messy contradictions of power and desire.
My Review:
This book caught my eye because
it features academia and I love reading fictional books where academia is given
a centre stage. It was a very interesting read. However, it wasn’t my favourite
since I wanted more action than this book provided.
Book follows an unnamed narrator,
who is in her 50s and is a Literature professor at a small university on the
outskirts of NYC. Her husband, who is also a professor at the same university,
is under investigation for sexual relationships with his former students. At
the same time, a young, good looking and popular professor/published writer Vladimir
joins the department with his wife Cynthia, and our unnamed narrator starts ‘obsessing’
with him. The story deeply explores the narrator’s character, her struggles with
writing a new book, her age, her emotions, her weight and of course her role as
a female in society and academia. She starts comparing herself to Cynthia and tries
to find ways to impress Vladimir with her wisdom and knowledge of literature.
The story itself is quite slow,
there’s not much action till the very end actually and even then, the ending was a bit
disappointing as there weren’t any big reveals or shocks about any of the
characters. However, the lack of action was substituted with beautiful and
flawless writing. Jonas is so talented in that regard, the way she describes scenes,
and events and gives deep to the characters is fabulous. I think the main
reason I continued with this book was the writing as it grips you from the very
first page and before you know it you are 100 pages in.
Another thing that I noticed was that
in the blurb it sounded like the narrator is obsessed with Vladimir and honestly,
I expected that given the title of the book. However, throughout the book it didn’t
feel like she was obsessed with him at all, it was more like she liked the
thought of him and she had this perfect version created in her head of him.
This leads me to my other point about Vladimir…we don’t really get to know him
as a character. He was mainly portrayed to the reader as to how our narrator saw
him. There was a little glimpse of him at the very end of the book when he is
alone with the narrator and talks about himself, but overall, the book doesn’t explore
his character deep enough in my opinion.
I really liked that this book
explored power relationships in academia and gender roles, both quite
controversial topics in the past and in the current environment. It was so
interesting to see what the narrator thought about her husband’s relationships
with female students.
Overall: I think I had a bit too
high hopes for this book. I really wanted it to be more like Nabokov’s Lolita,
as well as to have more action and more twists and shocks in terms of all
characters but mainly Vladimir and the narrator’s husband. Although I didn’t
like the lack of action in this book, I liked the writing of this book, it was
truly flawless and there are so many exceptional quotes in this book that will
definitely stay with me for a while.
I do recommend this book to anyone who likes books that explore characters in depth and who don’t mind the lack of actions and twists in their reading.
About the Author:
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