Vladimir
A Novel
-
-
٣٫٩ - ١٣٩ من التقييمات
-
-
- 13٫99 US$
وصف الناشر
An NPR, Washington Post, Time, People, Vulture, Guardian, Vox, Kirkus Reviews, Newsweek, LitHub, and New York Public Library Best Book of the Year * “Delightful…cathartic, devious, and terrifically entertaining.” —The New York Times * “Timely, whip-smart, and darkly funny.” —People (Book of the Week) * One of Shondaland’s 13 Best College-Set Novels of All Time
A provocative, razor-sharp, and timely debut novel about a beloved English professor facing a slew of accusations against her professor husband by former students—a situation that becomes more complicated when she herself develops an obsession of her own...
“When I was a child, I loved old men, and I could tell that they also loved me.” And so we are introduced to our narrator who’s “a work of art in herself” (The Washington Post): a popular English professor whose charismatic husband 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 extra-marital 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.
“Timely, whip-smart, and darkly funny” (People), Vladimir takes us into charged territory, where the boundaries of morality bump up against the impulses of the human heart. This edgy, uncommonly assured debut perfectly captures the personal and political minefield of our current moment, exposing the nuances and the grey area between power and desire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Playwright Jonas debuts with a mordantly funny post-#MeToo campus story about a 50-something woman unhinged by desire for a younger man. The unnamed narrator, a tenured English professor at a small upstate New York liberal arts college, starts the fall semester embroiled in scandal. The scandal is not hers (at least not at first)—her husband, John, also a professor in the department, has been placed on leave pending the results of a hearing after being accused of sexual predation by a host of young women, many of them former students. Denounced by both her colleagues and her adult daughter for her complicity in John's behavior, the narrator retreats into obsessive sexual fantasies about a new young colleague, Vladimir. She also yearns to recapture the physical allure of her youth and revive her own stagnant writing, and by the end, her behavior turns monstrous. Vain, narcissistic, and seemingly oblivious to the absurdity of her actions, the narrator can nevertheless pluck at readers' sympathies, especially in the generous and thoughtful ways she helps her daughter during her own personal crisis. The author generously studs the narrative with clever literary allusions (the narrator describes her mind in contrast to Edna St. Vincent Millay's: "more like a chaotic battle scene than the unfurling of insight"), and surprisingly upends assumptions about gender, power, and shame. Jonas is off to a strong start.
مراجعات العملاء
Messy People
Julia May Jonas has offered up a timely exploration of Identity Politics. This analysis is presented from what would be the contrarian angle for progressives and set within the peculiarities of the world of Academia. In a sense, calling out the role Academia plays in prompting challenges to the status quo while also upholding some of its oldest stereotypes.
Specifically, how the sexual and political dramas of academia run counter to progressive demands to dismantle old institutions while also making strides in various race, gender, class, or similar struggles within those very same confines. Jonas doesn’t necessarily take sides but does challenge the idea that all liberal causes our right without room for question.
Within that scope Jonas also explores the the practicalities of power dynamics. Who is and who isn’t in control in relationships. How conventional relationship definitions empower or limit individual potentiality. Along with pushing the understanding of generalized interpretations and standards of what desire means between the sexes.
While I don’t agree with or like the bulk of the very messy characters and some of their decisions; the scenarios they are placed in pose compelling questions about the self. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, none of them could be said to be looking for acceptance for their lifestyles which bursts my own perceptions that my opinion even matters.
Meh
A lot of not particularly interesting blather.
Great read.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book.