Vladimir
Ratings43
Average rating3.4
15
Ratings43
Average rating3.4
“Delightful…cathartic, devious, and terrifically entertaining.” —The New York Times “Timely, whip-smart, and darkly funny.” —People (Book of the Week) “A deliciously dark fable of sex and power.” —Esquire 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 deliciously incisive narrator: 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. With this bold, edgy, and uncommonly assured debut, author Julia May Jonas takes us into charged territory, where the boundaries of morality bump up against the impulses of the human heart. Propulsive, darkly funny, and wildly entertaining, Vladimir perfectly captures the personal and political minefield of our current moment, exposing the nuances and the grey area between power and desire.
Reviews with the most likes.
i'm always gonna be enticed by a novel about a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown and this one did it with such a wicked singular vision that it nailed. i understood the narrator at her core because she is so well written and she works perfectly as the centerpiece of this story and as a vessel for exploring the stories of everyone around her. happy i got to read a book that whips so much ass.
This was a book that was suggested in a thread about women slowly going mad and the unhinged women trope. Maybe because I went into it with that sort of expectation I was disappointed overall with where it ended up going. It also doesn't help that this is what I read soon after finishing [b:When Darkness Loves Us 868727 When Darkness Loves Us Elizabeth Engstrom https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1666975701l/868727.SY75.jpg 854113] which delivers much more on this premise. Overall I do feel like this was a decent book but not exactly the sort of thing I was looking for.
This is an easy 4 but could have been 5. I absolutely love flawed characters and this book does a terrific job of highlighting it. The writing is evocative and fluid although it feels extremely rushed towards the end, where the pace and tone suddenly shifts as if the author had a pressing deadline and ran out of ideas. Needless to say, the first 80% of the book is very good and gives us a lot to think about in the most #MeToo era, where the narrative is usually one-sided. This book also reminds me of Mary Gaitskill's book “This is Pleasure”. I look forward to Ms Jonas future works.
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