Book Review: Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

 

The woman storyteller of Vladimir, the interesting debut novel by Julia May Jonas is 58, a ´working class girl´ teaching English literature at a middle-size college in the US. She is in an open marriage with her older husband, ´John´ a more successful professor at the same college, entangled in a legal sexual case with younger women.

And then there is Vladimir, a young beautiful colleague two decades younger than her for whom she develops a real obsession. He is successful, has a wife which is about to finish a memoir that sounds like a stellar success - the story of her longlife trauma - and a daughter, he is beautiful and charming. She is dreaming about him, even drugs him while inviting him to her writing retreat.  

Her discourse about inequalities in the workplace, particularly within academia, echoeing though most chronical personal issues such as getting old, becoming invisible, irrelevant, a slave of her ageing body. The failure of writing only two novels, the last as far as 15 years ago. 

Although I was attracted by the valid points regarding women in academia and the limits of the #metoo discourse - in the context of her being accused of facilitating at a certain extent the many affairs of the husband, due to their ´open´ relationship - I´ve found the amorous layer desperately ridiculous. The twists that do challenge the pace of the story - the drugging episode, the fire who cut short a possible emotional ending - do not completely match with the intense premises of the intellectual story. 

I was very excited at the beginning of the book and had high expectations, but the ending in way too homely and I am also not a big fan of obsessive relationships - real or imaginary. But from the ideatic perspective, the book made some good points and inspires the discussion about women in academia, aging women in academia, although I think in Europe the discourse is more nuanced and diversified.

However, Vladimir is a good start and the writing comes very much into place. Also, there are never enough books featuring women, even though not necessarily the kind of women would love to have a coffee with. 

Rating: 3.5 stars