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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
hm. I was enjoying this book, and then 2/3 in it goes off the rails (), and I adjusted my expectations about what the book is, and then it stabilized and then got even wilder, which made me consider how much the narrator was yet another unreliable one. I guess she wasn't entirely, and everyone is to some extent, but I found it a little tiresome. Reading the suggested book club questions/discussion points at the end, along with the author interview, really deadened the book for me, unfortunately.
When I started reading this book, I had just finished rereading [b:The Friend|40164365|The Friend|Sigrid Nunez|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1544364669l/40164365._SY75_.jpg|56847766], and I thought the two books nicely dovetailed on both older female narrators and their relationships to men who had relationships with students and their own relationships to students. But this book didn't fare well in comparison. I also found so many components interesting and underexplored - especially Cynthia. There was discussion of motherhood and aging that I found interesting.
Spoiler
around the kidnapping, which was not a word I had anticipated would be relevant for this bookWhen I started reading this book, I had just finished rereading [b:The Friend|40164365|The Friend|Sigrid Nunez|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1544364669l/40164365._SY75_.jpg|56847766], and I thought the two books nicely dovetailed on both older female narrators and their relationships to men who had relationships with students and their own relationships to students. But this book didn't fare well in comparison. I also found so many components interesting and underexplored - especially Cynthia. There was discussion of motherhood and aging that I found interesting.
Like every crazy person I’ve got a morbid fascination with crazy people
I had very mixed feelings about this book, in the end. Basically, I thought the Vladimir parts didn't work. The main character's obsession with him is not all that convincing, and their scenes together are possibly the least interesting in the entire book. What is really captivating about this novel is actually the main character's family life. Her husband has been caught up in the #metoo movement because of his previous affairs with female students, she is trying to figure out her own role in the situation, and as a result she's confronting her students' attitudes about things and her own at every turn. THAT was fascinating, and I was all about the academic politics and navigation of student opinions and grievances. Read this book if you love a little academic drama. Skip it if you're looking for something steamy because that part was meh.
This book was just not my cup of tea. I really wanted to like it—mostly because I loved the idea of a nameless main character—but I like my books with a little more story to them, and I just couldn’t find a strong enough plot in Vladimir.
The characters were boring and didn’t do much of anything, which made it really hard for me to care about them at all.
If it had a better plot, I could probably tolerate the boring characters, but this just wasn’t for me. I don’t think Vladimir will be getting a reread any time soon.
The characters were boring and didn’t do much of anything, which made it really hard for me to care about them at all.
If it had a better plot, I could probably tolerate the boring characters, but this just wasn’t for me. I don’t think Vladimir will be getting a reread any time soon.
Women just do it better.
Even when the "it" in question is "obsessing over a somewhat age- and power-inappropriate hottie in order to ignore your own impending aging."
I love books about women being sex-obsessed. We are living in the renaissance of literary fiction about women who talk about their vaginas, and we are lucky for it.
Honestly i find any sort of gender role reversion - women who overstep, women who pursue, women who date younger or hotter than they are - very simple and delicious, like junk food. I can't get enough of lit fic about unlikable women, and more so I cannot get enough of talking about my love of lit fic about unlikable women, so reviewing it is like nirvana to me.
Men may be the experts at ignoring their despised aging by creeping on younger romantic partners, but women do it better! It's like we've been training for it for centuries via patriarchal repression and internalized misogyny.
Additionally, this book is a masterclass on shame and humiliation, feelings that all women know intimately, and it's the lines surrounding this I underlined most.
You read that correctly. I've started marking up my own books. I know - how messed up and indulgent, I'm like the Marie Antoinette of the reading community. Anyway, this was the perfect book for that.
Anyway again, we are far past overdue for this kind of book - what of the women who are married to the men of #MeToo? What if they don't play the role we want them to? What if they, maybe, have their own amoral sex politics? What if all of us are just people, whether we like it or not, and that is just as true of the canceled men as it is of their partners (of both definitions) as it is of those who accuse them?
There's so much reckoning we haven't yet done. What a way to start.
Bottom line: Well worth the read, and also inexplicably unliked, so you can read it and feel better than everyone on like 4 levels.
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tbr review
the protagonist of this is called "deliciously incisive," which sounds like a literary way of saying she is a b*tch. which is the best thing for a protagonist to be
Even when the "it" in question is "obsessing over a somewhat age- and power-inappropriate hottie in order to ignore your own impending aging."
I love books about women being sex-obsessed. We are living in the renaissance of literary fiction about women who talk about their vaginas, and we are lucky for it.
Honestly i find any sort of gender role reversion - women who overstep, women who pursue, women who date younger or hotter than they are - very simple and delicious, like junk food. I can't get enough of lit fic about unlikable women, and more so I cannot get enough of talking about my love of lit fic about unlikable women, so reviewing it is like nirvana to me.
Men may be the experts at ignoring their despised aging by creeping on younger romantic partners, but women do it better! It's like we've been training for it for centuries via patriarchal repression and internalized misogyny.
Additionally, this book is a masterclass on shame and humiliation, feelings that all women know intimately, and it's the lines surrounding this I underlined most.
You read that correctly. I've started marking up my own books. I know - how messed up and indulgent, I'm like the Marie Antoinette of the reading community. Anyway, this was the perfect book for that.
Anyway again, we are far past overdue for this kind of book - what of the women who are married to the men of #MeToo? What if they don't play the role we want them to? What if they, maybe, have their own amoral sex politics? What if all of us are just people, whether we like it or not, and that is just as true of the canceled men as it is of their partners (of both definitions) as it is of those who accuse them?
There's so much reckoning we haven't yet done. What a way to start.
Bottom line: Well worth the read, and also inexplicably unliked, so you can read it and feel better than everyone on like 4 levels.
-------------
tbr review
the protagonist of this is called "deliciously incisive," which sounds like a literary way of saying she is a b*tch. which is the best thing for a protagonist to be
the author did a great job at trapping the reader inside the narrators psyche so i almost couldn’t consider my own morals and i just went along with what was written until i did a double take and was like wait wtf no that’s not my voice. the vocab is insane. the prose and imagery are beautiful. provokes philosophical discussion. powerful and feminine but also a great critique of modern wokeness. but also i felt like it didn’t have much plot. and then the main character went crazy and her actions were unrecognisable and rapey and then a random fire happened?? strange plot but amazingly written
I found this novel a tiresome read.
The unnamed narrator is a 58-year-old college professor at a small liberal arts school in upstate New York. Her husband John, also an English professor there, is being investigated for his past affairs with students. Although she and John have had an open marriage and she has found his affairs neither disruptive nor painful, she finds her relationships with students and colleagues changing as his sexual exploits become public knowledge. At the same time, she becomes infatuated with Vladimir Vladinski, a handsome (and married) new professor who has recently arrived on campus.
The title suggests that the novel will focus on the narrator’s relationship with Vladimir, but that is not the case. She claims to be fixated on him, but it is only in the latter part of the book that her attention really zeroes in on him. And then there’s a plot twist that, though it is foreshadowed in the prologue, is just bizarre.
Though I am an older woman, I found it difficult to relate to the narrator. Except in her role as a mother, she is selfish, even admitting “I am the most selfish human being I know.” She is supposedly intelligent, but sometimes behaves so stupidly. She is insecure, constantly worrying about her writing and her aging body. Though I can understand her concerns about growing older (“Older women with lust are always the butt of the joke in comedy, horny sagging birds with dripping skin”), her vanity and constant whining become annoying.
Other characters are no more likeable or sympathetic. John is just a cad who used his prestige and power to bed young women. Vladimir is supposedly a talented writer, but comes across as needy. Sid is the lesbian daughter of John and the narrator; she has an argument with her lover and so she has sex with a man in the bathroom of a train?! I found it difficult to care about these people.
An action-packed plot is not a necessity for my enjoyment, but the pace is almost glacial. For much of the novel I wondered where exactly it was going. The narrator goes on and on in long, meandering paragraphs expressing her opinions about sundry topics. Then she acts decisively but in a way that is unrealistic.
The aspect that most interested me is that this could be classified as a #MeToo novel, but it doesn’t offer the perspective one might expect, especially from a woman. The narrator takes exception with charges that John was abusing his power when “that power is the reason they desired him in the first place.” She believes the women accusing her husband were not traumatized: “’He didn’t drug them or coerce them . . . None of these women suffered professionally or academically . . . They came to him. He didn’t pursue.’” She argues that the women accusers have adopted a victim mentality and are “’reacting to a moment.’” She believes that academia creates a discriminatory environment because some students are selected for honours while others are dismissed or ignored: “those selections caused more pain, at least in my opinion, than the amorous fixations of an over-the-hill professor.”
This just wasn’t my cup of tea. As I read, I kept checking to see how many more pages were left. I’m sure it will appeal to some readers, but the behaviour of narcissistic characters with opinions about random topics left me totally indifferent. (And don't get me started on that cover!)
Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
The unnamed narrator is a 58-year-old college professor at a small liberal arts school in upstate New York. Her husband John, also an English professor there, is being investigated for his past affairs with students. Although she and John have had an open marriage and she has found his affairs neither disruptive nor painful, she finds her relationships with students and colleagues changing as his sexual exploits become public knowledge. At the same time, she becomes infatuated with Vladimir Vladinski, a handsome (and married) new professor who has recently arrived on campus.
The title suggests that the novel will focus on the narrator’s relationship with Vladimir, but that is not the case. She claims to be fixated on him, but it is only in the latter part of the book that her attention really zeroes in on him. And then there’s a plot twist that, though it is foreshadowed in the prologue, is just bizarre.
Though I am an older woman, I found it difficult to relate to the narrator. Except in her role as a mother, she is selfish, even admitting “I am the most selfish human being I know.” She is supposedly intelligent, but sometimes behaves so stupidly. She is insecure, constantly worrying about her writing and her aging body. Though I can understand her concerns about growing older (“Older women with lust are always the butt of the joke in comedy, horny sagging birds with dripping skin”), her vanity and constant whining become annoying.
Other characters are no more likeable or sympathetic. John is just a cad who used his prestige and power to bed young women. Vladimir is supposedly a talented writer, but comes across as needy. Sid is the lesbian daughter of John and the narrator; she has an argument with her lover and so she has sex with a man in the bathroom of a train?! I found it difficult to care about these people.
An action-packed plot is not a necessity for my enjoyment, but the pace is almost glacial. For much of the novel I wondered where exactly it was going. The narrator goes on and on in long, meandering paragraphs expressing her opinions about sundry topics. Then she acts decisively but in a way that is unrealistic.
The aspect that most interested me is that this could be classified as a #MeToo novel, but it doesn’t offer the perspective one might expect, especially from a woman. The narrator takes exception with charges that John was abusing his power when “that power is the reason they desired him in the first place.” She believes the women accusing her husband were not traumatized: “’He didn’t drug them or coerce them . . . None of these women suffered professionally or academically . . . They came to him. He didn’t pursue.’” She argues that the women accusers have adopted a victim mentality and are “’reacting to a moment.’” She believes that academia creates a discriminatory environment because some students are selected for honours while others are dismissed or ignored: “those selections caused more pain, at least in my opinion, than the amorous fixations of an over-the-hill professor.”
This just wasn’t my cup of tea. As I read, I kept checking to see how many more pages were left. I’m sure it will appeal to some readers, but the behaviour of narcissistic characters with opinions about random topics left me totally indifferent. (And don't get me started on that cover!)
Note: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
VLADIMIR follows an esteemed middle-aged college professor whose husband John (also a professor) is currently under investigation for having sexual relationships with former students. The narrator is not surprised since her and John have an open marriage but she is not pleased when John’s transgressions start to impact her career. The protagonists’ resolve begins to come undone when she takes Vladimir, a new professor and up-and-coming novelist, under her wing. Infatuation quickly turns to obsession.
Thoughts:
Vladimir is a propulsive, exhilarating novel with twists and turns you will not see coming. The nonlinear stream of consciousness narration blew me away and revealed so much about the protagonists’ thoughts and psychological state. Being a fly on the wall of her mind was fascinating. Jonas’ writing is witty, striking, and cerebral. This will definitely be a polarizing, controversial novel but I thought it was brilliant. This book dips into the grey areas of morality and examines race, gender, consent, marriage, aging, sexuality, and academia.
CW: suicide, fire/burn trauma, drug/alcohol abuse
Thank you @avidreaderpress for my #gifted copy! Out 2/1.
Thoughts:
Vladimir is a propulsive, exhilarating novel with twists and turns you will not see coming. The nonlinear stream of consciousness narration blew me away and revealed so much about the protagonists’ thoughts and psychological state. Being a fly on the wall of her mind was fascinating. Jonas’ writing is witty, striking, and cerebral. This will definitely be a polarizing, controversial novel but I thought it was brilliant. This book dips into the grey areas of morality and examines race, gender, consent, marriage, aging, sexuality, and academia.
CW: suicide, fire/burn trauma, drug/alcohol abuse
Thank you @avidreaderpress for my #gifted copy! Out 2/1.
This one kept my attention, but it went off in too many different directions. Messy storytelling and an untrustworthy narrator.
PS… the cover was gross. I took it off and threw it out. Made it look like a trashy bodice ripper and it wasn’t.
PS… the cover was gross. I took it off and threw it out. Made it look like a trashy bodice ripper and it wasn’t.