jstance 's review for:

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

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this novel is a wannabe rebuttal to the #metoo movement predicated on a deep malice inside the authors soul. the fundamental racism her worldview hinges on will manifest in ways that will appall but not shock you considering that she wants to write a manifesto about humanity while understanding humanity through the lenses of someone whose maximum engagement with the literary canon (pick up some mary gaitskill if you want to engage with white women and me too holy fuck) appears to be reading twitter qrts dunking college students targeted for engagement bait interviews by right wing youtubers. this book is about: white people problems. i cannot image the contempt in a professors soul, to look at her students and write a novel whose thesis is a deep abhorrence of the young and a misplaced understanding of propaganda/mass media disguised as a quasifeminist anti-ageism rant. congrats you’ve made up a world and trapped yourself in it and now you’re a professor, apparently. White Women Shit.

authorial racism in vladimir:

a Black student is introduced apparently for the sole purpose of being congratulated by the protagonist for being “smarter/ more in touch with the truth about Teacher-student relationships” than her white peers, in that the Black student detests MC’s husband’s sexual abuse of students for the sole reason that it’s “white people shit,” problematic because she’s excluded from participation in this “consensual exchange.” (vladimir’s thesis is that professor-student relationships arent abusive because they validate the youth of instigating/participating students blah blah blah cancel culture.) i meaaaan, sexual abuse on college campuses so famously only includes consenting white adults yes? wow! brilliant! most transparent post-racial mouthpiecing i’ve seen through a character of color in a minute. just nauseating.