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A review by steen
Vladimir by Julia May Jonas
4.0
This was such a dark, cynical read. The unnamed character is wholly unlikeable; she is acute and unflinching in what she perceives. Like her husband John, who is in the throes of upheaval from years of affairs with students, the narrator very much appears as a narcissist.
Through her lens, the reader gets to engage in many discourses ranging from vanity, aging, sexual agency & appeal, motherhood, morality and culpability, what is good literature and what is bad literature, the millennial generation, feminism and the institution of academia.
When the narrator acts on her desire and lust for Vladimir I was unnerved. And then, I think Jonas very expertly (almost comedic?) turns it all upside down, revealing the narrator to be all puff.
I liked the ending, and I thought it fitting.
Through her lens, the reader gets to engage in many discourses ranging from vanity, aging, sexual agency & appeal, motherhood, morality and culpability, what is good literature and what is bad literature, the millennial generation, feminism and the institution of academia.
When the narrator acts on her desire and lust for Vladimir I was unnerved. And then, I think Jonas very expertly (almost comedic?) turns it all upside down, revealing the narrator to be all puff.
I liked the ending, and I thought it fitting.