Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Vladimir

I feel like there were a lot of themes being explored here but I didn't finish the book with any sense of clarity or point. Some interesting discussions about the #metoo movement, what happens to the wives of men accused of inappropriate behaviour, the differing attitudes of different generations towards things like morality in art.

I liked having an older main character instead of the usual 20-30 year old we have in books like these.

But I just didn't feel anything.

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taylooney's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

There were really interesting reflective points In this book, and a plot twist I didn’t expect but overall the ending made me feel…icky? I think I have to sit with it a little.

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lcdavenport's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.0

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jenk2020's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

C - 9 A - 8 W - 8 P - 7 I - 7 L - 8 E - 7

That ending... eye roll.

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itsme_lori's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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auudrey's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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jkneebone's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Vladimir takes place at a time of personal upheaval for the unnamed narrator. She, like her husband, is a tenured English professor at a small college in upstate New York. They have long enjoyed an "unconventional" marriage - e.g. affairs are allowed - but their life together is put under a microscope when a petition circulates calling for her husband's removal. Prior to relationships between teachers and students being explicitly banned by the school, her husband John had several consensual relationships with of-age students who now, as adults, feel they were taken advantage of. Our narrator feels that these women are overreacting - didn't everyone want to sleep with their professors in college? Why are they complaining about a power differential when John's power was what attracted them to him? - but nonetheless, her life is impacted by the accusations. Outsiders, unaware that she knew about the affairs, see her as the victimized wife. Students - and her own daughter - encourage her to leave her husband. Her colleagues question whether she should continue teaching while John's dismissal hearing is happening.

At the same time, a new professor has joined the English department: Vladimir. The narrator quickly becomes obsessed with Vladimir - she reads his book and admires his writing, she lusts after him, she has conflicting emotions about his troubled wife Cynthia (the narrator likes her, and wishes she didn't), she schemes to find time to be alone with him, and finally she takes action - and not necessarily in a good way.

With plenty of discussion of academia, power dynamics, gender roles and gendered relationships, changing standards and generational differences in views on representation, taboo subjects, etc., Vladimir is ripe with plenty to discuss. There are also literature references aplenty, and our narrator's own literary aspirations as her obsession with Vladimir inspires her to write for the first time in decades serves as a background plot.

Julia May Jonas intentionally demonstrates the narrator's hypocrisy through the contradictions of her life: she is a feminist and knows she should care less about her appearance, but is obsessed with her own aging and the way it has made her less beautiful, especially in comparison to still-youthful colleagues and students. She prides herself on her "unconventional" marriage, but still falls into her expected societal role as a wife - she cooks, cleans, raised their daughter, and worries that her husband (never published) is jealous of the two books she has written.

Although I recognized what Jonas was trying to do with these contradictions, for me this is where the novel fell short. Perhaps I'm just too young to relate to the internal dialogue and struggle of the narrator, but I spent too much of the book wondering why she hadn't already left her husband, or made him do his share of the housework, if she found him so annoying and was so checked out of their relationship. I didn't particularly enjoy reading over and over about how the narrator found herself unattractive and disgusting. Although I recognize that I'm part of the generation Jonas/the narrator is poking at in the book, and therefore endeavored to keep an open mind, I still struggled some with how the narrator downplayed her husband's actions.

The story was very fast-paced, and I finished the audiobook in a matter of days because it was so engaging. There is plenty to talk about, especially for English-y, academic-y people. The narrator's obsession with Vladimir could have been pushed further given that it is the central conceit of the book - there were entire sections where we didn't see Vladimir at all. Personally the ending wasn't too my taste, but I understood how it fit into what I think the author was trying to do.

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