Wow loved it! A provocative, razor-sharp, and timely debut novel about a beloved English professor facing a slew of accusations against her professor husband by former students – a situation that becomes more complicated when she herself develops an obsession of her own….

Everything I expected this to be and also somehow nothing like I thought - this was a fantastic read that I will be revisiting time and time again I'm sure. I will definitely be reading more from Julia May Jonas.

The older woman and the Younger man ..... power is sexy and the idea of this is bringing the two of them together... it is sexy, witty, and dark in places... It shuns the idea that mature women are over the hill... It brings the idea of it to the surface and explores the growing desire she has for Vladimir

Highly recommended especially if you are a mature lady, which i am one of them

I was drawn to this book on account of the premise and blurb. It's the first person account of an unnamed protagonist; a woman in her 50s, and a well-liked lecturer whose husband John (also a lecturer at the same university) is under fire and facing the consequences of previous relationships he'd had with students.

I found the perspective surprising and very interesting. Our protagonist is on her husband's side - they were in an open marriage, and from her perspective the women were all of legal age and consented. It's a really stark and interesting exploration of the nature of relationships steeped in power imbalances. I think that I expected the novel to be more centered around John and his transgressions. Instead, the protagonist develops an infatuation with a young, new member of staff named Vladimir and a lot of her story revolves around her fantasies and plans to ensnare him.

A lot of the language used in the novel was very blunt and honest. I spent a lot of the time oscillating wildly between various emotions towards the narrator. She was delightfully unreliable and her logic and decision making often had me aghast; I loved to hate her, but also found nuggets of relatability in her narcissistic monologues. The examination of the relationship between sex, body dysmorphia, the aging female body and notions of physical desirability was truly unique and insightful. Add to that the questions of power dynamics and a comparison of her pursuit of Vladimir and John's pursuit of students and the result is this remarkably profound work of literature.

I did find that in the middle of the novel, the plot seemed to pause whilst Jonas focused on building up the tension and fully established the narrator's obsessive thoughts. I did enjoy this but did find myself growing bored. However I am glad I stuck with it because the ending took a bit of an unexpected turn...

Overall I'm really glad to have read this. It's a perfect book to read that gives opposing viewpoints to novels like My Dark Vanessa; it was hard not to draw comparisons and analysing these differences was something I really enjoyed. I would definitely recommend this.

Thank you so much to Macmillan / Simon & Schuster / NetGalley for the ARC!

For the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed Vladimir, although before I started reading, I expected the focus to be more on the husband than the wronged wife, The reason I’m giving this four, rather than five stars is because I found last 10-20% of the novel implausible and not in keeping with the style of the rest. It’s certainly worth giving this a go though!

BOOK REVIEW / Vladimir / Julia may Jonas

A shift in main character trends are welcome. The last year has been inundated with characters like me, socially mobile mid twenties girls, attempting to adult in some capacity, and often failing at it too. Sad girls have taken over our lives and the fatigue of the genre was getting to me.

Vladimir takes on a new position, middle aged women going rogue. We meet a professor of a small liberal college at a crucial moment. A post me-too reckoning on campus brings her husband, another much loved English professor, to the forefront of controversy for his involvement with graduate students in decades prior.

To say this is a book about the sexual politics of university campuses is to do a disservice to Jonas’ reckoning with the middling years of a single woman’s life. She narrowly avoids the scorned woman trope by having the marriage an open, less a betrayal and more a moral conundrum. The complexities of desire are felt fully by our nameless protagonist as she wrestles with lust over a younger novelist, the idea of playing homewrecker herself and the guilt by association that the next generation of university feminists wish to paint her with.

In some ways it’s a typical character study narrative, with the moshfeghian comparisons pretty well justified. The interest for me at least, lay within the confines of a body owned by someone older, a woman with plenty more lives lived the stories she could tell with it.

Read via netgalley, out soon with @picadorbooks

More than anything, this unruly debut is great fun to read: Our 58-year-old protagonist is a professor for English literature at a mildly prestigious, small liberal arts college. Her slightly older husband with whom she has an open relationship is the head of the department, but he is now facing disciplinary measures as seven former students have come forward, claiming that they had a relationship with him - a consensual one, mind you, but one with an obvious power imbalance. Meanwhile, the protagonist develops an obsession with 40-year-old junior professor Vladimir and reminisces about her own former exploits as well as her husbands affairs. To her, generation snowflake is acting anti-feminist.

Sure, there are some parallels to Lolita, and both the protagonist and her husband sometimes play the role of Humbert Humbert, but sometimes, in the flashbacks, also that of Lolita (as seen by Humbert!). Feminist questions take the center stage though: Is the protagonist an enabler? Is she oppressed? Is the husband an abuser or the victim of new standards that didn't apply when the deeds in question happened? And what's the dynamic between Vladimir and his wife? In the background, we also learn about the power dynamics in the lesbian relationship of the protagonist's daughter.

Other issues arise as well: Does the protagonist dream of being Vladimir? He's a promising author, she is a failed one, he is still relatively young, well trained (aaaaaabs) and groomed, she is (and has always been) very harsh on her now aging body. The generational disparities, especially when it comes to communication standards, between the professor and students become apparent, and the evil side of woke culture (people being socially sentenced without trial) is on full display.

When it comes to further reading that reflects the latest moral contemplations regarding relationships between professors and students, I recommend Amia Srinivasan who, in The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century, offers an essay about just that topic: “On Not Sleeping with Your Students”, and the title already suggests her position - her reasoning is well-worth checking out.

The last third of Jonas' novel is unrealistic and over-the-top and the ending is slightly anti-climatic, but this is a wonderful debut that shines with an absorbing narrative voice and a downright terrible, but highly interesting protagonist.

And hey, people who designed the German translation: How could you not pick this amazing cover, and instead decided on a photo that rips of the cover concept of A Little Life? *argh*

I enjoyed this and definitely found it compelling but it was not as all what I expected.

The blurb and the title insinuates it will be a Lolita-esque story, but it is nothing of the sort. Instead it’s a story of a middle-aged professor whose professor husband has been accused of multiple counts of relationships with his students, and his wife’s coming to terms with these relationships while she also deals with an obsession with her colleague.

There was lots I liked about it but by the end I was a bit unsatisfied. I liked how deeply flawed and unlikable the characters were, but I expect it will be criticised for that.

I think this will divide opinion but for me it was an enjoyable read.

3.5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. A contemporary novel with a great deal of fixation on the characterisation and perhaps a little overuse of the dictionary and thesaurus at times. I simply do not understand authors who want to show how wide their vocabulary is, to the extent that the reader is reduced to searching on Wikipaedia for definitions of words rarely used or country specific vernacular(this is my long word for this review). For me author's should be reaching out to all readers not just those that sit on the OED whilst they read. AND for me this very nearly made me give up the good fight to get through the book. I am glad that i did not give up as the later half was, as the blurb suggests provocative and witty. It did draw the reader in and it added some life to those turgid inward looks at the characters in the beginning. Overall there are more plus points to the novel but you do have to wade through the difficulties first.

This is not a book I can see myself recommending widely. I think its provocative nature will certainly turn some people off from the start and others will give up whilst they search the dictionary for the vocabulary. I will however remember it for a long time because its eventual narrative was interesting and populated by warped but in many ways likeable characters.

This novel follows an unamed 58 year old protagnist who's husband has been accused of sexual relations with students at the university where they both teach. We arive at the aftermath which leads to the protagonists growing infatuation of a younger married teacher. It raises some interesting questions surrounding ageing and how society expects women to behave. None of the characters are particularly likeable but for me that's what makes them interesting. Superbly written.

I really enjoyed this intelligent, incisive debut that had a lot to say. It is so tightly written and interesting on a number of topics - motherhood, sexual power dynamics, the way women are seen in the world and interesectionality are all deftly and effortlessly woven in amongst many other themes. It is also funny and surprisingly tender and I could not put it down.

Its unfortunate that novels written from the POV of an older woman that discuss her sexuality are so rare as Julia May Jones shows what interesting and fertile ground this is. Her novel is sympathetic but not condescending, and really shows the multitudes of woman.

Thematically and tonally this book reminded me a lot of Lisa Taddeo's Animal, although I found this much more compassionate and interesting. I will be sure to look out for any future works from this author

Enjoyable in many ways, but not as good as I hoped. Introspect and slow burning, with a strangely rapid ending that had a dream sequence feel about it. Well written, but I spent most of the novel wondering where the author was going and finished it thinking, really? Here?

A bit of a dark, saucy but intriguing book which deals with allegations of sexual harassment which are made against the main character's husband from his female students. It centres around her developing obsession on Vladimir, a younger man and newly appointed professor and celebrated novelist. Probably not to everyone’s taste however, I found it addictive.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review

The unnamed 58-year-old narrator and her husband John have been teaching in the English department of a small college for years. From the start, they have found a relaxed way in their relationship, not asking too many questions, but being good partners and caring for their daughter. Now, however, a group of former students accuses John of having abused his power to lure them into affairs. At the same time, a new couple shows up at the college, Vladimir and his wife, both charismatic writers who both fascinate equally. The narrator immediately falls for Vladimir, even more after having read his novel, a feeling she hasn’t known for years and all this in the most complicated situation of her marriage.

Admittedly, I was first drawn to the book because of the cover that was used for another novel I read last year and liked a lot. It would have been a pity to overlook Julia May Jonas’ debut “Vladimir” which brilliantly captures the emotional rollercoaster of a woman who – despite her professional success and being highly esteemed – finds herself in exceptional circumstances and has to reassess her life.

Jonas’ novel really captures the zeitgeist of campus life and the big questions of where men and women actually stand – professionally as well as in their relationship. Even though the narrator has an equal job to her husband, she, after decades of teaching, is still only considered “his wife” and not an independent academic. That she, too, is highly affected in her profession by the allegations against her husband is simply a shame, but I fear that this is just how it would be in real life.

They had an agreement on how their relationship should look like, but now, she has to ask herself is this wasn’t one-sided. She actually had taken the classic role of wife and mother, caring much more for their daughter while he was pursuing his affairs. They had an intellectual bond which was stronger than the bodily but this raises questions in her now. Especially when she becomes aware of what creative potential her longing for Vladimir trigger in her.

A novel which provides a lot of food for thought, especially in the middle section when the narrator is confronted with professional consequences due to her husband’s misbehaviour. The author excellently captures the narrator’s oscillating thoughts and emotions making the novel a great read I’d strongly recommend.

Well-written but ultimately I just couldn’t connect with the characters. I realised early on that I simply wasn’t going to care what happened so I sort of checked out.

The protagonist of this novel is not, as one could lazily expect, the eponymous “Vladimir”, but rather, the book’s unnamed 58-year old female narrator, a popular professor of English literature in an American college. Our protagonist is passing through an eventful period. Her husband, John, is being investigated for inappropriate sexual relationships with former female students. Her lawyer daughter is back home after having broken up with her girlfriend. Last, but not least, our protagonist is also feeling the burden of getting older. Enter Vladimir Vladinski, uprising star of the literary world, married to Cynthia Tong, herself a celebrated memoirist, both newly employed by the college. Vladimir quickly becomes the target of the narrator’s erotic obsessions, seemingly providing her with the opportunity to assert herself and her sexuality in a world which is losing its bearings.

Vladimir is quite correctly described as a debut because it is Julia May Jonas’s first novel. But Jonas, a critically acclaimed experimental playwright, is no rookie and her foray into novel-writing is remarkably assured. Unsurprisingly, she is particularly strong in conveying the voice of the narrator, not only in her interior monologues, but also through the often witty and acerbic dialogue between the various characters. Jonas is also excellent at evoking memorable scenes, even though the concluding ones require some suspension of disbelief.

In certain respects, Vladimir seems to be a playful send-up of Nabokov’s Lolita, the alliterative name “Vladimir Vladinski” at once recalling Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov and “Humbert Humbert”. At a deeper level, Vladimir is also a #MeToo novel which covers some of the same ground as My Dark Vanessa and Magma but in a possibly more nuanced fashion. Indeed, the irony in this work is that the narrator is a respected feminist, a strong and assertive character, who is dismissive of her husband’s accusers precisely because she feels it is offensive to suggest that young women have no “agency” when they seek the attention of older, powerful men. The narrator also seems to imply (as did some female/feminist critics of #MeToo) that the movement was reintroducing an element of prudery in sexual relations and reinterpreting consensual sexual encounters as “wrong”. Jones uses the countercultural voice of the narrator to challenge her readers, while at the same time giving space to alternative positions and ultimately suggesting that the protagonist is way more conservative than she makes herself out to be.

This novel is addictive and entertaining, but ultimately also provides much food for thought…and discussion.

This is a dark, explosive and provocative debut, and I LOVED it. This is the story of a woman in her 50s whose husband is being investigated for his relationship with students in the past, and she becomes obsessed with a new professor in her University. This novel has such an incredible, addicting voice and it's just such fun to read. At times I could hardly believe this is a debut, because its writing was just so electrifying and bold.

The most interesting thing for me was how the main character is complex, unlikable, self-absorbed and how her relationship with Vladimir is purely of her objectifying him and projecting on him her own desires, which is an interesting changed from so many novels where it's the male protagonist obsessing over a younger, beautiful woman. She is stuck in her thoughts about sex and relationships from when she was young and women were trying to become sexually liberated, and this often comes in conflict with the views on sexuality and power dynamics that her daughter and her students have. It's just such an interesting and perceptive look into generational differences in those areas. This novel really got me thinking and adjusting my perspective and getting into the headspace of someone so different from me - which is always the sign, to me, of a brilliant novel. There was no way I was going to give this less than 5 stars. It was just such an enthralling read that had me talking about it nonstop for days. I will absolutely get a physical copy of this novel!

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas is delicious and entirely satisfying. It follows the narrator, a 58 year old college professor and frustrated novelist, as she fantasises over Vladimir, a new professor on campus. And fantasise she does. Not only in the lascivious sense, but also in the strictest sense. After meeting this younger man just once, the possibility of being with him consumes her.
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And it’s this fantasising that helps her begin writing what she believes will be her greatest novel. Something that will give her career a second lease of life, and the recognition she believes she truly deserves. She writes feverishly, and with the same passion she feels for Vladimir. So much so that the text is littered with comparisons between writing and sex.
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I found the narrator to be despicable, but I’m not put off by unlikeable characters. She is manipulative, unapologetically judgemental, dismissive and condescending. Her hypocrisy is so unadulterated that it’s entirely believable. And this all comes in the delightfully quaffed package of a stylish middle aged woman. She believes that this façade has her students and colleagues fooled, but as the novel went on I did wonder how many of them had actually been on to her all along.
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And in some ways, that’s all fine. Who doesn’t fool themselves into believing their own hype? But when the self-confidence turns into all out fantasy, and the fantasy into a foolish plan, then our narrator really sets herself up for something. Looking back, Jonas tells us from the first page what to expect. There are clues to the narrator’s true nature littered through the book, but it’s so well observed and elegantly written that I let most of it go unnoticed.
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Overall, Vladimir is classic, timely, and immensely enjoyable.
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Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Jonas's protagonist is a 58 year old woman who enjoys a career in academia while upholding an emotionally distant relationship with her accused husband. Early on Jonas introduces the theme of obsession which the protagonist personifies through her need to feel desire yet utterly avoid the idea of being the object of desire. This urge seemingly juxtaposes the protagonist's status as objectively 'hot', as identified by her female students, daughter and titular character throughout the progression of the narrative.
She feels suffocated in all aspects of her life, it is only Vladimir who provides a breath of fresh air, something new and forbidden to focus on, a competitive prize to covet. The unnamed protagonist begins to unravel as she attempts to dissect her needs from her desires, transgressing the male gaze. Jonas utilises foreshadowing in didactic fashion by narrating the evolution of the woman's role within society, and in academia, which is held in contingency with wider conversations of power dynamics and degrees of agency that women exert in heteronormative relationships and queer relationships.
The protagonist provides running commentary on the on the behaviours of the young students under her tutelage without the usual scorn that derides millennial/Gen Z discourse. That is not to say that the protagonist does not sneer at others, but Jonas expertly manages to reflect that attitude inwards to direct scorn toward the toxic culture within academia. Jonas calls out the exclusivity culture which harms non-white bodies within the humanities and wider dating cultures. A pinnacle moment in the text is when we see the protagonist dismiss the concerns of a black student and coerce her beliefs away from the oppression of black identity. The protagonist only appears remorseful when when she realises that she has lost the admiration that she yearns for from the validation of her students. Once again this reinforces that she does not want to be desired but admired, that she believes there is a line between the two and she thinks the former is less worthy of respect than the the latter, she accuses everyone of holding the exact same views as her.
I did find that the pacing within the latter third of the novel progressed rapidly compared to the previous narrative pace but I speculate that was a deliberate literary device utilised by Jonas to imitate the sudden change in character and genre as we enter thriller territory. I believe this risk paid off as we saw the protagonist seemingly snap, pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable through her behaviour toward Vladimir. We witness in real, rapid time the consequences of her actions, the accelerated downward spiral.
Jonas manages to successfully tiptoe the tightrope of balancing plot with intense character study, portraying the lives of flawed attributes within ourselves and the consequences that these can bring, as well as the rewards. Through the claustrophobic lens enshrined in the campus novel microcosm she focalises the literary and social debates of our time into one novel. A novel that deserves to be savoured and enjoyed, consumed and desired. Vladimir is a triumph. I would highly recommend this timely and provocative novel to all, and I want to portray my thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the eARC of Vladimir by Julia May Jonas.

I enjoyed the narrator's voice in this book and her relationships with her daughter and her husband and her various colleagues.