Vladimir

The narrator and protagonist of this novel is a 58 year old female professor of English Literature at a small college in upstate New York whose husband, also a professor in the same department, is in trouble for having had affairs with students in the past. She is anything but the wronged “supportive, silent wife,” though, as one delightful scene with some of her students shows. Her “arrangement” with her husband, that they could each be as sexually free as they liked, allows her space to pursue her own interests, sexual and otherwise. Her attitude towards the women who have come forward to accuse her husband of abusing his power over them is impatience. She thinks they are refusing to acknowledge the power they had in the situation. Indeed she goes on to exercise her own power in some startling ways, especially in relation to Vladimir Vladinski, a new professor with a hot new novel just published.

Whether you agree with her about the power dynamics of teacher-student relationships or not, this woman is fascinating. Her unsentimental view of herself and others, the energy she directs toward teaching, writing, and other parts of her profession, and the inspiration she feels as she realizes how attracted she is to Vladimir all come out in a sparkling (and sometimes spikey) narrative that moves along quickly. I felt drawn in by her voice, intensely sympathetic... until things started to go down a very strange road.

In at least two places, the narrator disparages readers who review a book harshly because they are offended by what happens in it or they don't relate to the characters the way they expect to. She wants her students to see what those elements are accomplishing technically in the book instead of merely rejecting them because they're not pleasing. I love this point and I love that this character makes this point, because almost every person in the book does something cringeworthy or has terrible motives, and yet the relationships feel mostly true. I will be thinking about this novel for a while.