Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

Vladimir

by Julia May Jonas

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.

Kindle Edition

Published May 26th 2022 by Picador (first published February 1st 2022)