Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

Monday, Aug. 8, 2022--San Antonio

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas is centered around a 48-year-old professor of women's literature at a small, expensive private university near Albany.  She hired, along with her husband, within the same department, and the two of them have been in an "open" marriage for many years.  The husband has gradually progressed to the position of head of the English department and is on suspension from teaching while awaiting a hearing for having had numerous affairs with graduate students in previous, fairly distant years.  The professor herself is worrying about the effects of passing time:  developing teaching burnout as her students more and more want to try to interpret classic women's literature in terms of today's moral standards rather than literary standards, her inability in recent years to begin writing a third novel to be published, having become distant from her adult daughter who has always been rather self-centered and needy, and concern about the affects of aging on her body and general appearance.  When a young, attractive new professor joins the faculty, she begins to fantasize about a relationship between the two of them to the point that the line between fantasy and reality begin to blur in her mind.  Shocking events occur in the latter third of the book that affect the lives of everyone.  I gave the book, which is receiving recommendations from various quality sources,  4 1/2 stars out of 5.