Teaser Tuesday: Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, the weekly Meme hosted by Ambrosia of The Purple Booker. We make it very easy to play along, it is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

1: Grab your current read

2: Open to a random page

3: Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

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Vladimir by Julia May Jonas came out today, I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy in the mail several months ago and really enjoyed it. I will admit, however, that it was a bit different than my usual reads. It was fun and dark, and a bit sexy. I gave it a solid four stars.

Summary:

“When I was a child, I loved old men, and I could tell that they also loved me.”

And so we are introduced to our deliciously incisive narrator: a popular English professor whose charismatic husband at the same small liberal arts college is under investigation for his inappropriate relationships with his former students. The couple has long had a mutual understanding when it comes to their extra-marital pursuits, but with these new allegations, life has become far less comfortable for them both. And when our narrator becomes increasingly infatuated with Vladimir, a celebrated, married young novelist who’s just arrived on campus, their tinder box world comes dangerously close to exploding.

With this bold, edgy, and uncommonly assured debut, author Julia May Jonas takes us into the charged territory, where the boundaries of morality bump up against the impulses of the human heart. Propulsive, darkly funny, and wildly entertaining, Vladimir perfectly captures the personal and political minefield of our current moment, exposing the nuances and the grey area between power and desire.

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By the time I arrived on campus, I was shaking with anger. I was late, having stood stock-still in my bedroom staring out the window, a cavalcade of thoughts crashing down on me. I remember reading that Edna St Vincent Millay gave instructions to her housekeeper not to interrupt her if they saw her standing still-that was the way she would compose poems, on two feet, staring into the middle distance, writing and rewriting lines in her head. I never had that organization of thought: my rapt pauses were all about conflicting feelings, images, and memories running and bumping into each other- more like a chaotic battle scene than the unfurling of insight.

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And- this was the most embarrassing- I realized my fantasy had relied upon me being a sexy colleague, an attractive peer. I had imagined passion, something wordless and animal and back-brained. My feelings for Vladimir were beyond thought, and certainly beyond scenario. I had wanted him to allow me to forget who I was. I began to cry with disappointment, then laugh at myself for my tears. I had kidnapped him, essentially, I had drugged and deceived him, all because I wanted to satisfy my desire and now I was finding fault with his perception of me. As if men who took advantage of women ever thought about how those women perceived them.

Is this book on your TBR?

Be sure to drop the link to your teaser so I can come and pay a visit. I love finding new books to add to my ever-growing pile!