In Jonas’ debut novel Vladimir, our protagonist is a highly-esteemed professor on a small college campus where she is tenured alongside her husband, John. All is well until John comes under fire for sleeping with multiple students throughout his career. This seemingly doesn’t affect our nameless professor or her open marriage, as it’s treated as a bit of a nuisance at best. While this turmoil plays out, she has developed a crush on the new tenure-track professor: Vladimir. Through the lens of her crush (obsession), the reader watches as the professor grapples with sexual agency, her self-view as an aging woman, and how she copes with these.

Vladimir is an exemplary piece of contemporary fiction. The prose was phenomenal and was what kept me interested in the book. This is absolutely a character driven read, with a near stagnant plot, which seemingly only moves so that the characters can ponder the progression. As Jonas crafted them to be, John and the professor were infuriating. John floated through the world like a dumbstruck teen who was taken aback by the consequences of his actions. He didn’t seem to view the power dynamic between the women he slept with and himself as harmful, as he consistently downplayed the situation, even during his hearing. She brushed off her husband’s transgressions and defended the power imbalance of her husband’s victims, stating these women were attracted to him due to his power.

Society is unkind to older women, and the professor has evidently internalized this notion. She is obsessed with youth and being perceived as youthful. From mentally picking apart young women’s bodies in a way that conveys envy, to adopting a meticulous beauty routine, every move she makes is in attempt to appear younger than she is. To start, this made me sympathetic towards her. Although I’ve never felt the sting of ageism, I imagine it burns. Because at the root of women and ageism lies misogyny (when John made a comment to her about her stray chin hair just to strike a nerve I wanted to teleport into the novel and throw hands), I found it ironic that the same system she used to pass judgement and harbor resentment towards these young girls, is the same one that made her feel insecure in her own skin.

Ultimately, the wife is no better, and on par with her husband. Manipulative, predatory boomers who put up a facade of modernization and progressive views, hiding behind the lies to uphold shitty outdated perspectives. This novel wasn’t inherently interesting but, it’s a great conversation piece. Read it if you want to talk about it with others.