Vladimir author Julia May Jonas: We're imprisoned by our obsessions'

"I do have to be cautious with putting myself too far out there, says Jonas, who was active, and very funny, on Twitter until mid-2022, soon after her book came out, at which point she realised that engaging with the reception to her work wasn't wise. It's not like I'm so enlightened. It's just that I know it's never enough."

"A critical and commercial success, Vladimir was praised for its witty exploration of a narrator who becomes obsessed with a colleague at a difficult time in her life. She faces heat for refusing to publicly condemn her husband, John, when students call for his resignation over several affairs."

"Jonas, a playwright for more than two decades, says she is drawn to unresolvable questions and intractable dilemmas. Here, the marriage was open, the affairs predated rules explicitly banning relationships with students. They were, in the narrator's view, consensual; she seems more annoyed with the women than with her husband."

Julia May Jonas, author of the debut novel Vladimir, discusses the Netflix adaptation starring Rachel Weisz as a professor obsessed with a younger colleague. The novel was critically and commercially successful, praised for its witty exploration of a narrator navigating a difficult period involving her husband's affairs and her own professional insecurity. Jonas, a playwright for over two decades, deliberately withdrew from social media engagement after her book's release, recognizing that responding to reception could derail her creative work. The novel examines unresolvable moral questions and intractable dilemmas, featuring a narrator consumed by shame about aging and insecurity while grappling with complex feelings about her marriage and desires.

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