Vladimir author Julia May Jonas: ‘We’re imprisoned by our obsessions’
As her debut novel becomes a Netflix series starring Rachel Weisz and Leo Woodall, the American author talks about comparisons with Lolita, moving on from #MeToo and problematic authors
When we meet in a cafe near her Brooklyn apartment, three weeks before the TV adaptation of her debut novel Vladimir hits Netflix, Julia May Jonas is feeling an anticipatory “mix of terror, excitement and dread”. The series stars Rachel Weisz as a professor in her 50s obsessed with a younger colleague, Vladimir, played by Leo Woodall, with Sharon Horgan executive producing. Combining hot sex and complex issues, it is bound to spark the kind of online discourse a novelist must avoid lest they be derailed from their next project.
“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. If someone tells me they love my book, I’m going to ask: ‘What part? Did it change your life? Is it the best book you’ve ever read?’” she says, laughing. “The ego can never be fulfilled!”