My Dark Vanessa

This debut novel by Kate Elizabeth Russ is a very uncomfortable read, and should be.   It is the most discomfiting novel since The Dinner by Herman Koch or We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.  The plot is centered around the elicit relationship between a 15 year old adolescent and one of her teachers at Maine boarding school, a topic most writers would shy away from. 

Vanessa, a very smart, mature, yet out-of-the mainstream girl, with few friends and parents from whom she is mostly disconnected.  One of the reasons that the plot resonated with me is that it reminded me very much of a rumored relationship that a girl I knew in high school had with one of her teachers (they later married).   In the novel, the teacher Strane carefully grooms Vanessa, first paying a disproportionate amount of attention to her, then proceeds to ambiguous body contact.  And we know where this goes from there.

Despite the fact that Strane is not a sympathetic character (yes, he is pretty creepy), he does seem to have genuine deep feelings for her.   But what makes this novel truly interesting, is Vanessa’s relationship with him.  The book flips back and forth between Vanessa as an adolescent and Vanessa as a young adult, as she maintains a relationship with him after she leaves the boarding school.  While it does not appear that she enjoys the sexual relationship with him all that much, and, in later years, she is not physically attracted to him, she is drawn to him.  Indeed, she goes to great lengths to protect him and his job and reputation, even when it is clear that Strane does not deserve to be so shielded.

The intriguing aspect of the novel is Vanessa herself, and that is what raises issues in this book.  It’s clear that Shane is exploiting her for his sexual pleasure and he gets more out of that aspect of the relationship than she does.  Yet, Vanessa steadfastly refuses to permit herself to take on the role of victim throughout the novel.  Time and time again, she explicitly rejects victimhood, even when the truth of her relationship becomes known and all of society seems to be urging her to take on that role.  At one point, she says, “I don’t think of myself as a victim,” I say. “I knew what I was getting into.  I wanted it.”  Later, she asserts, “At fifteen, I wasn’t weak. I was smart.  I was strong.”  My Dark Vanessa is not only a challenge in this particular circumstance but the whole MeToo movement writ large.

This leads to some difficult questions.  What exactly was Vanessa getting out of the relationship?  What void did Shane fill in her life?  Was she so alienated from her family and peer group that this became so important to her?   Did Shane so distort her so that she could not have relationships with boys her own age?   Keeping in mind that she was mature for her age and that our culture today, there are bright lines with respect to ages that didn’t exist a century ago.  Vanessa is in a hazy area when this all begins. Indeed, when one woman calls Strane a pedophile, Vanessa corrects her and says, no, he is an “ephebophile” (a person attracted to adolescents).

And most importantly, while in most parent/teacher affairs, the teacher stands in a position of power in the relationship and that is part of the reason why it is universally condemned, and should be.

There have been several scandalous relationships that began when one person was a minor that continued.  Woody Allen married Soon-Yi Previn, his step daughter.   Gloria Grahame (who played Violet Bick in It’s A Wonderful Life and opposite Humphrey Bogart in In A Lonely Place) created a scandal when she married the son of her second husband and that relationship began when he was a teen.  Both Allen and Grahame were widely condemned in the tabloids. 

In My Dark Vanessa, you want to do the same with Shane- excoriate him as a monster.  And you want to cast Vanessa as the victim. But the Kate Elizabeth Russ finds ways to stop you just short throughout the novel and that is what causes the discomfort.  She raises enough ambiguity from Vanessa’s point of view to make you feel uneasy about boundaries all the way through.

My Dark Vanessa is a compelling read, and an excellent debut for Ms. Russ.  I expect to see more edgy, challenging and controversial work out of this writer in the future.