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Literary Fiction
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| Critics: | |
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For fans of Conversations with Friends and Vladimir comes a magnetic, fresh take on marriage and loyalty: when two married professors tiptoe toward infidelity, their transgressions are brought to light in a graduate student's searing thesis project.
Simone is the star of Edwards University's creative writing department: renowned Woolf scholar, grief memoirist, and campus sex icon. Her less glamorous and ostensibly devoted husband, Ethan, is a forgotten novelist and lecturer in the same department. But when Ethan and the department administrative assistant Abigail have sex, Simone and Ethan's faith in their flawless marriage is rattled.
Simone has secrets of her own. While Ethan's away for the summer, she becomes inordinately close with her advisee, graduate student Roberta "Robbie" Green. In Robbie, Simone finds a new running partner, confidante, and disciple—or so she believes. Behind Simone's back, Robbie fictionalizes her mentor's marriage in a breathtakingly invasive MFA thesis. Determined to tell her version of the story, Robbie paints a revealing portrait of Simone, Ethan, Abigail, and even herself, scratching at the very surface of what may—or may not—be the truth.
Innovative, witty, and tender, Seduction Theory exposes the intoxicating nature of power and attraction, masterfully demonstrating how love and betrayal can coexist.
"[A] terrifically inventive matryoshka doll of a novel….It's a tender portrait of an enviable marriage balanced by a delightfully smarmy tone with laugh-out-loud passages of humor…A masterful exploration on the varieties of truth, and the stories we craft about ourselves." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Adrian poses intriguing questions about the nature of betrayal, the blurry ethics of professor-student intimacy, and the right to tell another person's story." —Publishers Weekly
"A sophisticated ivory tower drama...with a persuasive, entertaining voice tinged with scorn and wicked humor. [Merges] fact and fiction to craft a story that is, at its core, a breathtaking act of betrayal." —Shelf Awareness
"Adrian's clear sighted, blistering prose always leaves me out of breath, nervously laughing and turning the page, excited and a little scared by what she's going to say next. Seduction Theory nails the campus satire with savagery and grace, and it's clear that Adrian is a major talent." ―Rufi Thorpe, author of The Knockout Queen and Margo's Got Money Troubles
"Seduction Theory is a deliriously smart, funny, sexy, page-turner in which Emily Adrian upcycles the postmodern love triangle plot into a novel of ideas. Her wayward academics raise provocative questions about truth, desire, power, obsession, and what it really means to live a shared life. There are welcome resonances with novels such as Andrew Martin's Early Work and Christine Smallwood's The Life of the Mind, with enough Nabokov in the mix to keep you on your toes to the last page, at which point you'll likely do what I did: let out a shocked and gleeful scream." ―Justin Taylor, author of Reboot
Rated 
of 5
by
Byakuya
Seduction Theory by Emily Adrian
Seduction Theory is a sharply written and emotionally tangled novel that explores marriage, storytelling, and the blurry line between truth and fiction. From the start, Emily Adrian invite reader into academic Simone, a creative writing professor and Woolf scholar, seems outwardly composed; her husband Ethan, quieter but steady. Their marriage looks stable until the foundation begins to fracture, not only through infidelity, but through the stories people tell and believe about themselves and one another.
What makes this book powerful is the narrator structure. Robbie (Roberta) Green, a graduate student, is writing her MFA thesis, which turns into a thinly veiled novelization of Simone and Ethan’s marriage. Through Robbie’s eyes (and her sometimes unreliable perspective), we see versions of the truth what Simone believes, what Ethan does, what Robbie imagines all vibrating with tension. The narrative drifts between academic life, personal betrayal, desire, and guilt in ways that keep you guessing. Adrian’s language is refined: the academic settings are rich with literary detail (reference to Woolf, the craft of memoir vs fiction), yet the emotional undercurrent never becomes overwrought.
Simone is a complex figure strong, principled, but flawed and Robbie is neither flat nor entirely sympathetic; she’s curious, ambitious, messy. Ethan, likewise, is not just the “betrayer” his motivations are opaque, sometimes excusable, which makes the moral shifts difficult in a good way: you don’t always know who to root for.
Emily Adrian is the author of Everything Here is Under Control and The Second Season, as well as the memoir Daughterhood and two critically acclaimed novels for young adults. Her work has appeared in Granta, Joyland, The Point, EPOCH, Alta Journal, and Los Angeles Review of Books. Originally from Portland, Oregon, Adrian currently lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
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