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A Novel
by Emily Adrian
Book Reviewed by: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.
Excerpt
Seduction Theory
Ethan didn't need to convince himself his wife was beautiful; she always had been, was becoming more so as they aged. Tonight she had fallen asleep with the lights on. She wore gray, university-branded sweatpants and a silk shirt half open to an expensive bralette. Strewn across Ethan's side of the bed were Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, several Cambridge Companions, and a plate smeared with ketchup. He removed the plate and stacked the books on the nightstand. Stripping down to his boxer briefs, he flipped the light switch and arranged his body against hers on the mattress. "Tell me something," he said.
He felt his wife emerge from shallow sleep. He felt her struggle to produce a compelling answer. The struggle meant something to him.
"Reviewer two fucked me over," she said.
Ethan considered himself comfortable with the ways Simone was a real professor, and he was not. She had a Yale PhD, a scholarly book with Oxford, a daunting list of publications — ...
The first half of the book is largely about Simone and Ethan, but in later chapters we see Robbie workshopping chapters from her thesis in class. Her fellow students' comments anticipate questions readers might have about the book. Among them are "Why would he do this? Either he loves his wife or he doesn't" and "Is this story doing anything we haven't seen before? Do we need another story about privileged white people having affairs?" This is an effective device that makes us feel we have insight into what the author's doing. We understand that Ethan loves his wife despite his infidelity. It also shows self-awareness on the part of the author. She knows it is a familiar story but believes it is worth telling—and executed well enough to set it apart. The narrative voice is what really makes this book feel distinct. It's slightly snarky and often tough on its characters, a nod to the fact that this type of plot can be a cliched one, while still feeling emotionally resonant, like it is the best effort of a narrator who, underneath it all, wants to tell the most moving story she can...continued
Full Review
(900 words)
(Reviewed by Jillian Bell).
Justin Taylor, author of Reboot
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. Rufi Thorpe, author of The Knockout Queen and Margo's Got Money Troubles
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.
Seduction Theory is framed as a student's creative writing MFA (Master of Fine Arts) thesis, and the book's main characters are instructors in the program. MFA programs can serve as uniquely effective settings for stories. Many authors have been through them themselves, and can portray the experience in an authentic way. The often-competitive nature of these programs and the creative types who enroll in them can also act as a foundation for a variety of off-the-wall plots. Here's a genre-spanning list of books about MFA programs:
You Between the Lines by Katie Naymon: This book is unusual for one set in an MFA program, because it's a rom-com. And its main character, Leigh, is also a fish out of water. As a Taylor Swift-loving former ...
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