The #metoo movement has inspired a plethora of book titles, ranging from literary fiction to autobiography. The best known is Ronan Farrow’s Catch and Kill, an engrossing but repetitive account of his pursuit of sexual assault claims against Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer despite pushback from NBC, his then employer. A contender in the fiction realm is Kate Elizabeth Russell’s My Dark Vanessa. It is one of those books that grips you from the opening pages. I read half of it in one sitting, unable to look away.
In 1999 Vanessa and Jacob meet at a New England boarding school. She is fifteen and from a rural area nearby. He is forty-two and her English teacher. He begins by giving her books to read – Ariel, Lolita. Students notice that she stays after class. A faculty member alerts Jacob that Vanessa seems to have a crush on him.
In 2017 Vanessa works at a luxury hotel in Portland (the East Coast one). She is still a bit obsessed with a recent ex but not so much that she is out of touch with her former teacher. Jacob has bigger problems: he is facing disciplinary action after five current and former students accuse him of sexual assault.
The relationship between Jacob and Vanessa switches back and forth between the two eras. As their dynamic is revealed, the reader begins to understand something about the peculiar complicity that seems to accompany these situations. Why do people protect their abuser? As you read this narrative, you will begin to understand.
In addition to Lolita references, there are allusions to other pop culture. In one scene, Jacob tells Vanessa that she will have a brighter future because of their past. The speech is an almost direct crib from Woody Allen’s Manhattan as forty-something Issac tells seventeen-year-old Tracy that she will think of him fondly as she moves on to more passionate affairs. A coincidence? I doubt it.
The story is full of carefully chosen details that nicely underscore its main ideas. In one scene, Vanessa steals a black negligee from her mother. Later, when she sneaks off to spend the night at her teacher’s, she packs the nightgown. When she arrives, he has bought her a pair of strawberry print pajamas. Their different attitudes towards sleepwear tell you everything you need to know about this sick man. Vanessa sees sex as something adults do. Jacob does not.
Books Smitten 