A deft, somewhat shocking, memoir-a 21st-century Lolita turned upside down, told from the point of view of the girl, the author, seen in the context of the current discourse on sexual harassment and abuse in the era of #MeToo. A close-up look at the ardent, willed love affair between the author and her art teacher that began when she was 17 and he, 47, married with two children, and the contortions and erotic wild ride their illicit, urgent passion took them on as it turned into an improbable but blissful marriage that lasted for 45 years until his death at 93.
Probing ... At pains to remind us that memoirs can easily lapse into mythology ... Ours is evidently an age of reappraisals, but this latest reappraisal itself invites reappraisal, for it is eager to undermine its own authority ... Ciment asks whether her marriage was all 'fruit from the poisonous tree.' It is a daring question, and she is unsentimental and unflinching enough to answer it convincingly, which is to say, complexly. She shrinks from nothing in her accounting.
Her remarkable new book—at once forthright, thoughtful, and moving— broaches many questions ... Provide a pointed reminder that all writing is selective, and memoirs are certainly no exception ... This is a book poised to fuel plenty of discussion.
Enthralling ... Every categorical declaration and moral certainty eventually winds up at war with the story of some real individual ... A memoir acknowledging that her marriage began with a serious transgression and weighing this against everything else it gave her.
