Dear Monica Lewinsky - by Julia Langbein (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A novel about a middle aged court stenographer who must reexamine an ill-advised affair she had with a professor during the summer of the Monica Lewinsky scandal"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of American Mermaid ("Sublime"--NYTBR) comes a wise, funny, and wildly original examination of female desire and the price women pay for giving in to their appetites.

"Langbein has the uncanny ability to make a reader laugh out loud again and again while also laying bare -- in her brilliant, singular way -- the specific travail of being a young woman." --Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had

"Comic novels with heft are the rarest stars in the literary firmament, and this one burns as brightly as the sun." --Katy Hays, author of Saltwater

Forty-year-old Jean Dornan cannot escape the summer of 1998, when, as a college student studying abroad in France, she embarked on an inappropriate relationship with her professor. Now, decades later, when that professor contacts her out of the blue with an invitation to his retirement ceremony, Jean's long-standing malaise becomes an emotional crisis. Desperate to understand why this relationship derailed her life so completely, she begins rereading her old diaries and is shocked to realize that her own disastrous affair occurred during the summer of the Lewinsky scandal, yet she never saw the parallels.

In a frenzy of guilt and regret, Jean finds herself praying to Monica Lewinsky for forgiveness as if she were a secular saint, a figure of both suffering and sympathy. To Jean's shock, Saint Monica appears--powerful, radiant, wise, and witty--and guides Jean like the Ghost of Christmas Past back to the summer of 1998. Had Jean merely been naive and stupid, as she has told herself for so long? Was it sheer weakness that led her into the affair? Or will Jean, with Saint Monica by her side, see past blame to the beauty of her younger self's search for pleasure, connection, and transcendence?

Told in flashbacks of those sunlit six weeks in France, replete with Saint Monica's flinty, fiery insights and interspersed with retellings of the lives of real historical martyrs, Dear Monica Lewinsky is a tender, hilarious, and wholly original examination of desire and its costs, of appetite and its denial, and of certain defeat and surprise renewal. It asks what grace and forgiveness might look like both in our own individual lives and as a society.

Review Quotes

"[A] complex comic confection . . . Its bold, clever comedic lineaments [support] a serious and poignant examination of female desire and male power."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Dear Monica Lewinsky is a fascinating novel about the past, reckoning with the most elusive and unknown element: the person you once were and still somehow continue to be. It's incredible that Julia Langbein navigates this territory with such humor, as this is a truly funny book, but also manages to show tenderness without losing that essential bite of pain."
--Kevin Wilson, bestselling author of Nothing to See Here

"What a wild, wonderful essential novel this is. Julia Langbein has the uncanny ability to make a reader laugh out loud again and again while also laying bare -- in her brilliant, singular way -- the specific travail of being a young woman."
--Claire Lombardo, bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had and Same As It Ever Was

"An original, tender, and outrageously funny novel about hunger, desire, and the vulnerable (sometimes shameful) moments that make us, Dear Monica Lewinsky is a miracle. With incomparable tact and warmth, Julia Langbein achieves the impossible: balancing humor, consequence, and an irresistible ensemble of personalities against the glittering backdrop of a French summer. Comic novels with heft are the rarest stars in the literary firmament, and this one burns as brightly as the sun."
--Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of Saltwater

"Hilarious, poignant, and exquisitely written, Dear Monica Lewinsky is a wholly original feminist ode. Langbein balances academic satire and emotional excavation, all with her signature wink. I'm obsessed with her mind."
--Emily Habeck, author of Shark Heart

About the Author

JULIA LANGBEIN holds a doctorate in art history and is the author of the novel American Mermaid as well as a nonfiction book about comic art criticism. She has written about food, art, and travel for Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Eater, Salon, Frieze, and other publications, and received a 2024 James Beard Journalism Award. A native of Chicago, she lives outside of Paris with her family.