The Vixen: A Novel

Written by Francine Prose

Narrated by Tristan Morris

Named one of the best books of 2021 by NPR, The Washington Post, and Financial Times

“No one states problems more correctly, more astutely, more amusingly and more uncomfortably than Francine Prose . . . The gift of her work to a reader is to create for us what she creates for her protagonist: the subtle unfolding, the moment-by-moment process of discovery as we read and change, from not knowing and even not wanting to know or care, to seeing what we had not seen and finding our way to the light of the ending.”—Amy Bloom, New York Times Book Review

""Depending on the light, it’s either a very funny serious story or a very serious funny story. But no matter how you turn it, The Vixen offers an illuminating reflection on the slippery nature of truth in America, then and now.""—Washington Post

Critically acclaimed, bestselling author Francine Prose returns with a dazzling new novel set in the glamorous world of 1950s New York publishing, the story of a young man tasked with editing a steamy bodice-ripper based on the recent trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg—an assignment that will reveal the true cost of entering that seductive, dangerous new world. 

It’s 1953, and Simon Putnam, a recent Harvard graduate newly hired by a distinguished New York publishing firm, has entered a glittering world of three-martini lunches, exclusive literary parties, and old-money aristocrats in exquisitely tailored suits, a far cry from his loving, middle-class Jewish family in Coney Island.

But Simon’s first assignment—editing The Vixen, the Patriot and the Fanatic, a lurid bodice-ripper improbably based on the recent trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, a potboiler intended to shore up the firm’s failing finances—makes him question the cost of admission. Because Simon has a secret that, at the height of the Red Scare and the McCarthy hearings, he cannot reveal: his beloved mother was a childhood friend of Ethel Rosenberg’s. His parents mourn Ethel’s death.

Simon’s dilemma grows thornier when he meets The Vixen’s author, the startlingly beautiful, reckless, seductive Anya Partridge, ensconced in her opium-scented boudoir in a luxury Hudson River mental asylum. As mysteries deepen, as the confluence of sex, money, politics and power spirals out of Simon’s control, he must face what he’s lost by exchanging the loving safety of his middle-class Jewish parents’ Coney Island apartment for the witty, whiskey-soaked orbit of his charismatic boss, the legendary Warren Landry. Gradually Simon realizes that the people around him are not what they seem, that everyone is keeping secrets, that ordinary events may conceal a diabolical plot—and that these crises may steer him toward a brighter future. 

At once domestic and political, contemporary and historic, funny and heartbreaking, enlivened by surprising plot turns and passages from Anya’s hilariously bad novel, The Vixen illuminates a period of history with eerily striking similarities to the current moment. Meanwhile it asks timeless questions: How do we balance ambition and conscience? What do social mobility and cultural assimilation require us to sacrifice? How do we develop an authentic self, discover a vocation, and learn to live with the mysteries of love, family, art, life and loss?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9780063012172

Francine Prose

Francine Prose is the author of eighteen books of fiction, including Blue Angel, a finalist for the National Book Award. Her short story 'The Mirror' appeared in the short story collection Reader, I Married Him (2016). She lives in New York City.

Reviews for The Vixen

[Andrea Author · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Editorial assistant Simon is given the job of editing a cheesy, salacious political thriller for his failing publisher of literary fiction. The owner's hope is that the titillating novel will provide the company with the infusion of cash needed to save it.

As Simon works with the author to improve the manuscript, the two embark on a wild and obsessive relationship. Simon soon realizes that more is going on with the book than meets the eye. If he goes along with the conspiracy, it will cost him his integrity. If he fights it, he'll lose his job, and possibly his freedom, or even his life.

I enjoyed this book. It's beautifully written and an engrossing read. I was disappointed by the conspiracy theory aspects of it—frankly, I think that's the last thing the world needs right now. But there's no denying that it's a brilliant novel.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[lesen_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved this unusual story - it was funny, mysterious, and sad. It would make a great Coen brothers film.

[kayanelson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book took twists and turns that I would have never expected. I really liked the beginning when Simon was working with Anya to work on The Vixen,etc. but then the cia involvement in the book was a little too odd for me. Finally, everything just got wrapped up in a nice bow at the end. Interesting and well written.

[hccpsk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In 1950s New York as the Rosenbergs face execution, Simon Putnam finds himself in a common situation — recently graduated from college, no job, living with his parents, obviously depressed. When his somewhat famous uncle gets him a job at a somewhat famous publishing house, Simon finds himself embroiled in a plot around a scandalous novel about Ethel Rosenberg. This is the interesting setup of Francine Prose’s new book, The Vixen, which at times reads like a mystery, historical fiction, and philosophical literature. Prose’s writing — fine as ever — lends itself to the examination of our personal and national mistakes, and how much responsibility we bear as citizens. I appreciate the plot and historical resonance missing from so much literary fiction these days, and I definitely recommend The Vixen for readers looking for that.

[mykl8s · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A strange, complex, interesting book.

[threadnsong · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

That cover photo? That one that looks so familiar? That is the final kiss of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg before they are led to their execution. It is as iconic a photo as President Kennedy in his motorcade or pictures of the Twin Towers during the 9/11 attacks.

Told from the point of view of Simon Putnam, a recent Harvard grad with a degree in Old Norse (both important points in the novel), it starts with the night the Rosenberg's are executed. It is an especially poignant night since Simon's mother grew up with Ethel and defended her even at the end. The Putnams are a Jewish family who live near Coney Island at a time when being Jewish was sometimes akin to being a Communist.

Set in the 1950's during the McCarthy hearings, young Simon, through his father, is able to secure a job at a publishing house. His job is to read the rejected manuscripts and respond kindly to the authors. Of course he longs for something better and finally receives a manuscript on his desk about the Rosenberg case, re-written to make "Ester" a seductive housewife with no conscience or morals, and her husband a dupe.

How do you edit a book that is a re-write of your beloved mother's girlhood friend? And how do you navigate the world of publishing, with the multi-martini lunches and fragile authors? And what do you do when this manuscript is supposed to save the struggling publishing house?

A fine look at conscience and coming of age and gaining knowledge and the perils of the adult world. I could have done with less of questioning and angst that occupies a good portion of the book, hence the half star for the rating. But when the enormity of the plot was finally presented it took my breath away.

[write5review · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Riffing on 50s American Paranoia

One doesn’t have to look any further than today to appreciate that paranoia and conspiracies intertwine themselves in American culture. But if one were to cast back to the 20th century, they’d discover two fine examples: the first (1917-1920) and second (1947-1957) Red Scares. It’s the second that forms the background event of Francine Prose’s latest novel, a dark comedy, exemplified by the turmoil and fear engendered by the Rosenberg spy case and executions on June 19, 1953, at Sing Sing prison.

Simon Putnam, a young Jewish man who recently graduated from Harvard, where he studied folklore, gets a job as an editorial assistant at Landry, Landry, and Bartlett, a house known for publishing prestigious tomes that sell in limited quantities. After working the slush pile for a while, Warren Landry assigns him to editing The Vixen, the Patriot, and the Fanatic, billed as the novel that, while out of character for the house, will make it solvent once again. This tawdry novel reimagines Ethel Rosenberg as a sultry vixen who seduces men left and right as a sort of super spy on behalf of the Soviets.

Immediately, Simon finds himself plunged into a moral quandary, as his parents, especially his mother, have a connection with Ethel, that being the proximity of growing up in the same neighborhood. He sets out to conference with the author, Anya Partridge, in the hopes of making changes that will transform the fictional Ethel into someone more like the real Ethel. Anya, judged by her author photo, appears as erotic as the character she supposedly created. His effort leads him into an even deeper, more perplexing quandary swirling around hot sex and the strong suspicion that Anya did not write the novel, leading to his search for its origin. As he creeps closer to the answer, readers are treated to one of the CIA foundational conspiracy theories, that media companies headed by Ivy League grads and old OSS operatives were conducting soft power campaigns on behalf of the agency.

Readers will find plenty of humor here, mostly as Prose sets up a dichotomy that contrasts Simon’s working class origins with Warren’s clearly patrician ones. Simon has to constantly wrap his mind around the ways of a world he glimpsed at Harvard but now maneuvers through at the publishing house. Then there’s the fact that his supposed author not only has a voracious appetite for lots of things, sex at the head of the list, but that he meets her in a sanatarium.

All in all, readers will go on a very enjoyable romp through Red Scare America and spy craft as practiced among the high born of American society.