Discipline by Larissa Pham

 

Christine always thought she would be an artist.  She went to college to study art and when a professor encouraged her to apply to a master's program, she did that as well.  Her work was getting lots of praise, especially from that older professor who headed up the program.  Christine even won the annual prize for best student work.  But when the professor puts her in a me-too situation, she loses all her confidence, sure now that she doesn't have talent but that the older artist just encouraged her to gain access to her and her body.  She quit the program shortly thereafter.

Instead, Christine became a writer and her debut novel has just come out.  While it has garnered positive reviews, it has also come out at the end of her current relationship.  Both to promote the novel and to flee her memories of her heartbreak, she goes on tour.  While she is on tour, she gets an email from the older artist.  It says only, 'That's not how I remember it."

Reeling from this unexpected communication, Christine realizes that she will never be free to pursue her career goals until she faces the artist and discusses the damage he did to her.  He is now practically a recluse, living on a small island where she goes for the confrontation.  Will he take ownership?

Like Christine, this is Larissa Pham's debut novel.  Also like Christine, Pham studied art in her university career, then later went back and got a master's in writing.  Both women are Asian-American and how that affects their lives is explored in the novel.  But the central theme is the sway that men with influence can have on young women, how they can instill confidence and mentor them, or pick them out of a crowd only to fulfill their own sexual fantasies.  How women should handle this imbalance of power and the long-lasting damage it can do is a trending conversation in the past few years and Pham does an interesting job resolving Christine's issues.  This book is recommended for literary and women's fiction readers.