Mia Levitin is a cultural and literary critic based in London. Her work appears regularly in publications including the
Financial Times,
The Spectator and the
Guardian.
She is the author of
The Future of Seduction.
At the
Guardian, Levitin tagged ten of the "books that informed [her] understanding of the complexities of consent," including:
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
Several novels in the past few years have delved into teacher-student relationships, including Susan Choi’s tricksy Trust Exercise, which expanded the question of consent to 
include who has the right to tell a story, and Kate Elizabeth Russell’s My Dark Vanessa. Among these narratives is The Friend, which features a college professor who regularly beds his students. When students complain about being addressed as “dear”, he stops, “but not without sulking”. What bothers him more than evolving standards of appropriateness, however, is his waning attraction as he ages. Submitting to him without desire, what drives the young women instead “is narcissism, the thrill of bringing an older man in a position of authority to his knees”.
Read about
the other entries on the list.
The Friend is among
Lee Conell's seven books about New York City’s stark economic divide and
Eliza Smith's twenty books to help you navigate grief.
--Marshal Zeringue
