MY LAST INNOCENT YEAR

A young woman navigates sex and power at an elite New England college in the late 1990s in Florin’s debut.

Isabel Rosen, the daughter of an artist mother and a father who owns a Lower East Side appetizing store, is hardly the typical student at New Hampshire’s Wilder College (presumably based on Dartmouth). During her senior year, as she works on a thesis on Edith Wharton and tries to enjoy her last moments at the college that—despite everything—she loves, she has sexual encounters with two different men that will forever shape her memories of the time. One is a slightly older peer, a former soldier whose Israeli bravado is thoughtfully juxtaposed against her Ashkenazi ambivalence; the other is the handsome creative writing professor who takes an interest in her work. Set against the backdrop of President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, Isabel’s experiences teach her the hard way about the complex power dynamics in sexual relationships. Isabel’s sex life is private and secretive, while the president’s was much publicized; soon enough, however, Isabel learns that privacy doesn’t last long on a small college campus. Isabel’s intoxicating affair begins to unravel when drama ensues surrounding the family of the Wilder English department chair. Florin’s prose is gorgeous and enthralling, and her imagistic portrayal of New England campus life—from divey college town bars to Winter Carnival to English department parties to skinny-dipping in the river—is pitch-perfect. She also succeeds where many stories of dubious sexual consent fail: She avoids heavy-handed moralizing in favor of ambiguity, however uncomfortable. Even an odd final section, which spans years after Isabel graduates and detracts from the momentum of what would otherwise have been the final act, cannot dim the shine of this novel. Florin’s debut is not to be missed.

A brilliantly crafted campus novel for the generation before #MeToo.