Where Dear M.L. really shines, besides being meaningful and poignant and fun and interesting, so very interesting, is that each and every individual thing this book writes about ties back on itself. Jean is young, yes, and there is a massive power imbalance in her interaction with her teacher, yes, but she is given sexual agency and autonomy. Interspersed in Jean’s story are page after page of summarized excerpts from the lives of Saints taken from The Golden Legend, each woman mutilated more than the last because other people want to sleep with them.
Read MoreMONICA: You’ve come to think of desire like some sort of hormonal spill that will only lead you astray.
JEAN: But won’t it? Didn’t it lead you astray?
MONICA: [frustrated–eyes cratering with hurt]: I thought you were a good reader, Jean. Lucy and Anastasia and Agatha and Thais and Pelagia, they spell it out for you, in blood behind the text. They are warning you. You can be the most virtuous woman in the world, and you’ll still carry the blame not just for your desire but for everyone’s desire. I paid a price for mine, Jean, but I was tortured for his.