This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I’m sorry this book just isn’t for me. I wish the author and the publisher the best luck. Thank you for the opportunity.

Adult Historical fiction. Simon graduates from Harvard but his liberal arts degree doesn't necessarily score any points with his parents. He is excited to get a job at a publishing house, and when he's asked to give feedback on a scandalous book (for its time), The Vixen, he feels honored. But when he realizes the main character, communist sympathizer, of the novel was childhood friends with his mother, he worries that relationship may have a far-reaching and lasting impact on his family. Interesting but slow at times.

Books about books and anything set in the first part of the 1950's always appeal to me. Francine Prose does not let her readers down in this intriguing story, centered in part around the Rosenberg's execution, book publishing, treachery and betrayal, and love. Prose keeps her readers interested, although not always rapt, throughout the novel. She falls a little short in portraying her characters who, for all but a few, are more cardboard caricatures than real. Overall though, this is an intriguing book, filled with surprises, and sure to satisfy most readers.

Thank you NetGalley for obtaining a copy of this book for me to review.
Simon Putman, is a Harvard graduate who lives with his parents in Brooklyn, NY and has no job. His uncle known in the writing business obtains a job with a known publishing co. Simon is rather naive and idealistic. He is given a book to review the Vixen, whose plot surrounds the scandalous period of the death of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in the early 1950s.
The review of the book brings him in contact with a variety of women all who adore and love him. This part of the book was a bit far fetched for me.. Even his boss was out of touch with Simon with his whiskey and upscale lunches. However, the book was suppose to be written in his mind so that everyone would read it and bring money into the publishing house.
Simon has to learn that everything is not as it appears to be.

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.

Francine Prose never disappoints. The prologue alone is an incredibly vivid account of a historic event-- But keep going for more memorable writing .

The Vixen is such a fun, mysterious little story!

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started, but I was easily sucked in and could not put it down. I was instantly invested!

This book is set in America in the 1950’s, at a time when Americans were just on the heels of WWII and already embroiled in the Cold War. People toss around the word communism like candy these days, but in this era of history it was a truly terrifying thought…and a word that could even land you on trial!

I love that this book makes the reader long for more information, more history, more knowledge. I vaguely remember hearing about the Rosenbergs in my youth, but this book definitely led me down a rabbit hole (my favorite!) and I’ve since spent hours researching and reading about this fascinating and devastating case. Joseph McCarthy, as we all now know, was a real piece of shit and I love that this novel doesn’t shy away from showing that.

In the end, this was a fun and exciting read with some real and serious issues included. I really enjoyed the characters and their development and the ending was just perfection.

4/5 ✨

I am a sucker for books about writers. And books about books. So, I was immediately drawn to THE VIXEN. But, this is really a book about deceit. Or, perhaps, more accurately, a coming of age story.

I desperately wanted the young protagonist to earn his parents pride. Their unconditional love for him made them proud before he earned it, and I wanted him to work for that gift. So, as a reader, I struggled along with him as he bumbled through his entry level job assignments.

My yearning for his success left me filled with tension as I worked my way through the novel. And, it was harder work than I anticipated because he was so naive, and so idealistic, and so unaware. . . Perhaps that is what left me a bit dissatisfied with this book.

I loved the plot twists. I enjoyed the author skewering the hyper-sophisticated literary press. But, I wanted more from our Harvard-educated anti- hero. His relationship with his family was charming, and felt “ real,” but his relationships with women went so far afield that my “ suspension of disbelief” couldn’t reach that far.

This was an interesting book in many ways, but I wanted it to be so much more than it was.
NetGalley provided me with a complimentary copy in exchange for a candid review.

Francine Prose is a amazing writer! This was an incredibly amazing book! So interesting and full! I didn't want the book to stop!
Very well written with an awesome plot!

Book Review for The Vixen
Full feature for this title will be posted at: @cattleboobooks on Instagram!

Thank You #NetGalley and #HarperCollins for the ARC of Francine Prose’s #TheVixen.
If I had to classify #The Vixen I’d call it a story about about stories, which is a plotting device I’m drawn to. The year is 1954 and Simon Putnam is a recent Harvard graduate who majored in Folktales & Mythology and is now living back home with his parents in Coney Island. Through the assistance of his Uncle in the publishing business, Simon lands a job at another publisher. He is assigned a book to edit , The Vixen, The Patriot, and the Fanatic, a highly factionalized but very recognizable telling of The Rosenberg Saga. The trouble arises when he reads the manuscript to discover it to be a lurid, sensational telling of this bleak chapter of American History, all the while knowing that his bosses see The Vixen.... as the book that will financially save the company. Prose’s #TheVixen is many things , but first and foremost it’s a warning not to take things as they initially appear , you could end up very surprised. I was delighted with this mesmerizing book !

Had Francine Prose followed what I believe was her initial instinct—to write a story about an innocent junior editor who has torn between his conscience and his desire to garner the rewards of living a relevant and interesting life—this would have been an extraordinary novel.

The premise is indeed, fascinating: a bumbling young Harvard graduate named Simon Putnam is placed in charge of shepherding a bodice-ripper of a book based on Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. The novel is designed to help a struggling literary publisher get back on its feet financially, and it is written by a very beautiful, enticing, and unstable debut author named Anya. Naturally, Simon falls head over heels for her.

The fictional book, entitled The Vixen, the Patriot, and the Fanatic, with its lewd plotline, is in direct contrast to Simon’s sense of value and dignity. His mother, after all, was neighbors with Ethel and has often quoted one of her final statements to her lawyer: “You will see to it that our names are kept bright and unsullied by lies.” That line is repeated in this book. A lot. So are Simon’s fears and guilt about causing his mother grief. We hear about that a lot, too.

This good-looking Harvard graduate is so awkward and bumbling that his social interactions border on cringeworthy. Later in the book, he is described by a key character as malleable. It is hard to believe that anyone could get through college years – even in the 1950s – and be so rudderless and self-lacerating. Simon also has a habit, it seems, of falling in love with just about any female who is placed in his path. It is easy to see why he would be lustful towards Anya. But to fall so deeply for a woman who appears to have his polar opposite values, little moral compass, and who is quite likely mentally disturbed is a hard pill to swallow.

I won’t give away the plot points. It wouldn’t be fair. But I will say that I had the uncomfortable feeling that art was imitating life. The state-mandated murder of the Rosenbergs for a level of crimes they did not do (Ethel, for example, was only the typist of materials and paid for that with her life), has long held a sort of prurient interest. The fictional Vixen capitalizes on that interest and in ways, so does its namesake. The urge to publish a best seller that will appeal to a broad audience (we later discover who that audience is intended to be) also has some tendrils in the Prose book. All the kinds of characters that appeal to readers are here – the naïve acolyte, the scheming and lascivious publisher, the beautiful and damaged damsel, the secondary characters who are not what they appear to be.

But in writing this soon-to-be best-seller (and I suspect it will be, because the storyline moves fast and I never did want to abandon it), the theme becomes heavy-handed and the characters in places become caricatures. When Simon moans that all the people around him have lied to him and betrayed him, it’s almost a laughable moment because he has lied by omission to many of them—and most of all, to himself.

Now, I love Francine Prose. I have read many of her past books and have totally enjoyed several of them. So it gives me no great joy to depart from several literary reviewser who are calling the book “dazzling”. I want to thank HarperCollins—which is a FAR better publishing house than the one portrayed in these pages!—and NetGalley for enabling me to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review. I am truly sorry that that this review is taking me in an unanticipated direction and look forward to the many other superb titles they publish.

Reading Francine Prose's novel, I couldn't help but feel like I was already watching the movie version of the novel. Our young editor falling in love with all the older women he meets working at the publishing house that his uncle helped him land, the women flirting with him, as they drink (something, like being with women, that our main character is learning to master), and Warren, his boss, the editor crass editor who has mastered booze, women, and seems to have involvement with the CIA. The novel begins with our young editor sitting at home with his parents after graduating from Harvard, and watching the Rosenbergs get executed on TV. His mother was friends with Ethel, so this is not just horrifying, but deeply personal. From there, the novel moves forward with a new novel covering the Rosenbergs in a fictional way, the brings readers into the lurid details of the masculine 50's publishing world, the fear of communism, young love, and the CIA.

It's a relatively easy read, and unfortunately, at times, a tad too predictable. Overall, it's a satisfying novel.

Another hit from the author. I never know what to expect when I start to read one of the author’s books. But I am never disappointed. And this is no exception. A fun to read book filled with fascinating characters. This is a book which I would recommend to others.

This is *quality* historical literary fiction which I can suggest to anybody who remembers or is fascinated by the politics of the 1950s. The constant sense of paranoia that that the author sustains through the entire book gives a sense of the zeitgeist of the McCarthy era. The main character's bewilderment and fear at being lied to and cheated by the people he loves (his uncle) and relies on (his employer, "his" author) keep the tension high and the pages turning. This book is also beautifully written with a strong sense of place (New York in the 1950s) and Coney Island and the New York publishing industry are brought to life. I have never explored this angle of history before but I'm so glad I did -- the cruelty and barbarism of the execution of the Rosenbergs, so soon after the end of World War II, is highlighted through the main character's point of view (his mother went to school with Ethel; they are a Jewish family). I enjoyed the mystery, intrigue, romance, paranoia, and ultimate coming of age story in this novel. Bravo! Thank you!

I forgot how much I like Francine Prose! So witty and well written - I had to smile all the way through. A young man at the start of his career is being handed an awful manuscript to edit. But wait - there is more ...

I didn't love this novel as much as I was wanting (or expecting) to. Not knowing much about Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, there were a lot of historical elements that I loved following up on. The story was very slowly paced, the narrator incredibly wishy-washy (intentionally, I know, but still so irritating to read!) and then everything sort of mushed together. I've read two novel back to back (this being the second) that left me wishing I had a literature professor to walk me through.

What a pleasure this novel is—I couldn’t put it down—and how tricky it is to say why or anything about it, because to do so would rob other readers of the pleasure of discovery.

Since it happens immediately, it is safe to tell you that it begins with the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, but where it goes from there is so unpredictable that it’s best to say nothing.

As a writer, I enjoyed the “inside” look at book publishing and book politics, but nonwriters will also relate: if you’ve ever suffered betrayal from someone you like/love/trust or if you were ever screwed at a job, you’ll have some kind of personal identification. The plot leaps in this story may seem extreme . . . unless you know some real history of extreme political actions. (Hint: Ian McEwan covered some of the same territory in Sweet Tooth, a book that has almost nothing else in common with this one, but having read it, I’m sure what seems far-fetched is not. Add to that our current cultural divides in the U.S. over truth and fiction . . . Suffice it to say, facts and "alternative facts" have proven to be a matter of belief and are easily manipulated.)

I’m being a tease and can’t help it. I should just shut up and say, boy, was this book fun to read.

Thanks to HarperCollins Netgalley for the ARC. I can’t wait until there are tons of reviews. I’m so curious how others will react.

This is my fourth Francine Prose novel and my favorite.

I fear I cannot adequately explain why this novel hypnotized me. The narrator, Simon Putnam, tells a tale out of my own childhood about the death of the Rosenbergs and the events and conspiracies swirling around them. I have probably read everything about the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, so this novel fascinated me.

As always, Prose writes exquisitely, and brought me back to the 1950’s with frightening strength. I remember the night that television was interrupted to tell us that Julius and Ethel had been executed. I know my family was as furious as Simon’s. From that day till today, my fascination with their lives and death has pulled me toward everything ever written about them. I was one of the few theater goers to see ETHEL SINGS: The Unsung Song of Ethel Rosenberg, when it briefly played off Broadway.

So, I had to love this book and Simon’s efforts to ensure that Ethel not be defamed. Bravo Simon, and bravo Francine Prose for bringing this era to life. A special thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review this novel. WOW!