My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin
Review of My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin
“I feel like something is stalking this woman. A part of me wonders if she will die.”
My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin (2023). Published by Henry Holt and Co.
For those who have been catching up on my blog for the past month, you’re going to realize and reread again that I’ve been obsessed with the topic of art schools and creativity in fiction lately.
For a recap, it all started when I saw Showing Up at the New York Film Festival to review for the outlet I write for, and then it just completely spiraled when I read Tell Me I’m An Artist by Chelsea Martin. I’m not a complete diehard art school fan girl in the genre, but I do appreciate a good story that I myself never experienced (oh, but how I wish I did).
Anyways, I received an advanced copy of My Last Innocent Year because I was in love with the description—and I had that art school kick.
I knew nothing about the author or the novel itself beforehand, but thought it sounded interesting. I’m finding that’s the best way to go into a book—no expectations, just reading the blurb. Now that I’ve been reading a lot more, I’m appreciating the process.
Here’s my review!
A senior in college begins to date a professor and questions everything.
Our protagonist in My Last Innocent Year is Isabel Rosen. It is 1998, on the eve of the Clinton Scandal, and she attends Wilder College in New Hampshire. Her mother died years before, leaving some evident trauma on our protagonist, and her father owns an appetizing store on the Lower East Side.
They’re Jewish, but after her mother’s death, they’ve begun to increasingly distance themselves from the religion and her father, Abe, pays the bills so Isabel can go to school peacefully.
And so she does go peacefully, until she isn’t. After sleeping with an Israeli student who questions the foundations of who she is, Isabel’s friend claims that Isabel was raped, effectively shutting that Israeli student out when the two are caught painting he is a rapist on his dorm door. He’s doomed for the rest of his college life, but Isabel dooms herself in a different way. After two high profile professors on campus are revealed to be getting a divorce from each other, Isabel’s creative writing class gets a new professor.
The new professor really likes Isabel’s work, which she has never felt before, and the two begin a dangerous relationship. My Last Innocent Year, despite the narrator saying this relationship completely changed her life, takes its sweet time in setting up the ambiance and getting there.
There’s some pacing issues in the novel, and part of it tends to lean itself towards this plot point. The two can’t get caught for obvious reasons, but it sets the tone for how Isabel is going to live her life later on as well, even after the two’s relationship may have ended.
At this story’s core, it’s a coming-of-age tale. Our protagonist is a young woman discovering her sexuality at the beginning of the novel, which leads her into making some questionable decisions.
We spend a lot of time in this young woman’s head, and we understand her situation greatly, but I honestly didn’t care much for her by the end of the novel. She is in a cycle of trauma and self-destruction, and while she does have the opportunity to become a writer after receiving praise and seen value in her work, she doesn’t do so. I think the story needed more plot to anchor the reader to our protagonist, to feel for her more than someone whose mother died tragically young.
One of the very good things about the novel is the writing itself though. It feels set in the nineties and some of the descriptions and diction utilized throughout them are absolutely gorgeous.
I didn’t think once that this felt out of place for the time it was set in, and I thought the characters were fleshed out well. We just aren’t allowed enough time to genuinely care for them, or no stakes at all. I didn’t find the novel difficult to get through, just a bit painful to become invested in.
Overall Thoughts
Give the novel a chance. I think there’s plenty of merit and the tough subjects are touched upon. There’s still some lingering questions about consent and how that was handled, but maybe I’m also just missing something in translation from my eyes to my brain.
I think if you’re interested in the premise and the book, give it a chance. It’s not a bad book at all, but I don’t think it’s the right one for me personally. Someone else might find a lot more beauty in it than me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for an advanced copy of this book. My Last Innocent Year will be released on February 14, 2023.
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