If you were old enough to pay attention to the news in the late 1990s, you'll know who
Monica Lewinsky is. She's the young White House intern whose dalliance with then-U.S. President Bill Clinton -- and his lies about it to Congress -- led to his impeachment in December 1998. (He was acquitted by the Senate in February 1999.) The scandal came to light in January 1998, and led to Lewinsky testifying before a grand jury in August 1998. Clinton admitted to the relationship in a televised address on Aug. 17th that year.
Needless to say, while I was certainly aware of what was happening south of the border (you couldn't NOT know about it...!), I was rather preoccupied with (ahem) other matters in 1998, and August 1998 in particular. I don't remember having strong feelings about Lewinsky one way or another at the time, but when she began speaking out about the experience some years later, as an older and wiser woman, I found her to be a sympathetic figure.
Now 53 years old, she's never married or had children. She advocates for victims of bullying, harassment and public shaming, and hosts a podcast called "Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky," focusing on personal stories of resilience and identity.
She's also now the title figure in a recently published novel called "Dear Monica Lewinsky" by Julia Langbein. (I was curious whether Lewinsky has made any comment on the book; so far as I can tell, she has not, but the author did send her a copy before it was published.)
Jean Dornan spent six weeks during the summer of 1998 in France on a work-study program, documenting medieval French churches -- and pursuing a highly inappropriate relationship with her professor, David Harwell. Now 45 years old, married and still dealing with the impact that summer had on her life, Jean is startled to receive an invitation from David to attend his retirement party. She's even more startled when, looking at her old diaries from that summer, she realizes this pivotal relationship in her life happened at the exact same time that a very public scandal was unfolding, involving a very similar relationship between President Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Pondering the parallels in their stories, she finds herself calling on Monica, as if she were a saint, begging her forgiveness for dismissing her and for not seeing the commonalities between them.
Lo and behold, "Saint Monica" appears to Jean (in the bathroom of a church in Lower Manhattan, no less!). Together, they look back on that summer, what happened to Jean and the impact it's had on her life since then (interrupted by occasional side comments between the two of them). (Rather irreverent) stories of real female martyr/saints are also interspersed between chapters.
I enjoyed this book, for the most part. I learned a lot about (among other things) the architecture of medieval French churches, how lust-filled nuns changed the Catholic church (!) ;) and the depressingly similar stories of female martyr saints (a lot of suffering at the hands of the patriarchy.... plus ca change...). ;) There's a lot of wry humour.
However, the section covering what happened during the summer of 1998 in France is long and leisurely -- Jean and David don't even KISS until we're well into both the term and the book! (The effect on the reader is pent-up anticipation, much like Jean's pent-up desire.) Jean is not always a likeable character, particularly in her younger "Ruthless Jean" incarnation, and the irreverent/snarky tone (particularly regarding religious matters) might rub some readers the wrong way. Like Monica, she deliberately flirts with an older married man and revels in the attention he gives her.
And yet -- I can remember being the same age, plotting how to attract the attention of the boy(s) I liked, maneuvering to be in the same places at the same times he was -- and the heady feeling of being noticed and desired (and desiring in return)(especially at university, after being ignored by boys through most of my teen years). Unlike Monica and Jean, I didn't have any "inappropriate" relationships with older men (and thank goodness for that...!) -- but I was equally as naive and inexperienced as they were -- and (of course!) there were encounters and relationships (or aspects of them) and behaviour (on my part and theirs), that makes me wince to remember, where I was treated badly by a guy, or wish I had done things differently.
But that's all part of growing up and learning from our mistakes, isn't it? Which is part of what Monica helps Jean to realize. (We all do dumb things when we were younger -- but most of us don't have to deal with it in public, as Monica did...! -- thank goodness...!).
The last chapter is kind of bonkers. :) (But cathartic too.)
A solid 3.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded up (after some debate) to 4 on Goodreads.
CNBC notes: Jean, like Monica, is childless.
This was Book #25 read to date in 2026 (and Book #7 (!) finished in August), bringing me to 63% of my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the first time in a LONG time!!) ON TRACK to meet my goal!! :) (For the moment, anyway...! ;) ) You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books."
