And Now You Can Go

It was a treat to find this little gem from Vendela Vida while perusing the shelves at Green Apple Books in San Francisco, even more so when I discovered she’d signed it. It was her first novel, written in 2003, and while it’s somewhat quiet in its plotting, there are so many little bits of humor and such a sharp eye for details that it was a pleasure to read.

The story concerns a young woman who is threatened at gunpoint in a park in the opening chapter, and while she survives, has a degree of trauma afterwards. It was a bit shocking to read in a 2015 interview with NPR afterwards that this was based on an identical incident which happened to her in that park when she was just 21 (and it shocked the interviewer too, who thought the show more concept was far-fetched).

I thought it was wise to not make the resulting trauma horrific or devastating, and not to overstate how it lingered in the woman’s life from then on, as she met with friends and lovers in New York, went home to family in San Francisco, and then went with her mother to do charitable work in the Philippines. It was the same kind of restraint I’ve seen in the three other books I’ve read from Vida so far. At the same time, through her deft writing, we do feel the effects of the act in so many subtle instances, as well as her observations about men and class, among other things.

The relationships she has with her friend, sister, and mother are all heartfelt and represented a nice bit of solidarity between women. There is a humanism here but it’s not starry-eyed or naïve. The book is somewhat episodic as it picks back up with her life, something which I thought might steer me to a slightly lower review score, but it finishes strong. This is an author who deserves to be better known.

Quotes:
On literature, this made me chuckle:
“’I’ve decided I should have lived back then,’ she says. ‘Do you know there’s no sex in Jane Austen? Everyone’s too busy looking for a man with property. That’s what I need to be doing.’
‘Maybe ‘man with property’ is a code for something,’ I say. And then I feel awful for bringing up anything sexual with her.”

On trauma:
“I tell the therapist what my Lifestyle condoms friend said about how I should never walk in the park.
’People like to think it can’t happen to them,’ she says. ‘They like to think there’s a reason it happened to you and not to them. They put it in a category that makes them think it’s far away. Next time just stop them and tell them that that response isn’t helpful to you.’” show less

And Now You Can Go
Vendela Vida
New York: Anchor Books, 2003

What a life-affirming book!

Ellis, the protagonist in Vendela Vida's book, has a profoundly disturbing experience: a man grabs her in a park, telling her he is going to kill himself, and he does not want to go alone; he is taking her with him. Ellis, trying to convince him there is much to live for, recites poetry to him, since it is art and poetry that transform lives. After persuading the would-be killer and suicide to accompany her to a bookstore, he lets her go. Ellis, understandably shaken by the experience, stops functioning as she did before. She sees her attacker in all men. She gets episodes of excruciating psychic pain; her senses, especially smell, work on overload. Her show more relationships, with her mother, sister, friends, but especially her father, are all reexamined. But eventually, from her frozen state, come the glimmerings of understanding. After a mission trip accompanying her mother to the Philippines, she sees "mother's laughing – her mouth falling far open -- and Freddie's bouncing in her red sneakers... it's too much love to handle at once" (137).

The community is mobilized to find her attacker. By the time he is found by vigilantes, Ellis has moved on; she has "all forgiven him". Through her attack she is brought to an epiphany, to forgiveness. She can look at the men who have hurt her, by extension at all men, who have all hurt someone, and “forgive each man as he entered the door to his home” (189). Vendela Vida has written a beautiful, wise book. show less

Another beautifully written novel from Vendela Vida. I recommend Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name over And Now You Can Go, as the former is more polished and engaging, but this is a good read nonetheless.

A satisfied nod for the subtly perfect evocation of my beloved San Francisco. There is much right with this book, and certainly nothing wrong, yet I wanted more. There was nothing in this book that I didn't already know. Looking forward to more VV.

LOVED this one. It's a quick read, very simply written, but engaging and enjoyable. Anyone who's lived through any sort of potentially life-threatening trauma should be able to relate all too well to this book, especially its straightforward descriptions of some of the (seemingly) bizarre things the main character does to try to deal with the shock of being held at gunpoint. Definitely a new favourite.

Did you know that the author of this book, Vendela Vida, is the wife of the author, Dave Eggers, and that those together wrote one of my most favorite feel-good films: Away We Go?
And that's the reason I picked it up! I have yet to read books by Dave Eggers.

I liked this book. It was generally okay, but I could see it being better as a film, since it had a lot of those short, "pointless" conversations that would make a lovely quirky film. I expected it to be better; however, I didn't regret reading it.

I am a devoted fan of the San Francisco literary scene: Dave Eggers, The Believer, etc; so it comes as no suprise that I loved this book. I found it funny, and sweet and the ending made total sense to me. This is a quick read…too short…I could have shared this world for a much longer novel.