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hiba59's review
2.0
"You can divide the world into two types of people, I decide, as I stand on the train, holding on to a steel pole. Those who would take their lives if they thought things were bad enough, and those who even if they were on the brink, like the man from the park, would see their error and turn back, sprinting fast and humming with relief."
I don't know what to make out of this novel, I assumed it was a debut novel, but it still didn't justify why I felt so perplexed reading it.
The events felt so detached, and I think the novel could've been better, a lot better if the author knew how to elaborate in the events in a way that they feel synced with the trauma-causing incident of the park. It felt extremely promising with that kickoff, but then settled into a boring unsettled rhythm, and I felt so disappointed because I expected so much more from it.
The story revolves around Ellis, a twenty-one-year-old student who while in the park one afternoon encounters a man who points a gun at her and tells her he wants to die, with her. She, fortunately, gets out of the incident physically unharmed but is left with a shaken personality, and we follow her as she drifts here and there, letting unsuitable partners swoon around her.
Then she leaves everything behind and goes in a volunteering mission to the Philippines with her mother. Back to the States, she is put face to face with her assaulter, but she skips on taking revenge.
The writing, similarly to the story is very disorienting and irritatingly so because we know that Ellis was the emotionally unstable girl seeking refuge in different areas and people, and the incident just adds to it. And that is how she ends up dumping everything and everyone and joining her friend in Ireland.
I don't know if I should give a chance to more books by Vendela Vida, because starting off with this one is not very promising.
jacquilough's review
3.0
Vida writes about traumatic experiences with a light touch - she neither overdramatizes them nor does she try to wrap them in a pretty package. Her characters and events are real, and she allows them to be complex: sometimes, in the middle of a crisis, we laugh or do something that's not quite appropriate. It's part of being human, and Vida seems to not only realize this (because really, most of us know this) but accept it and allow it to shape her narrative.
harvio's review
4.0
- a surprisingly tight, first-novel "about the effects - some predictable, some wildly unexpected - that an encounter at gunpoint can have on the life of a (previously) assured young girl."
- The gun in question is pointed at twenty-one-year-old Ellis as she walks through a New York City Park. In the end, she is unrobbed and physically unharmed, but she is left psychologically reeling.
- The gun in question is pointed at twenty-one-year-old Ellis as she walks through a New York City Park. In the end, she is unrobbed and physically unharmed, but she is left psychologically reeling.
sicklyrhetoric's review
2.0
Northern Lights is a much better work than this once. In matters of both depth and style , Vida fails to impress.
I counted pages till the end,I don't do that too often.
I counted pages till the end,I don't do that too often.
pinknantucket's review
3.0
A lovely quiet book about a woman who narrowly escapes being shot by someone looking to take himself out but who doesn't want to go out alone. Vida is one of the editors of "The Believer" magazine. An author I think is worth trying.
balancinghistorybooks's review against another edition
4.0
Like all of Vida's work, And Now You can ago forms a character study of a troubled woman. She executes both plot and characters incredibly well, and the sense of place which she creates is, as ever, vivid. Not my favourite of her novels, but one which I found incredibly immersive, and could barely turn my attention away from.
spygrl1's review against another edition
2.0
I just finished "And Now You Can Go," the first novel by Vendela Vida, who I painstakingly established this morning via a Google search is married to Dave Eggers. I get her and Heidi Julavits confused. Also, Jonathan Safran Foer is married or engaged to someone who is a writer, but I've forgotton who. But not Vendela Vida. Is that her real name?
ANYCG is about Ellis, a 21-year-old art history graduate student new to New York City. Walking in the park one afternoon, she's accosted by a man with a gun. He wants to kill himself, but doesn't want to die alone. Ellis tries to cajole him with half-remembered poetry, tries to coax him back to the bookstore she just left. He seems to shake off his suicidal funk and runs away.
The strange event leaves her shaken and uncertain. She seems a somewhat quirky, drifting figure to begin with, and now she's unmoored. Seeking some kind of tether, she lets several unsuitable suitors swirl around her -- the ex-boyfriend who slammed his car into a tree when she decided to leave him, a former junkie who smells like soap, a raucous ROTC cadet. Ellis drifts home and accompanies her mother on a weeklong medical mission to the Philippines. Finally she is forced to confront her attacker and passes up the chance for revenge. It all goes back to her father, who inexplicably abandoned the family when she was a child and unceremoniously returned four years laters. Ellis tells Sarah that by the time he came back, she and her mother and sister had already forgiven him, and she found she had forgiven the park attacker as well.
In the end Ellis, the child of immigrants, sets out for Ireland to join Sarah.
The writing isn't irritatingly quirky, but the story is ultimately as insubstantial as Ellis seems to be. She's Jell-O in search of a mold. Does this girl have any goals? Without them, setting off to Ireland seems more like an attempt to find refuge than an effort attempt to get on with her life. After all, she's not setting out alone to study art in Paris, which might make sense; instead, she's going to hang out with her best friend. Maybe drink some Guiness, maybe exchange a flock of Irishmen for her posse of stateside admirers.
ANYCG is about Ellis, a 21-year-old art history graduate student new to New York City. Walking in the park one afternoon, she's accosted by a man with a gun. He wants to kill himself, but doesn't want to die alone. Ellis tries to cajole him with half-remembered poetry, tries to coax him back to the bookstore she just left. He seems to shake off his suicidal funk and runs away.
The strange event leaves her shaken and uncertain. She seems a somewhat quirky, drifting figure to begin with, and now she's unmoored. Seeking some kind of tether, she lets several unsuitable suitors swirl around her -- the ex-boyfriend who slammed his car into a tree when she decided to leave him, a former junkie who smells like soap, a raucous ROTC cadet. Ellis drifts home and accompanies her mother on a weeklong medical mission to the Philippines. Finally she is forced to confront her attacker and passes up the chance for revenge. It all goes back to her father, who inexplicably abandoned the family when she was a child and unceremoniously returned four years laters. Ellis tells Sarah that by the time he came back, she and her mother and sister had already forgiven him, and she found she had forgiven the park attacker as well.
In the end Ellis, the child of immigrants, sets out for Ireland to join Sarah.
The writing isn't irritatingly quirky, but the story is ultimately as insubstantial as Ellis seems to be. She's Jell-O in search of a mold. Does this girl have any goals? Without them, setting off to Ireland seems more like an attempt to find refuge than an effort attempt to get on with her life. After all, she's not setting out alone to study art in Paris, which might make sense; instead, she's going to hang out with her best friend. Maybe drink some Guiness, maybe exchange a flock of Irishmen for her posse of stateside admirers.
shani's review against another edition
4.0
I love that Vida's writing reads like a conversation with a friend. That the extraordinary and the regular are interwoven. That sidetracks may mean nothing, or may come back as important details. The language is sparse, and the emotions are plain, there on the page, there for you to interpret for yourself.
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