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A review by bluestarfish
The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty by Vendela Vida
3.0
A nameless, and almost faceless, woman haunts this novel as she travels from Florida to Morocco losing and picking up identities as she goes along. The stylistic choice to use the second person is jarring and dislocating and confusing. Much the same that is going on for our protagonist too. It was intensely irritating at times and then others it melded so directly into the story and the feelings. It is unnerving to have to put up with the same uncertainty of ones identity through the prose constantly questioning thoughts and decisions. "What have you done?" "What will they do to you?" asks the novel urgently.
There is a mystery lurking in the background that only gets revealed slowly, and when it does some of the details that happened earlier take on a different significance and that is well done. I'm not quite sure I would go as far as the enthusiastic endorsement on the cover that this is "insanely funny" as I seemed more attuned to the unease than the hilarity although there were some sly pokes at Hollywood that I thought were well observed.
What an intriguing book to pick up from the library. I am trying to remember if I have ever read a book that is told in the second person, and I can't think of another.
There is a mystery lurking in the background that only gets revealed slowly, and when it does some of the details that happened earlier take on a different significance and that is well done. I'm not quite sure I would go as far as the enthusiastic endorsement on the cover that this is "insanely funny" as I seemed more attuned to the unease than the hilarity although there were some sly pokes at Hollywood that I thought were well observed.
What an intriguing book to pick up from the library. I am trying to remember if I have ever read a book that is told in the second person, and I can't think of another.