Scan barcode
A review by annevoi
Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida
3.0
Twenty-eight-year-old Clarissa lost her father two weeks ago, fourteen years after her mother simply vanished one day. Now she learns that the man she called her father was, in fact, not—and she heads to Lapland, the homeland of the reindeer-herding Sami people (akin to Native Americans), in the middle of winter, to find out the truth. And indeed, she learns more than she bargained for, ultimately emerging from her quest with new resolve about how she wants to spend her life.
I found this book distancing, difficult to penetrate emotionally. Sometimes supercool, sometimes overwrought. Clarissa herself isn't an especially pleasant young woman: she seems remarkably immature for someone her age. I was surprised by the glowing blurbs by the likes of Michael Cunningham ("a taut, intricately layered page-turner that looks deeply and fearlessly into matters of profound human concern") and George Saunders ("What a brilliantly constructed lightning-flash of a novel: compelling, surprising, economical, lush, beautifully written"). It is well written, yes, and there are some lovely descriptions, for example of an ice hotel far above the Arctic Circle. The landscape reflects Clarissa's own sense of isolation and loss. I enjoyed the spare language.
Perhaps what I didn't like was the secrets and lies that undergird the overarching theme of abandonment. There was too little reaching out and communicating. Though of course, there were language barriers as well. How convenient.
That said, the feeling I'm left with upon completion is a haunting one. Clarissa learns enough about her mother's past to be able to put it behind her and invent a new identity in the world. A simpler one. In the whirlwind last few pages, she does figure out how to move on.
I found this book distancing, difficult to penetrate emotionally. Sometimes supercool, sometimes overwrought. Clarissa herself isn't an especially pleasant young woman: she seems remarkably immature for someone her age. I was surprised by the glowing blurbs by the likes of Michael Cunningham ("a taut, intricately layered page-turner that looks deeply and fearlessly into matters of profound human concern") and George Saunders ("What a brilliantly constructed lightning-flash of a novel: compelling, surprising, economical, lush, beautifully written"). It is well written, yes, and there are some lovely descriptions, for example of an ice hotel far above the Arctic Circle. The landscape reflects Clarissa's own sense of isolation and loss. I enjoyed the spare language.
Perhaps what I didn't like was the secrets and lies that undergird the overarching theme of abandonment. There was too little reaching out and communicating. Though of course, there were language barriers as well. How convenient.
That said, the feeling I'm left with upon completion is a haunting one. Clarissa learns enough about her mother's past to be able to put it behind her and invent a new identity in the world. A simpler one. In the whirlwind last few pages, she does figure out how to move on.