And Now You Can Go

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 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.

It's funny how infectious some of the little "tics" of the McSweeney's crowd are. For example, the title of this novel, "And now you can go," is very much in the McSweeney's idiom. It's kind of like the way the McSweeney's-ites think it's just a riot to end a letter with, "That is all." Beginning the title with "And" partakes of that same twee, ironic spirit.If you love that twee, ironic spirit--if that's your idea of literary quality--this is just the novel for you.

With this debut novel, Vendela Vida has claimed a place on my very short list of the authors I must read with a pencil in hand (for underlining the good parts and marking the margins with stars of gratitude and exclamation points of delight.) When I finished And Now You Can Go, I tried to move on to another (acclaimed, prizewinning) novel but I couldn't stop thinking about that little book, that Ellis with her increased moral depth perception and bad haircut. So I read it again. The story of Ellis's journey into "the world of people dealt unexpected blows" is full of gracefully rendered questions about guilt and innocence, strength and vulnerabilty, hurting and healing, and giving and receiving. For a new author and (I think) a young-ish person, Vendela Vida is preternaturally insightful about relationships. Actually, she's a little scary, but in a really good way!

Unlike some close-minded readers, I found the premise of basing an entire novel around one incident fascinating and was hooked after the first page. However, it was El's dry wit and sharp, detailed observations that I quickly found I could laugh out loud at and even identify with. The often sarcastic and self-deprecating tone kept me chuckling, even at seemingly serious, inappropriate moments. Unexpected moments like that are what make a story truly stand out to me. This is a terrific first novel that keeps up a swift, satisfying pace, which kept me up, finishing the book late in the night. I recommend this highly to those who are open to examining a potentially harrowing incident from a fresh, and often very witty, perspective.

I absolutely could not put this book down once I read the opening page. It was everything I expected given Vida's brilliant work in the Believer (a fabulous magazine/journal)--The prose was fresh and insightful and it was full of the wonderfully constructed, beautiful sentences a reader is lucky to find even once in a book. Ellis was at once believable and easy to identify with, yet also was a portal to seeing a familiar world in a new way (in short, everything you could want in a protagonist). I highly recommend this book to anyone.