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Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name

by Vendela Vida

3.54 · rating details · 2,028 ratings · 462 reviews

On the day of her father's funeral, twenty-eight-year-old Clarissa Iver-ton discovers that he wasn't her biological father after all. Her mother disappeared fourteen years earlier, and her fiance has just revealed a life-changing secret to her. Alone and adrift, Clarissa travels to mystical Lapland, where she believes she'll meet her real father. There, at a hotel made of

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Published January 2nd 2008 by Harper Perennial (first published January 1st 2007)

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Feb 07, 2012

Gavin rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: literary

I’ve mentioned once or thrice that where I work we have constant book donations coming in, and before we add them to our collection I get to peruse them and take what I want to read. It’s a fringe benefit that has saved me hundreds of dollars. Anyways, the other day a box of books showed up on my desk with a note. It said: Thought you might like these. No name was attached. It was like a mystery. Who would send me these books? What could be in this box that someone else might think I want...moreI’ve mentioned once or thrice that where I work we have constant book donations coming in, and before we add them to our collection I get to peruse them and take what I want to read. It’s a fringe benefit that has saved me hundreds of dollars. Anyways, the other day a box of books showed up on my desk with a note. It said: Thought you might like these. No name was attached. It was like a mystery. Who would send me these books? What could be in this box that someone else might think I wanted to read?

When I unloaded the box of books on my desk, I found that most of the titles related to the “chick-lit” variety. My excitement waned. I’m not much into reading the feely-feel good type of stuff. I took the books and placed them back in the box and then set the box out on a community table. I returned to my desk and found that I had forgotten a book. LET THE NORTHERN LIGHTS ERASE YOUR NAME by Vendela Vida. An author I had never heard of before. I don’t know why I exactly turned the book over to read the synopsis, but when I did I saw that George Saunders gave an endorsement of how wonderful the writing style was. He mentioned something about how the Spartan-quality of the writing showed that impacting novels need not be verbose. I turned to the first chapter and read it. (The chapters are short: 1-3 pages each.) He was right. The writing was beautiful. Over the next two days, I stole whatever time I had and read the book, neglecting all my other reading in the process.

The story is simple: a woman tries to piece her life back together after having suffered the emotional effects of a mother running out on her when she was still a girl; a father who passes away, but is later revealed not to be her father at all; and a mystery that brings her to Lapland, a place above the Arctic Circle. This storyline does not do justice to how wonderful this novel is. In fact, I dare say that the storyline is only a means to conveying what the real story is: How do we handle being alone when we get older? Sure all of us at one time or another during college relished our newly found freedom, thinking that life could not get any better. But, and I am not ashamed to admit this, the ability to come back to a family, people that know you, love you, want to be with you, was never too far from my mind. It was a safety blanket that kept the bitterness of loneliness at bay.

Vida remarkably describes these feelings and scenarios through prose that zings across the page. More than once I thought about Hemingway’s writing while I read this. But Vida has heart and compassion and truth, qualities I find lacking in Hemingway. The prose is crushing at times, leaving the reader feeling as if they have intentionally buried themselves in a snowdrift, but can’t get out…desperate now to find a way to survive. These moments of claustrophobia add a dimension to the story that makes the characters more than three dimensional; it makes them seem as if the reader could be starring in this story. The descriptions are sometimes surreal but never garish as if trying to say: Look at me! Don’t you see how clever I can be when I describe something?

It is not until the last thirty pages or so that the build up of the novel truly forms itself. In a way, it might be prudent to say that the first 190 pages or so where just exposition for this final showdown. (I don’t do spoilers, so I apologize for the vagueness.) And when I finished, last night, down in my home office, I quietly shut the book and thought about my father and mother and brothers and sisters and wondered what they were doing, how their lives are so mysterious to me since we all became adults. These thoughts made me very melancholy and I ached for their voices. I just wanted to say hi, ask about their children, their days, what’s new. But it was late and I was left with only my thoughts and the ticking sound of a clock. Perhaps this novel is better defined as a ghost-story for the reader, or a fragile family epic.

Intrigued, I decided to look on the internet to see what reviews I could find about the book. There aren’t many. But what I did find was this: Vendela Vida is married to Dave Eggers. I’ve never read a full Eggers book, but I can say this with the utmost confidence: If ever asked who the writer in the family is, Ms. Vida can confidently stand and say: Me.

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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Apr 14, 2008

Jess rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction

I wanted to like this book, but it never quite hooked me emotionally. At the same time, it was easy to lose myself in it, and a quick, interesting read. A lot of points felt intentionally unresolved, which bugged me some. I felt sorry for all the characters that Clarissa ditched on her literal/metaphorical journey. The sense of place was great, and the characters were often compelling (except, sometimes, Clarissa herself). But the language felt a little too self-consciously almost cute some...more

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Jun 11, 2008

Cheryl rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book tackles an interesting question: when you reach a point that you can't deal with living your own life anymore, what do you do? In this book, Clarissa Iverton, the heroine, finds out after her father's funeral that the man who raised her is not her biological father. She embarks on a quest to Lapland in search of her biological father. Needless to say, things don't go quite as she expected.

While Clarissa deserves sympathy for her circumstances, I had trouble feeling any b...moreThis book tackles an interesting question: when you reach a point that you can't deal with living your own life anymore, what do you do? In this book, Clarissa Iverton, the heroine, finds out after her father's funeral that the man who raised her is not her biological father. She embarks on a quest to Lapland in search of her biological father. Needless to say, things don't go quite as she expected.

While Clarissa deserves sympathy for her circumstances, I had trouble feeling any because of the way she handles things. She completely disregards how her words or decisions affect the people around her, a trait she seems to have inherited from her mother.

I really appreciate the lack of description in the book. While I've never been to Lapland and had hoped to learn about the people and the area, the description was sparse. This reflected Clarissa's own (lack of) understanding of and care for her surroundings. The story takes place in her head, and the details in the book revolve around her thoughts and feelings as she goes on her journey. It works nicely.

I am glad Vida gives us a glimpse of Clarissa's decision when she has uncovered the truth about her heritage, and its ramifications, but I felt Clarissa's solution was cheap. It was too easy for Clarissa to walk away from her old life completely. She is self-absorbed so she doesn't consider how leaving will affect the others in her life (e.g. her unilateral decision to keep her ex-fiance out of their child's life until (if) their daughter decides for herself to meet her father). Also, once she cuts off her fiance, she doesn't really have ties to her old life: her parents are as good as dead and her brother is in a care facilty. None of them could randomly show up later in her life and bring up the things she's left behind. Many people in her situation do have family and friends who will resist being written off, and a less self-absorbed person, I feel, would have to struggle more to break free completely. Clarissa's exit was far too clean and simple.

The book itself is well-written and an easy read. I didn't bond with any of the characters, much as I wanted to (granted, other than Clarissa, you don't know much about any of them). Clarissa's journey was compelling and thought-provoking; the ending left me skeptical and dissatisfied.(less)

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Apr 09, 2008

Pia rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: My mother.

I'm on the prowl for books about mothers leaving their daughters and this novel doesn't pull any punches. The narrator's voice is funny, worried, caustic, and she's insistent about going to the source for an answer. The story takes you to Finland and farther north, and the characters and landscape and outcome are frozen now in my memory. Vendela's sentences are compressed and multi-layered, a schooling in diction, rhythm, spareness and unfettered beauty.

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May 22, 2007

Joe rated it

· review of another edition

With chapters extending to two pages at the most and at barely two hundred pages, Let The Northern... pretty much dispenses with descriptive passages. This is especially unusual considering that its setting is Lapland, a locale that, presumably, few of its readers have visited. This is because we are firmly in the protagonist's mind. This is the real location. And our hero is so troubled and unaware of her surroundings that she barely avoids freezing to death. In her search for her biological ...more

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Dec 22, 2008

Leigh rated it

· review of another edition

I just closed the back cover and find myself breathing hard from the emotional weight of it. It is almost painful to read a story told from such a singular point of view. The mind wants to wander to how those whose lives she trampled in and out of must feel.

(And, when you read it, you'll wonder if I'm talking about the mother or the daughter. Really, I suppose, it's both.)

This book is written simply. In quick, conversational bursts. But carries with it some of the darkes...more

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Jul 22, 2008

Anastasia rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Sandra

Shelves: 2008, fiction, para-sandra

Last night, extraordinarily tired and with an upset stomach, I stayed up until 2 am reading this heartbreakingly sad and beautifully written novel.

Clarissa learns just after her father died that he was not her biological father at all. Her mother abandoned the family when Clarissa was 14 and now, at age 29, she feels completely alone and betrayed by everyone who knew that her father was not her father and never told her. She sets off on a heartbreaking journey to Lapland to meet her...more

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Mar 17, 2008

Deirdre rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Deirdre by: My mom

Short chapters and interesting subject matter makes this a quick read. I love reading about places I have never been, and after this book, I'm inspired to learn more about Lapland and the Sami people. The story was interesting and had elements of mystery, but I was ultimately disappointed with the ending. After the long, revelatory journey resulting in self-discovery, the conclusion felt rushed and left me with questions. Though I like that it would inpire some good conversation, debate even...more

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Jan 02, 2009

bookczuk rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: bookcrossing, read-on-recommendation

I first heard about this book in the HarperCollins First Look program. I was not chosen to be an advanced reader, but it did tweak my interest. Now, I've found a copy via BookCrossing!

Interesting story-- and a very quick read. I started and finished it in an evening. I did feel the ending was very abrupt and out of tone with the rest of the story, but still plausable. It was just as if the author had changed her style all of a sudden.

I know very little about Lapland and t...moreI first heard about this book in the HarperCollins First Look program. I was not chosen to be an advanced reader, but it did tweak my interest. Now, I've found a copy via BookCrossing!

Interesting story-- and a very quick read. I started and finished it in an evening. I did feel the ending was very abrupt and out of tone with the rest of the story, but still plausable. It was just as if the author had changed her style all of a sudden.

I know very little about Lapland and the Sami-- this afforded me a tiny glimpse into each. All in all, I am glad I read it.

From the Publisher

On the day of her father's funeral, twenty-eight-year-old Clarissa Iverton discovers that he wasn't her biological father after all. Her mother disappeared fourteen years earlier, and now Clarissa is alone and adrift. The one person she feels she can trust, her fiancé, Pankaj, has just revealed a terrible and life-changing secret to her. In the cycle of a day, all the truths in Clarissa's world become myths and rumors, and she is catapulted out of the life she knew.

She finds her birth certificate, which leads her from New York to Helsinki, and then north of the Arctic Circle, to mystical Lapland, where she believes she'll meet her real father. There, under the northern lights of a sunless winter, Clarissa comes to know the Sami, the indigenous population, and seeks out a local priest, the one man who may hold the key to her origins. Along her travels she meets an elderly Sami healer named Anna Kristine, who has her own secrets, and a handsome young reindeer herder named Henrik, who accompanies Clarissa to a hotel made of ice. There she is confronted with the truth about her mother's past and finally must make a decision about how—and where—to live the rest of her life.

Joan Didion said of Vendela Vida's last book: "And Now You Can Go is so fast, so mesmerizing to read, and so accomplished that it's hard to think of it as a first novel, which it is. Vendela Vida has promise to spare." With Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, Vida more than lives up to that promise as she gives us a remarkable protagonist who is both fierce and funny, and an unforgettable literary thriller that questions whether we can ever truly know where we'vecome from—and if it is possible to escape our pasts.
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Oct 13, 2011

Chelsea rated it

· review of another edition

The book focuses on a girl named Clarissa who, shorlty after her father’s death, learns that he wasn’t, in fact, her birth father. This send Clarissa on a trip around the world, back home to her mother’s old hometown in Eastern Europe, an area known as Lapland that is essentially a mixture of Russia and Sweden.

Clarissa’s mother left her at a young age, and on this trip to find her birth father, she also comes to some shocking revelations that make Clarissa see that she perhaps had mo...more

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Oct 22, 2010

Colin Miller rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: novels

Vendela Vida’s Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name may have a narrator that sours over the course of the story, but the author’s craft kept the pages turning.

Upon discovering that her recently deceased Dad is not her biological father, Clarissa Iverton sets out to discover where she really came from. With a mother who disappeared when she was 14 and a fiancé, Pankaj, who recently revealed a long-held secret, Clarissa approaches this search with a level of carelessness, striking ou...moreVendela Vida’s Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name may have a narrator that sours over the course of the story, but the author’s craft kept the pages turning.

Upon discovering that her recently deceased Dad is not her biological father, Clarissa Iverton sets out to discover where she really came from. With a mother who disappeared when she was 14 and a fiancé, Pankaj, who recently revealed a long-held secret, Clarissa approaches this search with a level of carelessness, striking out to Lapland (an area in the Arctic Circle) where she learns of and abides with the indigenous Sami people. The setting and culture are some of the novel’s greatest strengths and some of Vida’s similes are astonishingly perfect. Unfortunately, the weakest dialogue scene appears early, and though Vida’s work in this area greatly improves as the novel goes on, it’s a painful juxtaposition when appearing next to the areas she excels most.

Though Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name is told in brief chapters, it’s initially hard to hook in with the transient characters—those who are passed along the way and those who have passed (the deceased/assumed to be deceased)—and it isn’t until Clarissa stays in one main area that the reader can put down roots in the story, too. Unfortunately, though Clarissa’s character starts off as that wounded, yet witty and keen, sympathetic character, by the end of the novel, she’s unaware that she has become all the things she hates (and has convinced the reader to hate, too). While that’s partially the nature of viewing the hypocrisies of a character trapped in her own life (and a reality check that we are often more closely tied to what we want to avoid no matter how hard we try), Clarissa’s decisions are just too bluntly similar to what she hates. She strikes me as the kind of woman who would defend her actions under the feminist arguments of the world hating sophisticated and complex women, the kind of generalized diatribe you’d have to interrupt with, “Actually, I specifically don’t like you.” Regardless, for any criticism I could stick to Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, the main characters still sunk deep (even if their immorality didn’t have any further social commentary than their own vanity), the disappointment of healthy expectations unfulfilled still rang true, and I tore through the read in a few days. Three stars.
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Oct 14, 2010

Stephanie rated it

· review of another edition

After I finished reading Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, by Vendela Vida, I ruminated on it for a few days. I didn't much like it, but why? Were the reasons that I didn't like it more indicative of the book being good, or being bad? After all, much of my ambivalence came from my disapproval of the choices that the main character, Clarissa, made. If these poor choices were entirely within Clarissa's character -- if the author, Ms. Vida -- created a consistent and believable portrait ...moreAfter I finished reading Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, by Vendela Vida, I ruminated on it for a few days. I didn't much like it, but why? Were the reasons that I didn't like it more indicative of the book being good, or being bad? After all, much of my ambivalence came from my disapproval of the choices that the main character, Clarissa, made. If these poor choices were entirely within Clarissa's character -- if the author, Ms. Vida -- created a consistent and believable portrait of a young woman, is that not to Ms. Vida's credit? After all, what I did like very much about the book was the way that Ms. Vida endowed even her very minor characters with distinctive and consistent personalities that she painted with just a few deft strokes (I also quite liked Ms. Vida's prose and her evocative descriptions). Perhaps my disapproval of Clarissa's choices is the best evidence that Ms. Vida created a memorable character in writing about Clarissa.

The book opens with Clarissa's father's death. Her mother ran out on Clarissa and her father and her younger, retarded brother years ago -- they never knew where she had gone or why she left, and eventually assumed that she was dead. As she mourns her father and clears out his desk, Clarissa finds and reads her own birth certificate for the first time and makes a horrible discovery: the man she thought was her father was not. Her real father is somewhere in Finland, in Lapland, one of the indigenous Sami people. Clarissa runs away to Finland to find her biological father without telling her fiance she is leaving, much like her own mother did. Clarissa eventually finds out who her father is, and, perhaps not-so-coincidentally, having been befriended and aided by her father's family, runs away from them, too, just as she did to her fiance and just as her mother did to her. The last few pages of the book form kind of a whirlwind of an epilogue, where we learn that Clarissa never returns to her fiance, but eventually meets and marries a man to whom she is dishonest just as her parents were to her, to whom she only tells the incomplete story of part of her past. These all are choices of which I disapprove.

And so we come back to my mother's recipe for what makes a good book: "plot," said my mother, "and character development, and some kind of interior growth and change for the characters." (See my review of Joanne Harris's Five Quarters of the Orange.) Ms. Vida's got "plot" in spades. She's also got a powerful lot of "character development." But where she falls short -- and where my disapproval of Clarissa's choices points to Ms. Vida's shortcomings rather than to her strengths -- is "interior growth and change for the characters." I understand that Clarissa was hurt and shattered by her mother's leaving and by her parents' dishonesty in not telling her the truth about her parentage. I understand that, greiving her father twofold (once for his death, and once for her loss of him as father) she could be so distraught as to run out on her poor fiance and not tell him where she was going or when or if she'd come back. But then -- after finding her father, after finding the truth about herself and her mother, after going on a truly enormous voyage of discovery and self-discovery -- Clarissa continues to repeat her mistakes and her mother's mistakes, committing the same crimes of dishonesty and abandonment on her poor fiance (and retarded brother?), her biological father's family, and on her future husband that we learn about in the last few pages. No interior growth or change there.

I don't want to read a book that illustrates the truth of that aphorism that those who don't learn from the past are condemned to repeat it. I want to read a book where the main character does learn from the past and chooses not to repeat it. (less)

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Sep 22, 2010

Trishnyc rated it

· review of another edition

Clarissa is cleaning up her recently deceased father's apartment when she comes across her birth certificate. She is shocked to discover that the man she has always known to be her father is not biologically related to her. Clarissa is further shocked to discover that her fiance, Pankaj, had known of her parentage many years before but never divulged this information. Clarissa lashes out at him I believe in part because there is really no one else to visit her anger on. Her mother left when she ...moreClarissa is cleaning up her recently deceased father's apartment when she comes across her birth certificate. She is shocked to discover that the man she has always known to be her father is not biologically related to her. Clarissa is further shocked to discover that her fiance, Pankaj, had known of her parentage many years before but never divulged this information. Clarissa lashes out at him I believe in part because there is really no one else to visit her anger on. Her mother left when she was 14/15, never to be seen again, the man she thought was her father is dead and her only living relative is her developmentally challenged brother who has never spoken. Pankaj becomes her easy scape goat upon whom to rain her venom.

I finished this book yesterday and I am still wrestling with how I feel about Clarissa. She is a woman in pain and quite honestly has been for a long time. Even before her mother's disappearance, she was never the best of mothers. Her mother was always flighty, shallow and seemed to pick up and drop people at will. But a parent is a parent and Clarissa misses her mother intensely when she is gone. She even goes searching for her mother on more than one occasion. With this as a backdrop, I can understand some of Clarissa's decisions while shaking my head at others. Upon her discovery of her parentage, she leaves her fiance in New York, without a word to him as to her plans and goes in search of her biological father who lives in Lapland. Her journey reflects a young woman battling emotional issues, anger and a descent into recklessness. She meets and "befriends" a varied cast of characters without a lot of concern for her safety. Its almost like she is dead inside and is looking for a way to get a reaction by putting herself in danger. I was saddened for her while at the same time exasperated at her behavior.

By the end, she makes some very drastic decisions that I could not fully fathom. On the one hand I could sympathize with her need to leave her cloying past behind and start anew but why discard so much? I can understand and commiserate with the need to separate from the things and people that have shaped us, but the way in which she makes a clean break is cold and bloodless. Without maybe even realizing or fully acknowledging it, Clarissa becomes like the mother who hurt her so painfully.

Clarissa's mother is a very interesting character herself. Here we are presented with a woman who has two children and is unapologetic about casting them aside and moving on. No care, no remorse. It was a bit shocking to read.

This is a very quiet and atmospheric book. Reading about life in Lapland reminds me of cold and snow drenched environs where the ice on the ground muffles sound. This cold, bare and frigid setting echoes the plot quite seamlessly.(less)

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Jun 24, 2010

Caitlin Constantine rated it

· review of another edition

I picked this up after reading an interview with Dave Eggers in Creative Nonfiction. I have a bit of a shameful crush on Eggers (for some reason I feel as though this is a bad thing, but I really do think he's great) and so when I found out that his wife was a writer, I felt like I should see what kind of writer she was, just out of curiosity (not because I'm a big ole stalker).

At first, I was a bit put off by the dialogue in the book, which seemed a bit stilted and unnatural, a lit...more

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Oct 18, 2009

lnb rated it

Shelves: in-2k9

pretty good. it was hard to put down and the writing was good, it was just... really workshoppy in parts and i kept comparing it to the tricking of freya, which in fairness is only actually somewhat similar, but freya is a really incredible book that tells an emotionally wrenching story in an isolated setting very well, and this one could have done that but didn't.

however, i did appreciate clarissa. i guess i found her empathetic because i automatically kind of give free passes to pe...more

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Sep 21, 2009

Matt rated it

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I'm a little frustrated with people who pigeonhole all "McSweeney's authors" as sharing a sensibility that can be described as knee-jerk sarcasm and smarm, because I don't think that describes the books or what I like of the real shared sensibility, which I take as a sort of commitment to internationalism, the sense that there is a world outside of the US that flies in the face of commercial consideration, but which I think also has the potential to really open up the books to some dif...more

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Nov 11, 2010

Marek rated it

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This is a deceptively easy read. I read it in a day. Truly, it is better that you know less about the plot of this novel as you read it. The suprises are earth shaking for the protagonist, Clarissa, and turn out to be just as earth shaking to you as you discover them along with her.

I highly recommend this book...it covers topics that are heavy and full of so much weight, and yet Vida creates a beautiful life from them in this novel. I can't truly describe how much I love this boo...more

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Jul 01, 2010

Lizzie rated it

Shelves: 2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I got this as an impulse buy in a $2 sale at B&N. I was pretty sure it would be a good idea. Once I checked Goodreads it turned out I'd read a 5 star review not long ago, but I think that even if it hadn't been I would still have remembered it for its completely totally amazing title. (I was a little sad when I learned Vida borrowed it from a poem of the same name. But it's ok.)

I still didn't know what I was going to be getting, though -- the back flap describes answers being foun...moreI got this as an impulse buy in a $2 sale at B&N. I was pretty sure it would be a good idea. Once I checked Goodreads it turned out I'd read a 5 star review not long ago, but I think that even if it hadn't been I would still have remembered it for its completely totally amazing title. (I was a little sad when I learned Vida borrowed it from a poem of the same name. But it's ok.)

I still didn't know what I was going to be getting, though -- the back flap describes answers being found at a hotel made of ice. Would that be real? Why yes it would.

Clarissa is a great narrator. She's really easy to understand, and some of her keener moments of despair are really painful. "I felt like a shattered window." Her constant travel is really effective for this story, and you feel tired right along with her.

I'm not the biggest fan of the trope when a woman with a bad mother solves the equation by becoming a mother herself, but that was somewhat effective here too.

Tiny problem: it wasn't clear why, near the end, she kept thinking the snowmobiler was going to kill her on their way to the cabin? It looked really irrational so I wondered if we were supposed to start doubting her, or what's going on. It was an important and suspenseful part of the journey, so confusion was sort of distracting.

And it connects to one of my only disbelief-suspending problems, which is that Clarissa does a lot of things that are a really bad idea for a woman to do alone while traveling anywhere. She's not cautious. I like her lack of caution, as a trait in the story, but it's not quite indicated to us that the author is thinking about it either.

The major theme in the book is very strong: "I recognized the desire to erase someone." Though she's also extremely painful, it was interesting to sometimes understand Olivia really well too. I think I'd like to read the philosophy article Vida mentions in the back, "Against Narravity," about whether everyone always connects the present to the past.(less)

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Apr 18, 2010

Kieran Walsh rated it

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I started the book with little hopes but actually liked it increasingly as it progressed. Clarissa (her name alone should be an insight into her destiny) is surrounded by a set of circumstances (mother abandoned her when she's 14, father has just died, fiance just told her that he knew for years that her 'father' really wasn't her biological relative) and simply escapes or rather vanishes, searching for her real father (a Sami priest in Lapland). The journey is a somewhat coming of age experienc...more

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Aug 29, 2011

Honey-Squirrel rated it

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This intriguing novel features largely unsympathetic characters, a bleak, cold environment, and spare, brisk storytelling. The plot is set in motion by a biological identity crisis, as Clarissa, the protagonist, sets off from New York on a journey to unearth her roots north of the Arctic Circle. Later, the novel reveals her earlier experience with sexual violence, as well as her mother's. The novel's two main themes are intertwined. The first is the inherent challenge in severing one's circumsta...more

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Aug 08, 2010

Sull rated it

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Recommended to Sull by: Charity shop

This was interesting, but not richly rewarding. I really liked the premise, of a sort of mysteriously multi-cultural girl searching for her possible roots in Lapland. But there seemed something sloppy & half-developed about the narrative.

Somehow I'm not surprised to find that the author is married to Dave Eggars & is a magazine founder & editor. The novel is maybe a good magazine story, maybe.... It had very interesting, modern bits--flirting, drinking & partying in strange foreign ...more

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Jul 03, 2011

John Brookes rated it

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Vida, writing her second novel, uses a prose that is both sparse and detached – a mode which perfectly matches both the isolation of the location and the emotional detachment of the main protagonist, Clarissa Iverton. The main plot is equally economic – Clarissa’s mother, Olivia, disappeared when she was 14 years old, leaving her and her severely disabled brother to be raised by her father. At the age of 28, her father dies and she discovers that he was not actually her biological father. As a r...moreVida, writing her second novel, uses a prose that is both sparse and detached – a mode which perfectly matches both the isolation of the location and the emotional detachment of the main protagonist, Clarissa Iverton. The main plot is equally economic – Clarissa’s mother, Olivia, disappeared when she was 14 years old, leaving her and her severely disabled brother to be raised by her father. At the age of 28, her father dies and she discovers that he was not actually her biological father. As a result, Clarissa abandons her fiancé and travels from her native New York to the northern Arctic region of Sápmi. She knows from family papers that this is where her absent mother travelled to in her youth (during a time of local protest at the building of a dam in the area by the Norwegian government). Clarissa travels to this remote, snowbound location with the vague notion of finding some answers as to the true nature of her birth and parentage. Despite some red herrings, she finally does find some unexpected truths – with consequences that are both devastating yet redemptive.

However, it is not just the plot that makes this brief novel so engaging: as indeed it is. Vida’s sparing prose eloquently reflects both the isolation not only of the Arctic landscape - which is depicted beautifully – but also the emotional isolation of the main characters. Indeed, all of these characters reflect their surroundings in their detachment… Clarissa, in leaving for Sápmi without telling her fiancé shows the same lack of empathy as did her mother in leaving her and father; her disabled brother, Jeremy, is ultimately detached in being unable to engage with others or respond to any form of stimuli; and most of the well-intentioned Sámi that Clarissa meets on her journey are unable to engage due to language barriers with her. One exception to the latter group is Henrik, a local Sámi – a young reindeer farmer – whom Clarissa befriends and who she briefly harbours feelings for (although the romantic potential of this narrative arc inevitably falls victim to the isolationist mise-en-scène of the novel).

There are resolutions of sorts in this story, though I would not wish to spoil these for potential readers by going into too much detail here... suffice to say that there are certain denouements along the way. These are generally more of a surprise to Clarissa than the reader as they are quite obviously signposted by Vida… and ultimately the plot is counterbalanced by a conclusion which is most likely more satisfactory to Clarissa than the reader!

Aside from the main narrative, what Vida offers in terms of bringing the Sápmi region to life for the reader is a combination of evocative description and cultural context.

In terms of description, Vida uses her sparse prose to effectively depict the landscape of this desolate Arctic region. Often the best descriptions involve metaphors employed by the American narrator in describing this unfamiliar landscape, for instance: “The sun never rose, but at ten thirty, the sky looked like a dark blue parachute concealing a flame”…”The snow beneath my feet sparkled like sunlit cement…”

Vida is equally efficient in her coverage of the political / cultural issues of this region. Notably, she sets a key period of Clarissa’s mother’s life in Sápmi at the time of the Alta Dam protests in the late 1970s / early 1980s. This was a major protest by the Sámi against the proposed construction of a dam and hydroelectric power plant by the Norwegian government, that would create an artificial lake and inundate the Sámi village of Máze. More than one thousand protesters chained themselves to the site when the work started again in January 1981. The police responded with large forces, and at one point 10% of all Norwegian police officers were stationed in Alta. The protesters were forcibly removed by police.

At the time a number of Sámi were arrested and charged with violating laws against rioting. The central organisations for the Sámi people discontinued all co-operation with the Norwegian government. Two Sámi women even travelled to Rome to petition the Pope. However, ultimately the power plant was built.

Aside from this specific example, Vida also refers to a more insidious influence on the region by the established governments to the South. At one point Clarissa hitches a ride with a native called Sara who tells her story: “At a young age, she was sent to a Norwegian school, as were most of the Sámi in Finnmark at that time. ‘The government wanted the children to learn Norwegian, so we were sent to schools where we slept and lived… [as a result] I was so taken from my heritage that I was embarrassed when I saw the [Alta Dam] protesters’ ”.

In conclusion, this was a book that I greatly enjoyed – not only because it was well written and engaging in a narrative sense – but also because I learnt, through a fictional setting, about a land and a culture of which I was previously unaware. (less)

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Apr 23, 2010

Jennifer rated it

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Jan 03, 2011

AdultFiction Teton County LIbrary rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Teton County Library Call No: F VIDA
Marisa's rating: 4 stars

This was a great short read with a very interesting writing style. The plot of a daughter who on the day of her father's funeral finds out he is not her biological dad is intriguing enough. But add a trip to the northern most parts of Finland to visit the indigenous Sami and this becomes quite beautiful. The books is broken into very short chapters with almost abrupt endings. I loved how linguistically modern and sophi...more

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Jun 21, 2011

Nicky rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011, kindle-reads

Yet another Kindle bargain, I was planning on checking out this author anyway after reading her story "Soleil", a stand-out in the mostly sub-par anthology The Book of Other People. I found a couple of the plot points a little dubious but the book was written so well and with such heart and humour that any problems I had with what was actually happening were soon forgotten. I'm not talking schmaltz and hugs here, the main character's not exactly BFF material but I could recognise and s...more

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Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it · review of another edition

Vendela Vida, coeditor of The Believer magazine and author of 2003's And Now You Can Go, has written a memorable__and powerful__novel. Bleak, spare, and intense, it wrestles with issues of identity, family, and obligation. Vida's stripped-down prose earns her admiration and comparisons to Joan Didion (The New York Times, The Hartford Courant), and critics praise her vivid evocation of the harsh northern landscape. Clarissa's quest is heartbreaking, but light touches of humor provide some relief.

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Feb 06, 2010

Eridani rated it

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May 19, 2009

Rachael rated it

· review of another edition

Lapland is the rustic territory at the northern most point of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The Sami are native to this area of our world, and many small Sami communities still struggle to exist. Clarissa Iverton travels to Lapland in search of her biological father. "There at a hotel made of ice, Clarrissa is confronted with the truth about her mother's history, and must make a decision about how and where to live the rest of her life." This is one of my favorite books of the...more

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Jan 28, 2012

Kat rated it

· review of another edition

it seems that most english fiction that i get from the library here in oslo have some mention of scandanavia. maybe just the word "aquavite" pops up, or there's mention of travel to oslo, or as in this case, the character travels to finland and norway. i wonder what type of search program they use to choose their books! this was the first book by vendela vida i have read. Her writing is simple and clean and the story was fast and fascinating. a 28 year old woman whose mother left her w...more

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Sep 27, 2010

Leesa rated it

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About Vendela Vida

Vendela Vida (born September 6, 1971) is an American novelist, journalist, and editor who lives in Sausalito with her husband, writer and publisher Dave Eggers. She graduated from San Francisco University High School in her hometown before attending Middlebury College as an undergraduate. She received an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. She has written three books, Girls on the Ve...more

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Books by Vendela Vida

The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers

Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Drive-bys, and Other Initiations

The Believer, Issue 58: November / December 2008 Visual Art Issue

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