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Zazen

by Vanessa Veselka (Goodreads Author)

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 578 ratings · 150 reviews

Somewhere in Della’s consumptive, industrial wasteland of a city, a bomb goes off. It is not the first, and will not be the last.

Reactions to the attacks are polarized. Police activity intensifies. Della’s revolutionary parents welcome the upheaval but are trapped within their own insular beliefs. Her activist restaurant co-workers, who would rather change their identities...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published May 22nd 2011 by Red Lemonade/Cursor

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Apr 13, 2013 Nataliya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Nataliya by: Kris

Shelves: 2013-reads

"Sometimes you just need to be someone else, someone who doesn’t care about anything at all. I know I do. I want emptiness but I can’t have it."

I read this book because of the amazing review Kris wrote, and she truly has an impeccable taste in books. The memory of her praise of this slim volume was what kept me from giving up through the first third of the story, until finally the book gripped my heart and insisted that I continue with it, until I finally was powerless to put it down.

"Lately

...more

"Sometimes you just need to be someone else, someone who doesn’t care about anything at all. I know I do. I want emptiness but I can’t have it."

"Lately, I’ve become afraid that the feeling I used to feel, like something good was waiting, is what people mean when they say “young” and that it is nothing more than a chemical associated with a metabolic process and not anything real at all."

The core of this book hinges not on the plot but on the metaphor-laden emotions and feelings - desperate and overpowering ones. It's very internally oriented - which eventually becomes its strongest point.

“I wish it were enough just to be alive.”
I knew what she meant more than anything I had ever known.

Narrated by a character who recently has gone through a significant (even if not much alluded to) mental breakdown and is in the utmost fragile mental state ("my wiring was shot and I cried all the time"), Zazen is filled to the brim with trembling tense panic, raw staccato emotions, disdain of conformity and nonconformity alike, loss and isolation and alienation, suffocating fear and anger, deep intense longing for something that at last can be real, and overpowering desire to run away from it all - to the place where something will somehow be better.

"I’d like to see something happen. Something big that wasn’t scary, just beautiful. Some kind of wonderful surprise. Like how fireworks used to feel."

Della, emotionally fragile paleontologist turned waitress at a vegan restaurant, is very isolated and quite misanthropic, secretly harboring a "hidden desire for things not to be fucked, to belong somewhere". A child of the radical revolutionary parents, she exists in a world of the contrasts and divides.

On one side there is the suffocating fakeness of the all-is-hunky-dory culture venerating mass consumerism, worshiping it in the box-mall-church. On another side, there is the counterculture of rejection and resistance, bordering on hatred and destruction. And somewhere - place them yourself - are those "so thoroughly anchored into some sort of pop culture aesthetic that nothing can knock me over or wash me away or make me hate everyone".

But is any of that *real* in a sense we perceive real? Real as in 'free from fake', free of the pre-packaged ready-to-consume one-size-fits-most roles and identities that are so easily doled out by the culture where patriotism and shopping are intertwined? Is is any wonder Della is angry and confused? Is it any wonder she feels lost? Is it any wonder she notices that "...Everyone had a pretty good reason to blow up a building. I agreed with most of them."?

"War A is going well and no longer a threat, small and mature. Like a bonsai. War B is in full flower. Its thin green shoots reaching across the ocean floor like fiber optic cable. Our only defense is attack."

Is it any wonder she feels trapped in a world perpetually on a brink of war, where bombs go off, children die, and there people who in protest set themselves on fire?

"And they were all like that, macrobiotic Belgian trust-fund junkies, park bench anarchists, mean white lesbians in canvas clothing and dreadlocks—each ready to denounce you as a cop at the slightest sign of dissent. My dirty little secret was that I only liked militants at a distance. Up close I couldn’t stand them. Their targets were always the same, a cow path from the cell to the Great Reactionary Dawn. I wanted something more creative than dead clerks."

A child of radicals, a sister of an activist, a friend (or at least an associate) of those who can be easily called domestic terrorists, Della strikes me as first of all a pacifist. She may be fascinated with bombs and self-immolation and such - but, after all, all she really wants is for "everything to be okay, everything to change, and no one to get hurt." And the world does not work that way, sadly.

"That’s the problem with symbolic gestures. People never take them far enough."

And the world does not run on symbolic gestures only. But *real* gestures - Della eventually comes to see that they are not an alternative - not for her, at least.
--------------
The tense panic, the longing, the fear of passivity and fear of violence, the need for acceptance, the search for real identity - all those things screaming from the pages of this metaphor-laden book, and try as hard as I can I'm unable to stop thinking about it.

"I also knew what it was like to be somewhere foreign, waiting for the person you used to be to show up."

I have spent a few days trying to come to terms with what I feel about this book. I've never really felt that lost or desperate or that lonely as Della does - so why did it ultimately begin to resonate with me this hard? Because it plays on our inner essential desire for things to be fine, for the world to be *real*, for love instead of hatred?

Maybe so. I don't know - maybe I need a few more years on my shoulders to understand everything that is going through my own head right now. What I do know is that this book still hasn't let me go - and for this I can give it 4.5 stars without much hesitation.

"Annette says I’m too hard on the world, that I only see one side.
Grace says I’m afraid of my own longing.
I looked around at the smoke and people. I couldn’t find any hate in me anywhere. The world is a violent child none of us will get to see grow up.
I decided to love it anyway."

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Nov 25, 2012 Kris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Kris by: Proustitute

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, favorites

I went to work and a guy I wait on said he was leaving. He said everyone he knew was pulling out.
“Canada is just not far enough. Mostly Mexico. A bunch to Thailand. Some to Bali.”
He always orders a Tofu Scramble and makes me write a fucking essay to the cook. No soy sauce in the oil mix, no garlic, extra tomato, no green pepper. Add feta. Potatoes crispy and when are we going to get spelt. He holds me personally responsible for his continued patronage. I hope he dies. I’d like to read about it.

M...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, 2012

The world is a violent child none of us will get to see grow up.

The writing in this book is unlike anything else I can think of. Veselka has her own style, her own voice. And it’s awesome.

This book is like a constant panic attack. The tension chokes you.

Della, our protagonist, is sharply observant and enjoyably critical of all these things in the world today. You know, tofu and de-caf and soy and vegan and

yoga.

The woman behind the counter was wearing a tank top that had “Namaste!” written acro...more

20 likes · like · see review

Jan 25, 2012 Proustitute rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, five-stars, science-and-speculative-fiction, favorites, 2012

A fantastic debut that makes me less worried about the future of fiction. This is a book like no other, and Veselka's prose is raw, poetic, gritty, and tapped in to social anxieties and political unrest in almost prophetic ways. nthword's review is well worth reading.

10 likes · like · see review

Mar 19, 2013 Emma rated it 4 of 5 stars

Somewhere in Della's consumptive, industrial wasteland of a city, a bomb goes off. It is not the first, and will not be the last .

A few pages into this book I said to myself ‘oh dear, this one is not for me’. I had no idea where I was and everybody was speaking in tongues. I had an hour to kill before my body pump class and thought I may as well carry on. I’d abandon ship though, defo, just a few more chapters and then I’d get on with my day.

I ended up skipping my gym class, skipped lunch, skip...more

17 likes · like · see review

Nov 28, 2012 Mosca rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Good Friends

Recommended to Mosca by: Siiri

Shelves: to-be-re-read, favorites

-----------------------------------------

Almost anything I say will insufficiently describe this book. But I will say a few things that will, hopefully, do this book some justice.

Vanessa Veselka is one of those priceless writers who speak their own language with skill, wit, compassion, and vision. I have read no other writers who write like she does. As far as I can tell, she imitates no one. But she may, indeed, inspire imitators.

Vaselka's prose is a treat. She repeatedly teases us with humor,...more

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Sep 15, 2011 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

It took me a while to get involved in Zazen, and there was a pronounced difference between my investment in the first half of the novel and the second. The second half was so strong, though, that I ended up really liking it, and being challenged in the ways I like fiction to challenge me: it made me think, and not just abstractly. I was reminded quite a bit of both Joy Williams and and Helen Garner, especially Garner's Monkey Grip which is also set deeply within a particular countercultural mili...more It took me a while to get involved in Zazen, and there was a pronounced difference between my investment in the first half of the novel and the second. The second half was so strong, though, that I ended up really liking it, and being challenged in the ways I like fiction to challenge me: it made me think, and not just abstractly. I was reminded quite a bit of both Joy Williams and and Helen Garner, especially Garner's Monkey Grip which is also set deeply within a particular countercultural milieu of a particular city (Melbourne, in that case). The constant tension of Zazen, the way neither narrator or narrative ever relax for a moment, was gripping if anxious, and the way protagonist Della is overwhelmed and mostly paralyzed by that tension was relatable and familiar and all the more uncomfortable for it. And there are some phenomenal, subtle descriptions of that alienation, a simultaneous, contradictory desire to be engaged in and removed from the world, like this one:

I crossed back over the river. On the water, the city upon the hill wavered, an inverted reflection, and broke into scallops of stuttering light as the sun set. I went to de-paving party once and watched people tear up a parking lot. I cried and cried because I’m a sap and it was so fucking hopeful I felt ashamed to even be there. I never let myself believe things like that can happen but I finally admitted that hidden in my scientist’s mind was a dancehall that I had kept shuttered. I forgot the prettiest fossils are worthless. All the important material eaten by crystals. I felt like that was what was happening to me.

While I wouldn't want to sap that tension, though, I did wonder if there was room in the novel to broaden its perspective at times. Being so entrenched in a particular socio-political set, and most of the characters from that set seeming fairly one-dimensional, became wearing after a while so I really appreciated the rare moment when we got a glimpse of an authorial perspective larger than character perspective. The most powerful of these was when a mother breaks down after buying a doll she can't really afford for her daughter then losing it in an evacuation from the mall. There's an acknowledgement that other people, the less radical and less hip and less "enlightened" (in the eyes of these characters), are also suffering and anxious and leading complicated lives. That insularity of political POV lessened quite a bit in the second half, and I think that — even more than the more active plot later on — is why I found it more engaging than the first, and why ultimately I liked the novel as much as I did.(less)

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Apr 29, 2011 Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars

When I saw video from the Japanese tsunami, it struck me how badly Hollywood gets it wrong when it comes to depicting disasters. Hollywood always shows bystanders standing in awe or running away hysterical, while the Japanese video showed people looking so sad at the sight of ocean waves flowing through their city streets. It’s that kind of emotional realism that drives Zazen, and what sets Vanessa Veselka apart from other novelists setting their stories in post-911 ‘life during wartime’-style l...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Kaila rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, fiction, dystopia

Undeniably bittersweet reaction to this book. A number of reviewers here have said what a hard time they had getting into it, but after a while they were completely sucked in. For me, it was the opposite. I thought the first 50 pages absolutely brilliant and it kept making me want to cry. Somewhere along the line, though, it lost me. I stopped being able to sympathize with Della and started smacking my head saying STOP BEING STUPID.

But it's hard to be smart when there are bombs going off everywh...more

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Nov 30, 2012 jess rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, fiction, ladyish

this was my first book of 2012. i decided to re-read it as one of my last books of 2012, so i'll be revisiting it soon. i don't think i've ever read a book twice in one year in my entire adult life, so that's big.

I have actually spent the past eleven months trying to figure out what to write about this book. I wanted to wordsmith the perfect things to make you understand it, to understand me. holding this book and reading it, i felt a way that i haven't felt since the first time i read geek lov...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Lavinia Ludlow rated it 4 of 5 stars

Vanessa Veselka has shelled out a book worthy of widespread recognition. Original and brilliant, Zazen details the life of Della Mylinak, a post-graduate yoga-practicing misanthropic waitress who navigates through (what I’d like to call) a dystopian existential crisis. When everyone else is leaving the United States—now a war-torn country of daily violence—for safer regions of the world like Honduras, Mexico, and Indonesia, Della opts instead to sign up for yoga classes and take a job at a vegan...more Vanessa Veselka has shelled out a book worthy of widespread recognition. Original and brilliant, Zazen details the life of Della Mylinak, a post-graduate yoga-practicing misanthropic waitress who navigates through (what I’d like to call) a dystopian existential crisis. When everyone else is leaving the United States—now a war-torn country of daily violence—for safer regions of the world like Honduras, Mexico, and Indonesia, Della opts instead to sign up for yoga classes and take a job at a vegan café. She brushes aside distractions like sex parties and exotic vacations, taking note of the state of her country through dark observations:

“I went into the kitchen and pulled a five-gallon bucket out of the fridge. They stack the tofu in soft blocks at the bottom of a bucket of water. With dirty hands I scooped out the tofu and threw a handful into the blender, little white clay hearts. Then I filled it to the brim with blackberries. I pressed the “chop” on the blender because it’s louder and takes longer and in a second the blackberries stained those little white hearts and turned them dark as a bruise. I left the blender on. It took over the restaurant. Everyone tried harder and harder to ignore the noise but the more they did, the longer I let it run. There should be some price to pay for all of this ugliness, especially the pretty kind; especially the kind you don’t always see.”

At times, it seemed like I was reading some disturbed teenage girl’s diary ranting about human nature, people setting themselves on fire, rallies and protests, and yet, Veselka writes a softened grace into Della’s voice as to prevent her narration from coming off too haughty or bitchy. There are always redeeming lines that shift the pessimistic weight of the content, balancing out the overall tone of the book. An example would be Zazen’s fiercely brilliant closing:

“I looked around at the smoke and people. I couldn’t find any hate in me anywhere. The world is a violent child none of us will get to see grow up. I decided to love it anyway.”

An artful take on self-destruction, the identity crisis, and a modern dystopia, Veselka has crafted one of the most impactful female voices in fiction I’ve yet to come across. Zazen is a leader in the indie lit scene in not only breadth, but style and tone.

Purchase directly through the publisher, Red Lemonade http://redlemona.de/, or seek out at indie bookstores or major online retailers.
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Jan 22, 2013 Nikkidarling rated it 5 of 5 stars

Zazen by Vanessa Veselka is the first book of fiction I have been able to complete in a really long time. Something about being a philosophy major damaged that part of my brain that can process stories but I think I'm in remission. It's a novel about an alterna-verse Portland, Oregon in which everything is on fire. It reads like the inside of the head of someone who recently experienced a psychotic break or who is experiencing a psychotic break slowly, with everything around her becoming less re...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Mimi Wolske rated it 3 of 5 stars

“I went to work and a guy I wait on said he was leaving.”

Everyone's leaving the United States—now a war-torn country plagued with daily violence—for safer regions of the world and Della Mylinak, a post-graduate yoga-practicing misanthropic waitress, is caught in an emotional battle: should she stay or should she leave the country that’s decaying and disappearing around her or should she help to bring it down faster?

Yes, she opts to stay...and takes a job in the cafe waiting on people who are lea...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Martin McClellan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very interesting, bold and impressive debut novel by Veselka (who it happens, I know, so temper my review by that if you must).

A book that might be deemed "poetic", if that didn't have the taint of faint damning. Veselka's strengths to my reading are two-fold:

1. She has a wonderful eye for simile and metaphor, each use seeming non-obvious but natural in its feel so as to be part of the story and not part of the writer.
2. She absolutely skewers the radical left in a way that only one who has b...more

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Dec 12, 2011 Patrice rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who's lived in Oregon

Shelves: 2011, oregon, portlandia

This book reminded me so much of living in Oregon. It felt good to read this book and connect with the scenes, characters, language, and plot.

I felt like I had met some of the characters in this book while living in Ashland, Oregon and Portland.

Set in a dystopian society possibly in the future - possibly in the present this book is a must read for anyone who has spent any time living in the Pacific Northwest.

The main character, Della is up at odds with the state of her world. Mix in anarchist...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Richard Thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars

[This review was originally published at The Nervous Breakdown.]

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
—Karl Marx

One of the first books released by Red Lemonade, the visionary new press brought to life by ex-Soft Skull patriarch Richard Nash, Zazen by Vanessa Veselka is a powerful, political, sometimes humorous, often frightening portrait of a parallel world that lurks in the near future in all of its dystopian glory. Della is caught in an emotional battle, deciding...more

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Jun 21, 2011 Ryandake rated it 5 of 5 stars

i'm going to do something i never thought i'd have cause to do.

ready?

i'm going to publicly declare unadulterated book love. if i could marry this book, i would, but human-biblio marriages are not yet on the public radar. if i could have this book's baby, i would. if it were my life or this book's life, i would throw mine down gladly. five stars is not enough; if i could adorn this book with the night sky, i'd do it.

it's Zazen. it's probably not in your library, but if you live in one of those fo...more i'm going to do something i never thought i'd have cause to do.

ready?

i'm going to publicly declare unadulterated book love. if i could marry this book, i would, but human-biblio marriages are not yet on the public radar. if i could have this book's baby, i would. if it were my life or this book's life, i would throw mine down gladly. five stars is not enough; if i could adorn this book with the night sky, i'd do it.

it's Zazen. it's probably not in your library, but if you live in one of those fortunate states that still funds their libraries, make them order it. if you can't, buy it. if you can't buy it at your local indie bookstore, buy it online at Powell's, that's where i got it. if you have to get on a plane and fly to Portland and sit outside Powell's until they get a new shipment, do it.

you can read the summary of the book above. the summary does not do it justice, not at all. and the whole alternate-world thing isn't really relevant to the guts of this story. doesn't hurt it either, but it's not at all what makes this story work so gorgeously.

it's the voice, the voice of the narrator. it is so stunningly unique, diamond-hard and silk at the same time. this book's rhythms slide between pounding hot iron at a forge and sleepy, half-remembered dreams in a perfect, seamless weld.

the book asks what any sentient human in these times must: what do you do with all this pain? how can we live day to day with all these wars, and our blue planet's unraveling, and all the endless sound and fury we collectively endure while achieving, seemingly, so little progress toward any sort of nirvana?

and the real thrill of it is, this book pulls it off and often makes you laugh yourself senseless.

on a weird whim, i bought an autographed copy. it's going on my shelves next to my autographed vonnegut and my autographed studs terkel, two writers who also looked clear-eyed at our times and our species and found, despite it all, cause for hope.

and bittersweet, but undeniably sweet, laughter.(less)

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Jan 13, 2013 Hollowspine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Zazen is the story of an America at war, war reaching all the way to American suburbia. Della is back from grad school, her virtually useless PhD not offering her much comfort. (?) Wish I could have afforded to stay in school studying something I liked for that long. She works at a vegetarian cafe, and lives, temporally, in the attic of her brother and his pregnant wife's house. Although I believe that Della would like people to think that she is an introverted misanthrope, she is in fact quite...more

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Aug 20, 2011 Erin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

I appreciated that this was a story involving radical politics that didn't turn into a story about the main character realizing that radicalism is horrible and dangerous and totally wrong - that was refreshing. This book was delightfully non-judgmental. I don't know, I love vegans and sex parties and farm collectives. They're all a little silly and earnest (yes, even the sex parties), but I feel an undeniable fondness for that sort of thing, and usually when they show up in books it is solely as...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 01, 2011 Meghan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, post-apocalyptic

Issued by a small press called Red Lemonade, this first novel by a Portland writer strikes right to the heart of an alternate near future, where the one war is still going but the second war hasn't quite started, and the bombs are a daily fear but also could just be mostly in your head. The main character Della is in her late 20s, working as a waitress at a vegan-ish diner where the customers debate which country they should move to - Bali, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka? But the time for getting out mig...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the best books I’ve read this year. I immediately connected with Della because I know exactly how she felt. Every time I check the news I get more depressed about what I view to be the state of this country. I read about murders, social injustice, a**hole politicians, all of the -isms, you name it–and sometimes it’s really hard for me not to say “f*ck it” and throw in the towel. There are days when all I really want to do is sit on my couch and stare out the window for hours at a...more

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Jun 09, 2011 Cari rated it 5 of 5 stars

I finished Zazen two days ago (devoured it in two days) and I can't stop thinking about it. I won't call it perfect, because what's a perfect novel and really who would want to read such a thing. What it is is that rare work of art that is completely, precisely itself.

This is where I reveal myself as a lousy book reviewer because I can't explain it better than that. What is it, exactly, that makes Zazen such a remarkable book for me? I mean, yeah it's super smart and the prose is gorgeous and t...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Scott Adelson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Vaenessa Veselka’s Zazen (Red Lemonade) dives bravely into plot, with the author’s gymnastics reserved for language that soars and swirls in waves, reminiscent at times of Thomas Pynchon at his most accessible and Tom Robbins at his most fanciful. Vaselka’s book is, however, hardly derivative. Della Mylinek, a recent paleontology graduate, grinds away at life in the near-future (perhaps) in Portland, Oregon. It’s a dystopian world with America on the decline, trudging from war to war as what cou...more

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Jul 15, 2011 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-ll-read-it-again

I love this book, and have found it difficult to put it down even now that I've finished it, I’ve dog-eared many pages and the cover already has that “loved” appearance. Zazen is a little-big book, a book of its time, yet it is made from the ancient bones of brave writing — the exquisite storytelling has that special, timeless magic to make this book a classic. Vanessa Veselka’s Della possesses a wry sense of humor that hits its mark with hilarious honesty that can make you laugh and break your...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Kurt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Kurt by: Chuck Palahniuk

This is a haunting novel about finding a place of deep peace as a response to chaos. I bought a copy at Powell's bookstore (during a vacation to Portland) because it seemed like a very Portland thing to do, and I had read a recommendation by Chuck Palahniuk, but I didn't really know what to expect when I started reading. I got something beautiful.

The book is a first-person account of a city (basically Portland, but referred to only as New Honduras, a nickname the protagonist creates because the...more This is a haunting novel about finding a place of deep peace as a response to chaos. I bought a copy at Powell's bookstore (during a vacation to Portland) because it seemed like a very Portland thing to do, and I had read a recommendation by Chuck Palahniuk, but I didn't really know what to expect when I started reading. I got something beautiful.

The book is a first-person account of a city (basically Portland, but referred to only as New Honduras, a nickname the protagonist creates because the name resonates for her at a number of levels) with plenty of disgruntled counter-culture but no real change. Normal people go about their lives, spending money in some form of worship at the box-mall-church of their choice. Lots of young people, though, the people who get to be full characters in this story, reject the mainstream, turning to obnoxious displays of veganism or overserious (and hilarious) orgies or endless idle chatter about getting away to some paradise in another country to live forever. Della, the protagonist, is emotionally wounded by taking in the realities of the apathetic darkness all around her, and she begins responding in earnest by calling in bomb threats. Perhaps if she can make Them as terrified as she always is, then something will change. The plot goes off in surprising directions from there, of course, which I won't spoil, but the emotion there is kind of the core of the book - what if domestic terrorism really presents itself as the only rational response to constant terror? How does a thinking and feeling person, not satisfied by anarchist philosophies and organic farm hideouts, really express her opposition to a system when she doesn't know exactly what she wants in its place? How does someone so powerless take control over her own life when she's so used to quietly going with the flow (an almost-complete advanced degree in an impractical science, a casual bisexuality, a reluctant attendance at a horrific annual family gathering)?

Veselka writes with an often-chilling minimalist style, dropping in plenty of little coded lines to (usually humorously) tap into whatever leftist political experience the reader has (I recognized some adaptations of Marxist slogans, and an occasional "Presente!" that I think is being used the same way I used it at a protest of the School of the Americas many years ago - but they're shorthand that won't distract an uninformed reader and will only enrich the narrative for readers who catch the references). I also love that Della's mental health issues creep in so carefully around the edges - Della may be describing a perfectly ordinary scene and then an enormous Rat Queen will appear out of nowhere in the middle of a paragraph and never be mentioned again. It's a beautiful reminder of our protagonist's pain and the urgency of her search for a lasting peace, even when she loses sight of the journey herself.

This is a fairly quick but powerful read. It satirizes ineffective Leftism along with ignorant Conservatism, all while putting the reader through an emotional wringer, even down to the end of the Acknowledgements section. I can't wait for whatever Veselka chooses to write next.(less)

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Jun 28, 2012 Jennie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: dystopia-literature

I read a great interview on the Rumpus with Vanessa Veselka on the transience of identity that totally rocked my world. There is no doubt that she is an exquisite and thoughtful writer, but this novel didn't do it for me. It's sort of a mashup of All Families Are Psychotic by Douglas Copeland and Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart with maybe a little bit of Cormac McCarthy's The Road tossed in there. It's not a bad book but it's stuffed with so many liberal, hippie, eco friendly, sex p...more

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Apr 26, 2011 Guy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Portlandia meets Children of Men for a third wave feminist Fight Club. Veselka excels at satirizing the escapist antics of organic radicals in an age of perceived U.S. decline. But in doing so, does she paint herself into a corner? The resolution - to make peace with our absurd and symptomatic reactions, to perhaps even love them - hazards a rescue of the titular stance from irony to the best mode of response.

It is still easy to fall for Veselka's prose. The final lines stunned me. But I am amb...more

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Jul 17, 2011 LeeAnn Heringer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 21st-century, ibooks, read-in-2011, science-fiction

To misquote Zazen, "every generation defines their relationship with the universe." And while the protagonist, Della, is not my generation, she feels so real, so caught between the expectations of her hippy parents who know they have failed to change the world, the frustration with people who give their money to Walmart when it's really not in their best interests to, torn between ennui and anger and the "keep Portland weird" movement, the search to find meaning, to do meaningful things, when ev...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Hunter rated it 4 of 5 stars

So I learned about this book from the Largehearted Boy blog, and between the playlist Veselka suggested for the book and the plot synopsis, it sounded like something I'd better pick up. Still, I never got around to it until Scarlett and I were in a little bookstore in Missoula a couple weeks ago.

Anyway, enough autobiography. I'm a sucker for weird lyrical novels about weird lyrical people. I feel like it's not crazy to say there's some echos or aftershocks of Pynchon in here, although I don't kn...more

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May 25, 2012 Ron rated it 3 of 5 stars

I haven't been so profoundly affected by any novel yet this decade, but I must make that case with a few caveats. While the theme, tone, characterization, use of metaphor, and overall quality of the book is without peer, the sad fact is that this new small publisher did the great author a huge disservice by failing in the editorial department. I had small quibbles with the author's choice to portray a character with run-on sentences, split infinitives, and dangling modifiers (regardless of wheth...more

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About Vanessa Veselka

Vanessa Veselka is a writer and musician living in Portland, Oregon. She has been, at various times, a teenage runaway, a sex-worker, a union organizer, a student of paleontology, an expatriate, an independent record label owner, a train-hopper, a waitress, and a mother. Her work has appeared in Bust, Bitch, Maxmum Rock ’n’ Roll, Yeti Magazine and Tin House. Zazen is her first novel.

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Quotes from Zazen

“I looked at the woman crying over the doll and felt something else. I was sick of people acting against their own interests. Mooing about how to refinance the slaughterhouse. Putting skylights in the killing pen and pretending the bolt in the brain was a pathway to a better field. I paid my bill. Save your fucking pennies for a gun and a history book, I thought.” — 6 people liked it

“Some things are so sad that they have no name. I have tried to name them and I can’t.” — 4 people liked it

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