My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
And Now You Can Go
by
Vendela Vida
Vendela Vida’s fearless, critically acclaimed fiction debut follows the unpredictable recovery of a young woman as she tries to make sense of her life after an encounter at gunpoint.
Accosted one afternoon in Riverside Park by a man who doesn't want to die alone, Ellis, a young grad student, talks her way out of the situation by reciting poetry to her desperate captor. He l...more
Accosted one afternoon in Riverside Park by a man who doesn't want to die alone, Ellis, a young grad student, talks her way out of the situation by reciting poetry to her desperate captor. He l...more
Paperback, 208 pages
Published
December 18th 2007
by Anchor Books
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
934)
This was a really quick read -- a young person's book, about a Columbia grad student (in art history) who gets held up by a dying man in Riverside Park. She escapes (by, unbelievably, quoting great poetry to him), and then begins to reexamine. What comes next is a romp, from one man to the next, from one friend to the next. Lovely writing about a family that has reconstructed itself after the betrayal of the father leaving (for a few years) and then returning. The girl adores her nurse mother --...more
I went back and forth quite a few times on whether to give this novel three stars or four, and I decided on four because of this: in spite of the fact that I wasn't overly sympathetic to the main character throughout the novel, I still couldn't put it down. There was something about her reticence to share what she was going through emotionally that made me not relate to her as much, and in the end, I came to see this as a sort of brilliance in character development; not even the reader gets to k...more
Picked this one up because of how much I love the movie "Away We Go" (Vendela Vida co-wrote the screenplay for it with her husband, Dave Eggers).
Very easy read - finished it within a day. I'm a bit on the fence about it - maybe my expectations were a bit too high? I think I'd actually rate it 2.5 stars (sometimes I need more than 5 categories for ratings).
Describes how a college student in New York struggles to deal with the aftermath of a (not quite) violent episode that h...more
Very easy read - finished it within a day. I'm a bit on the fence about it - maybe my expectations were a bit too high? I think I'd actually rate it 2.5 stars (sometimes I need more than 5 categories for ratings).
Describes how a college student in New York struggles to deal with the aftermath of a (not quite) violent episode that h...more
This book was depressing, but really well-anchored in detail. It made me want to read V.V.'s book about sororities. Maybe I just liked it because I saw the author on the street once and she twinkled at me.
The narrator, her mother, and her sister, camping near Santa Cruz, hike along ocean cliffs, and see some seals.
...more
"I can see the seal," my mother says. "Look, there are a whole bunch of them. One, two . . . four. There are four of them just jumping and having fun." My mother's laughing--her mouth falling far open--and Freddie's bouncing in her red sneakers.
I stare at my mom, at my sister--it's too much love to handle at once. I get a pain above my nose, between
I read Vendela Vida's first novel immediately following Didion's "Play It As It Lays". Interestingly enough, it was almost the flip side. Ellis, the storyteller, has an almost violent icident in Riverside Park, one day, and she spirals out from it, her every moment colored by the encounter. This is a charming, modern heroine, not subject to the thought process of any other woman I have read about before, as she is quite blithe, and whimsical, yet not lighthearted.
Vende...more
Vende...more
She is married to Dave Eggers!
Vendela Vida (born September 6, 1971) is an American novelist, journalist, and editor who lives in San Francisco with her husband, writer ******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 Verge, And Now You Can Go, and Let the Northern Lights Erase Your N...more
Vendela Vida (born September 6, 1971) is an American novelist, journalist, and editor who lives in San Francisco with her husband, writer ******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 Verge, And Now You Can Go, and Let the Northern Lights Erase Your N...more
Ug. This book was very disappointing. I wanted to like it, but the more I tried the more I disliked myself for trying so hard. I loved "Away We Go" and love her husband's work (although, I completely understand why some people dislike him and his books), but I just couldn't get around this book's narration -- her voice was awful and annoying. I feel like this is my own personal shit, though. Maybe this book is decent. I dunno. I couldn't get over my hatred of the main character. Maybe ...more
This was an odd story - interesting, but odd. I had a difficult time getting into it at first, but it seemed to get better as it went along. For me there was some confusion regarding some of the characters, and I found that I was never really able to get them completely sorted out in my head. It's entirely possible that it was because it took me such a long time to read the book, but even going back and rereading some of the beginning passages did not clear up certain characters (the represen...more
I ended this book with rather mixed feelings. I'll say up front that of course I didn't want to like it, or, specifically, I didn't want to like Vida's writing, because I hate her self-aggrandizing, egotistical, greasy-headed special snowflake douchebag of a husband, and therefore by close association she had to suck too.
But I'm not entirely convinced that she does suck. The book has it's faults -- it flouders in parts and doesn't flow; Vida leaves the narrator's age in key scenes vague, w...more
But I'm not entirely convinced that she does suck. The book has it's faults -- it flouders in parts and doesn't flow; Vida leaves the narrator's age in key scenes vague, w...more
I had high hopes for this book. Vendela is an author from that gang of Believer/McSweeney's crew that are seemingly try to recreate everything they write in the footsteps of Dave Eggers - who is shallow at worst and self-indulgent when at his top form (meaning that I think he's really only good at writing about himself or some version of himself; true fiction seems to be beyond him).
Here is the utterly depraved way I can describe this book: it's like you're having sex and never have...more
Here is the utterly depraved way I can describe this book: it's like you're having sex and never have...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I just finished "And Now You Can Go," the first novel by Vendela Vida, who I painstakingly established this morning via a Google search is married to Dave Eggers. I get her and Heidi Julavits confused. Also, Jonathan Safran Foer is married or engaged to someone who is a writer, but I've forgotton who. But not Vendela Vida. Is that her real name?
ANYCG is about Ellis, a 21-year-old art history graduate student new to New York City. Walking in the park one afternoon, she's ac...more
ANYCG is about Ellis, a 21-year-old art history graduate student new to New York City. Walking in the park one afternoon, she's ac...more
I must confess, I read this book because I learned the author was the wife of Dave Eggers (who I think is fantastic). I liked And Now You Can Go as I read, continuing to look forward to picking it up and finding out what was happening with the young female narrator, who, in chapter 1, has an encounter with a fellow (and a gun) in a park, but her disjointed life was a little too disconnected to keep me totally emotionally hooked. Nevertheless I have put Vida's most recent book on hold at the libr...more
I swear that I didn't know this book was about an art history grad student when I bought it... and some of the art history details were wrong... but anyway: I really like Vendela Vida, though I understand that her books would be an acquired taste. Her prose is fluid with minimal words chosen for maximum effect; the stories seem implausible, but she makes them believable enough to work. I'm not sure I liked this book as much as Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, but it was a good read.
view 2 comments
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This was a quick read and I like that about this author. She doesn't belabor any points or ideas and lets her readers figure it out. I didn't like the characters in this one as much as in Let the Northern ..... Perhaps if I were younger I could appreciate her characters relationships to men. But I do like her mother/daughter relationships and both novels that I have read of Vida's explore mothers and daughters.
I read this book a couple years ago and loved it, then decided to read it again after loving Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name. I kind of wish I didn't. It's not bad, but it seems more like the kind of novel you have to read in your early 20s. Yes, the protagonist is also in her early 20s. You shouldn't have to be the same age as the main character to fully absorb a novel, but with this one, I think it's the case. Still, I'll give it 3 stars cuz she's got some good wit in there.
In a way, I could recognize this is a well-written book, but it also seemed indistinguishable to me from a lot of contemporary fiction: first person, present tense, main character with a somewhat ironic outlook on life and some-but-not-too-much self-knowledge... also a main character who never seemed real to me, and for whom it was hard to work up a whole lot of sympathy.
More like a 2.5 stars. Good character sketches, but not woven nicely together. Held up at gunpoint, our graduate student works through conflicting emotions and acts in suspicious, daring & paranoids ways. The characters are many for such a quick read, but they seem all thrown into the soup pot, without much depth or development.
Vida's detached, clipped writing style seems heavily influenced by The Bell Jar.
This book seems to me to be virtually identical, thematically, stylistically and narratively, to her second novel. Hubby Dave Eggers better watch out, because Vida seems to have either a history or fantasy of fleeing her well-meaning lovers. I like this about her writing, though. In literature and film you see a lot of men that run away from problems and relationships, but less so the females.
...more
This book seems to me to be virtually identical, thematically, stylistically and narratively, to her second novel. Hubby Dave Eggers better watch out, because Vida seems to have either a history or fantasy of fleeing her well-meaning lovers. I like this about her writing, though. In literature and film you see a lot of men that run away from problems and relationships, but less so the females.
...more
Anna
added it
I might not have picked this up on my own, but I am very glad I read it. There are many parts -- funny, sad, touching -- that just *resonate*, and I really like how the story comes full-circle in the end, with a different encounter in a different time and place. Highly recommended.
I got this book used in the mission and discovered Vendela wrote a little inscription inside to someone named Nicole. I read this in the van on our way back from Portland. It's not a long read, but I really liked it. It immediately starts with the main character being held by gunpoint and the rest of the book is how she deals with it after. The main character reminded me a little of Esther from the Bell Jar, but then I was wondering if that's just because we don't get a lot of well written books...more
I feel really ambiguous about this little book. It felt somewhat unpolished and amateur, but I can't decide if this is due to Vida's attempt to mimic the inner workings of a confused and emotionally scarred college student. Maybe. In any event, I wasn't very impressed. Her overly-layered collection of mundane details ultimately detract from the depth of the characters. I don't care that Ellis' apartment smells like garlic and no one else around her smells it. I mean, is this really supposed to ...more
I liked this book. It's not a masterpiece or trying to be. It reminded me more of my own writing than most things do. It's funny and it has the rare quality of, despite what the synopsis might sound like, being much more about the good parts of life than it is about the bad.
A lovely quiet book about a woman who narrowly escapes being shot by someone looking to take himself out but who doesn't want to go out alone. Vida is one of the editors of "The Believer" magazine. An author I think is worth trying.
I read her most recent book, Northern Lights... first. I think she is an excellent writer but didn't really like the characters or plot of this book that much. I loved Away We Go - the screenplay she wrote with Dave Eggers (who I just learned is her husband). I will read whatever else she writes but won't say I am smitten.
There isn't really anything special about this book. I've always liked Vida's writing, but never really what she does with it. The premise here is interesting--it begins with a girl getting held up in Riverside Park, then goes on to what happens to her after she thwarts the criminal with poetry--but it never really delivered anything interesting.
This is the first novel by the author. The plot concerns a young woman who is accosted, how she reacts and her life for the next months, until she finds "her place" again. Yet it is much more than that. A very very good read
Just finished this tale wrapped around unfolding the emotional legacy of one frightening moment. I appreciated the main character's fumbling w/who she was, making me realize this could also be a good YA book. I'm interested in reading what else Vida has, as I recognized the streets of this tale ...
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
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
More about Vendela Vida...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“That was the same week my physics teacher taught my class the concept of infinity. I cried about it every night for months.”
—
3 people liked it
More quotes…
