I tried to think of a snappier title. But here's the thing, her name is a title unto itself. Say it aloud with me: Vendela Vida. Vendela Vida. Vendela Vida. It's like a chant from another time. Rhythmic, incantatory, complex and simple all at once. I also wonder, is that really her name? Because its so...fantastic. And so much better than Vendela Eggers (smart move.) To reduce distraction and out of sheer concern that you will lapse into deep meditation if I keep repeating her name, I will refer to her as VV throughout this post.
Now. We have work to do here, so focus.
VV in Words: Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name is lovely. I know that's not a proper book review, but I never promised you one. Shortly after attending her father's funeral, Clarissa learns that he was never her father. Complicating matters further is that she cannot ask her mother, as she disappeared 14 years earlier. Still messier, Clarissa's fiance, Pankaj knew all along. The plot lines, then, are clear. She must journey to Lapland (listed on the recently found birth certificate) to sort it all out. Fine. Good. It was at this point, only pages in, that I began to worry. I wasn't that interested in what Clarissa found in Lapland because I was far more interested in the word Lapland. And Pankaj. And all of VV's other words...she has her way with them. Her sentences are so taught, her spare dialog so revealing, that I found myself marveling at this first and foremost, the plot less and less. To wit:
"At seven, I opened the door to my room and stared at Pankaj. I would leave him, I decided. After this was over, in a week or a month, I would travel to Missoula or Memphis and find a man who fixed planes or raced horses and didn't need love, who hadn't loved anyone. He and I would kiss over dinner with pizza in our mouths. He and I would know no one else in the world.
I slipped into the narrow bed where Pankaj was sleeping and rested my cheek on the edge of the pillow. I felt him stirring.
I'm going to leave you, I thought.
'Don't ever leave me,' I whispered."
Quickly, it becomes clear that while this book is about a journey to find her real father and sort out her feelings for her fiance along the way, it is much more about the fleeting nature of the life you lead and how, maybe, you might be able to pick up and leave it all in favor of a completely different life.
"And when I would hear people say that you can't start over, that you cannot escape the past, I would think You can. You must."
I'm increasingly not in favor of a first person narrative (trying so hard to stop writing them myself), yet was surprised by how well this worked for Vida. For Clarissa's story. All told, I found this little book to be a gem. One I find myself going back to again and again just to re-read a sentence, a passage. The mood, the pace, Clarissa's emotional journey - they all resonate for me in an unexpected way...that I'm still trying to pinpoint, though I read the book two full months ago.
VV in Person: I know I'm fond of long posts about author readings. Or, some of you will say, I'm fond of saying I will post about them and I never do. Here's the thing with VV: she was so excellent there is nothing to criticize, to make fun of, to ponder. I arrived at Skylight Books earlyish and was looking through the periodicals when I saw someone else looking through another section one aisle over. She had nice hair. She had cute earrings. She looked like someone I knew or someone who would be my friend. She perused awhile and then moved to a different aisle. I made some purchases, then took my seat next to the cat with no tail.
Who appeared at the front to read? That unassuming woman who was browsing moments earlier. She didn't come with an entourage, not even an agent or a friend (although I believe a few showed up halfway through.) In Los Angeles, you come to expect the posse. The writer that arrives and puts on a show. VV did none of these things. She was very kind, quite funny, in her intro and then got straight down to the reading. (Insert gorgeous and funny sentences from LTNLEYN here.) When the reading was finished, she fielded questions. She gave a peek into her writing process and the research she did for the book - a visit to Lapland and then a second to get more detail, to talk to the natives. She spoke of her inspiration for the book - this idea that someone could learn to see their past as unconnected to their present life, or even to their future. She answered a few more questions about The Believer (in a far less dramatic way than Julavits, without all the huffery and the I'm-so-busy-ness) and that was that.
While I do not doubt that she is well-versed in literary theory and may possess the ability to get quite circular quite quickly when talking of such matters (she's married to Dave Eggers after all), there was no hint of it on that night. She was warm, friendly, genuinely pleased to read and discuss her work. She didn't feel the need to beat us over the head with her intelligence, with her knowingness, with her well-connectedness. On that night, in those moments, she was simply a writer reading her work to other readers and writers. That wall that is so often there -- that I'm the writer/you're in the audience vibe --was gone. Melted.
VV was, in a word, accessible. As undramatic as that sounds (so lacking in scandal or irritation), that is a rare quality these days. I will even go so far as to say this: I've attended a lot of author readings. Never -- not ever, not even once -- have I left the reading and felt that it was perfect. That there wasn't a smidgen of something that bugged me or that left questions or that irritated. Never. I know that says a lot about me -- but I think it says much about her. She let her work speak for itself and that was enough. Plenty. All we needed and more.
VV on Air: Now. She may have been meek and mild and lovely while giving a reading at Skylight Books. I'm ever-so-curious to know how she'll fare with Michael Silverblatt today at 2:30pm on Book Worm. Silverblatt has a tendency to do all those things that I hate: over-analyze, over-theorize and, of course, overly talk about himself and his vast literary knowledge. It will be very interesting to see if VV jumps into his over-analysis paralysis game, or if she plays it cool. Do tune in. Should be very interesting.
