Rating: 
Summary: Embarrassing
Review: I think that good reviews must be written based on things such as how quickly a book can be read. Maybe good is measured by how many pointless observations a narrator can make, or how shallow a character can be. It's embarrassing that such a boring, flimsy story can receive such positive reviews, but maybe the fact is simply that it's good to have friends in high places.
Rating: 
Summary: Did I Miss Something?
Review: I was anxious to read this book because I had read so many good reviews in the papers, magazines and of course Amazon. Well, I guess I didn't get it. I must have missed some deeper meaning or something. I gave it two stars instead of one only because I did finish it, so it wasn't the worst book I ever read....but with my apologies to the author, I again have to say, I didn't get it. So...maybe it is me and not the book, maybe there is way more to this book and the characters that I just didn't get....
anyway, I try not to write reviews on books that I can't give at least a four too, but I was just so confused at the end of the book, wondering, what did I miss? Again my apologies to the author!
Rating: 
Summary: These are the most bizarre reviews I've ever read
Review: I'll state upfront -- I don't know Vida and don't know what some of the venom in some of these reviews is about. But this book captivated me. As a writer, I read a lot of debut novels. This was a professional, mostly very subtle, utterly engaging story. It felt focused, deliberate, not a wasted word.
Here's what I especially like, and what will stick with me about this novel -- She never repairs her mullet. -- Her assailant is a doorman. OF COURSE HE IS, I thought the instant it turned out he was. OF COURSE HE IS. How perfect. -- Her father never asks forgiveness. -- Her mother and father never talk about their years apart. And so much more.
I'm stopping because I realize as I write this that I'm giving away some of the plot. But the details of the story are so right, read it anyway!
Rating: 
Summary: More a superior longer story than a novel
Review: If you believe some of the reviewers here, creative writing (MFA) courses at American universities either remove any innate literary imagination and originality, or many of the students who successfully complete them don't possess any in the first place. At any rate, I'm not in any way competent to comment on the subject. I have grasped though that there's a lot of antagonism against Dave Eggers and the group of writers associated with his (defunct?) McSweeney's magazine, of which Vendela Vida is a part. Ignoring that, Vida's novel And Now You Can Go was interesting enough to me mostly because of the subtle humour and main character Ellis's inscrutability, which doesn't let up throughout the story. Vida's style has been passed off by some here as merely superficial and vapid, but I actually find that she convincingly describes a thoughtful, ironic woman in her early 20s, right about now. I think the story holds up as mild satire (the jaunt to the Philippines certainly contributes to that impression) but I agree with the oft-repeated criticism as to the choice of longer narrative form: And Now You Can Go would work better as a short story than a novel, or even novella. Some of the harsher critics go so far as to relegate this book to the 'Cosmo' or 'JANE' magazine fiction scrap heap. This I think is unfair: I would say Vida is a more serious, imaginative, talented writer than that.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: It is really hard to read while rolling your eyes. Vida's writing in this novel is uneven, which makes reading about the vapid grad students rather unpleasant. The best thing about this book is that it isn't very long. You can read it in a couple hours if you must.
Rating:
Summary: A novel in an almost-McSweeney's mode
Review: It's funny how infectious some of the little "tics" of the McSweeney's crowd are. For example, the title of this novel, "And now you can go," is very much in the McSweeney's idiom. It's kind of like the way the McSweeney's-ites think it's just a riot to end a letter with, "That is all." Beginning the title with "And" partakes of that same twee, ironic spirit.If you love that twee, ironic spirit--if that's your idea of literary quality--this is just the novel for you.
Rating:
Summary: A novel in an almost-McSweeney's mode
Review: It's funny how infectious some of the little "tics" of the McSweeney's crowd are. For example, the title of this novel, "And now you can go," is very much in the McSweeney's idiom. It's kind of like the way the McSweeney's-ites think it's just a riot to end a letter with, "That is all." Beginning the title with "And" partakes of that same twee, ironic spirit. If you love that twee, ironic spirit--if that's your idea of literary quality--this is just the novel for you.
Rating:
Summary: clever prose
Review: On the whole, depressing. Some great writing and clever lines interspersed in an "okay" story. I never came to care for any of the characters. And you'll certainly see why she and Mr. Dave Eggers get along - they write in the same style.
Rating:
Summary: clever prose
Review: On the whole, depressing. Some great writing and clever lines interspersed in an "okay" story. I never came to care for any of the characters. And you'll certainly see why she and Mr. Dave Eggers get along - they write in the same style.
Rating:
Summary: And Now You Can Go
Review: Perhaps Ms. Vida's main character Ellis is blowing the incident with the gunman a bit out of proportion. I understand the scenario was disturbing, but I found Ellis's huffing and hawing about the event for some one hundred odd pages tiresome and annoying. And Now I Will Go.
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