And Now You Can Go

Rating:
Summary: Go get a pencil!
Review: With this debut novel, Vendela Vida has claimed a place on my very short list of the authors I must read with a pencil in hand (for underlining the good parts and marking the margins with stars of gratitude and exclamation points of delight.) When I finished And Now You Can Go, I tried to move on to another (acclaimed, prizewinning) novel but I couldn't stop thinking about that little book, that Ellis with her increased moral depth perception and bad haircut. So I read it again.
The story of Ellis's journey into "the world of people dealt unexpected blows" is full of gracefully rendered questions about guilt and innocence, strength and vulnerabilty, hurting and healing, and giving and receiving. For a new author and (I think) a young-ish person, Vendela Vida is preternaturally insightful about relationships. Actually, she's a little scary, but in a really good way!