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Bezig met laden... And Now You Can Go (2003)door Vendela Vida
  
Geen Bezig met laden...
 Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek.  womanwoanswers | Dec 23, 2022 |    ) Eoin | Jun 3, 2019 |  ) sparemethecensor | Dec 30, 2015 | ) justjill | Dec 4, 2009 | Vendela Vida New York: Anchor Books, 2003 What a life-affirming book! Ellis, the protagonist in Vendela Vida's book, has a profoundly disturbing experience: a man grabs her in a park, telling her he is going to kill himself, and he does not want to go alone; he is taking her with him. Ellis, trying to convince him there is much to live for, recites poetry to him, since it is art and poetry that transform lives. After persuading the would-be killer and suicide to accompany her to a bookstore, he lets her go. Ellis, understandably shaken by the experience, stops functioning as she did before. She sees her attacker in all men. She gets episodes of excruciating psychic pain; her senses, especially smell, work on overload. Her relationships, with her mother, sister, friends, but especially her father, are all reexamined. But eventually, from her frozen state, come the glimmerings of understanding. After a mission trip accompanying her mother to the Philippines, she sees "mother's laughing – her mouth falling far open -- and Freddie's bouncing in her red sneakers... it's too much love to handle at once" (137). The community is mobilized to find her attacker. By the time he is found by vigilantes, Ellis has moved on; she has "all forgiven him". Through her attack she is brought to an epiphany, to forgiveness. She can look at the men who have hurt her, by extension at all men, who have all hurt someone, and “forgive each man as he entered the door to his home” (189). Vendela Vida has written a beautiful, wise book. (  ) polutropos | Mar 28, 2008 |
 Vida has written a novel about a young woman's self-discovery, all right. But it works because it sticks to the basics: there's a beginning, an end and not a whole lot of fooling around in between. The book's revelations are delicate and resonant, suggesting, for one thing, that we forgive others not so much out of generosity but because we recognize that forgiveness is sometimes the only way we can live with ourselves. And that's not such a bad thing. Within three months of moving to New York City for graduate school, 21-year-old Ellis is accosted at gunpoint. Rather than succumb to her assailant's wishes, Ellis tries to talk him out of hurting her. Without thinking, she reels off a litany of calming poems by Phillip Larkin, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and William Butler Yeats, among others. Suddenly, her would-be attacker flees, and Ellis is alone. Almost immediately, both friends and strangers begin congratulating her for her pluck. But was it pluck that propelled her? As Ellis replays the incident, she feels an unfamiliar array of emotions, anxiety and panic among them, and seeks comfort in sexual encounters with random men. While these trysts offer short-term relief, they are ultimately unsatisfying; it is only by taking a trip to her parents' California home that she is able to put the event in perspective and regain her footing. Richly drawn, unpredictable, and wryly funny, Vida's debut is dazzling. Manhattan-both people and place-are rendered with rare authenticity. Highly recommended for all libraries.
A sharply humorous and fast-paced first novel about the effects - some predictable, some wildly unexpected - that an encounter at gunpoint have on a previously assured young woman. The gun is pointed at 21-year old Ellis as she walks through a New York park. Although she escapes unharmed, and without being robbed, she is left psychologically reeling. Over the next weeks Ellis keeps everyone at bay; the police, suitors who want to save her, and the university therapist who hints that her sweaters are too tight. But when Ellis accompanies her mother, a nurse, on a mission in the Philippines, she finds that life - even if held up - cannot be held back, and neither, finally, can she. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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 Google Books — Bezig met laden...GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde: (3.45)
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Did you know that the author of this book, Vendela Vida, is the wife of the author, Dave Eggers, and that those together wrote one of my most favorite feel-good films: Away We Go?
And that's the reason I picked it up! I have yet to read books by Dave Eggers.
I liked this book. It was generally okay, but I could see it being better as a film, since it had a lot of those short, "pointless" conversations that would make a lovely quirky film. I expected it to be better; however, I didn't regret reading it. (