Story to savour
This story of one woman’s travels is an adventure worth going on.
PEOPLE often see travel as a way of escaping their comfort zones. For others seeking to leave home, exploring unfamiliar territory becomes a source of consolation.
In Vendela Vida’s latest novel, The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty, the main character, in search of reprieve, sets up an adventure complete with hilarity, danger, and just plain discomfort. She takes the reader on an unpredictable – sometimes confusing, sometimes charming – ride that is worth the read.
This is the fifth novel from Vida, who wrote Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name ( 2007) and The Lovers ( 2010), and is editor of literary magazine The Believer.
Based in San Francisco’s Bay Area, she co- founded 826 Valencia, a writing and tutoring centre for youth, with her husband, writer Dave Eggers.
Vida is known for writing about women who follow unconventional paths. Her most recent novel never reveals the narrator’s first name, reflecting the larger theme of a woman thirsting for a new start and identity.
Without elaborating on who this woman is, Vida focuses on the real- time action of a solo trip to Casablanca, Morocco.
The reader learns early on that the sojourn is not a typical vacation.
Vida drops hints beginning in the first paragraph, “This is the second leg of your trip from Miami to Casablanca, and the distance traveled already has muted the horror of the last two months.”
She’s headed to Casablanca, but once seated on the plane, a travel guide she opens up quickly deflates her spirits, “You read: ‘ The first thing to do upon arriving in Casablanca is to get out of Casablanca.’ Damn. You’ve already booked a hotel room there for three nights.”
The first chapters poke fun at the idiosyncrasies and minor conflicts travellers often encounter. The main character briefly fantasises about making a love connection with the man in the seat next to her. He brusquely tells her he plans to sleep through the flight.
These moments of hope and disappointment, sprinkled throughout the novel, add humour to the story.
Vacation troubles turn serious when the main character’s backpack, holding her passport, money, and other essentials, is stolen as soon as she checks into her hotel. That incident unleashes a series of vexing plot twists.
The narrator’s dealings with Casablanca police to report the theft are cringe- worthy and will resonate with anyone who has dealt with corrupt or inept law enforcement during their travels.
Later on, she is left without any way to pay for her hotel room, and she happens upon an opportunity to earn some cash via a Hollywood production filming in her hotel.
Casablanca proves to be a poor choice of destination – it isn’t warm or conducive to a woman travelling alone. Even a visit to the American embassy goes awry. People she meets, including those who start out as friends, end up turning on her – mirroring relationships she left behind before her trip.
One of Vida’s triumphs in this novel is her masterful use of second- person narration, which establishes pace and urgency while creating a sense of closeness between the reader and main character. As you witness the character make mistakes, you root for her and feel her pain.
Vida’s prose is tight and, after only 224 pages, the end of the novel seems to arrive too soon, before the reader is ready to detach.
That makes it all the more crucial to savour Vida’s elegant, crisp, and pointed storytelling on every page along the way. – The Seattle Times/ Tribune News Service
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