NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO WRITERS WORKSHOP
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • Who We Are
    • The Kouhi and Phillips Awards
    • 20 Years on Snowshoes - Anthology
  • EVENTS
    • LitFest >
      • LitFest 2025
      • Book Fair/Literary Market
      • LitFest 2025 Photos
      • LitFest 2024 Photos
    • Workshops >
      • Archives
    • Wednesday Words
  • CONTESTS
    • 27th ANNUAL WRITING CONTEST >
      • 27th Annual Contest rules
      • Contest Judges
      • Past NOWW Writing Contest Winners
  • CALENDAR
  • JOIN
  • CONTACT

Review: "The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty"by Vendela Vida

3/4/2016

5 Comments

 

Review by Alex Kosoris

Picture
I hate talking about books I didn’t like, especially those that thoroughly disappointed me, like The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty. It’s a difficult task to express such a thing effectively without being mean or, at least, discouraging, while remaining honest. It’s not even that this was necessarily the worst of the worst that I’ve read, but my expectations were held high wandering into this story, and it most definitely failed to meet them. I mean, the book sounded interesting and the reviews I read ahead of time were glowing. I then heard that Vida wrote with the uncommon second-person narrative, which I’ve only experienced in Bright Lights, Big City, a book that I loved; I felt that, perhaps, this one could be just as wonderful, because writing in such an unusual way comes across as a gimmick if the author doesn’t have an exceptional reason to do so and if it’s used to prop anything less than a strong plot. We can muse on Vida’s reasons for writing this way, but her story at least failed to impress me.
 
The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty starts off with “you” travelling to Morocco, where her belongings – including her money, credit card, and passport – are stolen. In trying to recover them, she is given the belongings of another woman, and decides to take on her identity. She ends up getting spotted by a film crew and offered a job as the famous American actress lead’s body double, and, I suppose, starts getting in over her head as she keeps lying about who she is. The story, at its heart, appears to be about coming to terms with terrible things from “your” past. We, unfortunately, get thrown into things too quickly, not getting a good idea about who “you” is when the story starts, and, as a result, I found it hard to care about her. “You” also didn’t make decisions in any relatable way. You may be able to blame this on my unfamiliarity with her situation, but compare this to a novel like Birdie, where the author made me understand; failing to do so highlights a failure of storytelling. As well, the book was written very matter-of-factly, without much visual flair to the descriptions. People have said that the second-person style makes this hard to read, but I’d attribute it more to the dullness of the prose. (Of course, as “your” past becomes apparent, when “you” becomes an emotional wreck while praying in a mosque was probably my favourite moment in the book due to the richness of the description, but this proves to be the exception rather than the rule.)
 
For a book whose synopsis on Goodreads boasts to be “a riveting, entrancing novel that explores freedom, power and the mutability of identity,” I think I can safely say that The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty is nothing of the sort. As such, I think I can just as safely escape this review without offering it as a recommendation.


5 Comments
H. Leighton Dickson link
3/4/2016 04:03:04 pm

I don't think I've ever had the experience of reading a second person narrative and I'm not sure I'd want to. Wasn't a fan of first person present tense until Hunger Games and now it's everywhere, but done right, fppt can be effective. Thanks for the informative review. I'll give it a miss for now.

Reply
Sue Blott
3/4/2016 08:25:42 pm

I appreciate an honest, review. Thanks, Alex! I have read second person narrative pieces which well worked for me once I got used to the squirminess of them so I suspect it's this particular book/storyline that's offputting.

Reply
Alex Kosoris link
3/4/2016 08:30:35 pm

Sue: I totally agree! My negative experience had less to do with the second person narration, and more to do with the prose and plot.

Heather: Don't get discouraged by the style just from this review. I've loved other stories that used it! Check out Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney or Ablutions by Patrick deWitt.

Reply
T.j. Boulanger link
3/4/2016 10:02:58 pm

Thanks for the review Alex
I love how you tell the truth and how you wasted your time to save ours.
I want you to do my book review
so you could say words with meanings
And explode with them after reading it.
Well l guess that is what this author was hoping for.
Who knows my book review might be worse.
Rephraise that
It will be...

Just kidding


T.j. Boulanger

Reply
Alex Kosoris link
3/5/2016 12:53:22 am

I don't want you to think that any reading you do could possibly be a waste of time, T.J.; so long as you actively reflect on what you read, I'm sure you'll walk away from it with something useful, even if it wasn't your favourite story.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    NOWW Writers

    Welcome to our NOWW Blog, made up of a collection of stories, reviews and articles written by our NOWW Members.


    Archive

    November 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    April 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    May 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • Who We Are
    • The Kouhi and Phillips Awards
    • 20 Years on Snowshoes - Anthology
  • EVENTS
    • LitFest >
      • LitFest 2025
      • Book Fair/Literary Market
      • LitFest 2025 Photos
      • LitFest 2024 Photos
    • Workshops >
      • Archives
    • Wednesday Words
  • CONTESTS
    • 27th ANNUAL WRITING CONTEST >
      • 27th Annual Contest rules
      • Contest Judges
      • Past NOWW Writing Contest Winners
  • CALENDAR
  • JOIN
  • CONTACT