Leftward Bound

Vanessa Vaselka’s first novel, ‘Zazen’, came highly recommended by some pretty serious readers.  I can see why.  She is a writer; that much is certain.  There is some strong prose here.  She expresses a young person’s alienation with stinging precision:

‘Yes, I want to look like you.  I want to be so thoroughly anchored into some sort of pop culture aesthetic that nothing can knock me over or wash me away or make me hate everyone. I want to sleep again.’

‘ . . . I remember thinking, like I do now, that I would love to love something, especially if I could do it without feeling like I was watching it die right in front of me . . . ‘

The book takes place in an unspecified future time of near apocalypse.  Society is collapsing and the most crucial question for each individual is when and how to abandon ship.  The entire plot takes place within a left wing fringe group that is actively though not very craftily plotting to promote the demise of traditional society.  We get no direct glimpses of what or whom these folks are reacting to.  The entire book takes place on the fringe.  Vaselka both skewers and sympathizes with her leftist characters.  Some of them are frauds, some are more genuine but will never have the courage to act, others act in irrational and unexplainable ways. 

‘Credence agreed it might be good for me to work in a more positive environment.  I don’t know why he thinks watching Wal-Mart crush impoverished communities isn’t a positive experience.  Listening to the snap of infrastructure?  Cheering when something essential resists failure more slowly -- strain … strain … (screaming fans) … strain … SNAP!’

Some of the writing is pretty far out there.  I admit to shifting into virtual skim mode at times.  Just didn’t have the patience to adopt a more careful reading mode, something that might be more akin to reading poetry.  But nonetheless I could appreciate what she’s trying to do, even if I couldn’t follow every step of the way.

There’s plenty of outrageous behavior, amusing caricature, sex, and colorful happenings.  But plot is secondary.  Even though the last third of the book is a bit of a thriller, rest assured: nothing really happens.  It’s about the main character, her complete and utter alienation, and her search for some kind of meaning in the midst of chaos.  In the end she doesn’t really succeed, but we do have the feeling that she might in the future.  As for society as a whole, that’s a lost cause from page one.

Vaselka is a courageous writer.  Read her and be reassured that there are young writers out there that love language. The publisher, Red Lemonade, is a bit amateurish.  Typos and mistakes of various kinds abound.  But we should be grateful that works like this get out there, however it happens.  I look forward to more from her.