Girl in Landscape is one of the strangest stories I have ever read, but at the same time it is also very well written. I often found myself feeling sorry for the characters because Earth had become a horrible place to live yet their lives on the Planet of the Archbuilders weren’t much better. Sure, they could go out in the open air on their new planet, but now they were victims of a meaningless existence, an existence that seemed to lead them nowhere but into each others’ business. The store was a place of gossip, and the household deer were ever-present invaders of privacy.
In spite of my feelings for the characters and the problems they had on the planet, I found myself drawn to the story by the use of similes and metaphors and the elaborate phrasing with which the story was written. I am quite fond of poetic writing. The incredibly rich imagery gave me the power to transport myself into their world…..as another watcher, perhaps.
I can see this novel adapted into a movie with a really great soundtrack, there is always a special mental image that accompanies text like this that would be ultimately spoiled by someone else's vision. The book has no illustrations and I like it that way. The cover illustration gives some hints but not really enough to ruin it for me.
The most vivid imagery of the story was manifested in my mind via reference to light. Throughout the book, the author constantly sets the mood in the scenes using shadow, brightness, and darkness. At times the lighting was almost prophetic with a sense of foreboding of things to come. Examples of this are as follows:
Efram’s confrontation and accusation of Hugh Merrow for his inappropriate attention to the alien he was painting: The fading daylight shone too harshly on this scene. Pella closed the door behind her, and it seemed a small act of mercy.
Pella’s visit to Efram’s house: Efram closed the door behind her, squeezing away the last margin of sunlight, the effect was that of stepping from the day into the inner chamber of a star-lost spaceship, or an ancient tomb.
Pella’s visit to Efram’s house: She felt afraid, but again her words came out manic, assertive. Her cheeks were glowing with heat. She imagined they shone like beacons in this room and that they glowed like the colored lights. She wanted to dip her fingers in the soda and wet her cheeks with it.
After the visit to Efram’s house: The Kincaid’s house was lit, and Pella could see activity bubbling behind the curtains. Efram stopped outside the penumbra of spilling light, at a rocky bend in the path, and lifted his heavy finger to point at the house. “There you go.” She went ahead of him to the house, and didn’t turn until she reached the porch. He stood like a monolith in the shadows, watching.
Pella’s visit with Bruce: The lights of the house were behind her. She knew Bruce couldn’t read her face. She looked up at the shadowy ridge where Efram had last stood. She could imagine him still there, a little back, veiled in darkness, watching the house.
Of last note here, one poignant moment came to me even before the family left Earth. I knew I was about to have a good experience with this book when I read Chapter 3. Already fascinated with the way the author transformed Manhattan, I was drawin further in when I experienced the characters’ sorrow over the death of Pella’s mother, Caitlin. The author had already portrayed extreme sadness over this event, but then, the last paragraph:
“Time heals, give it some time, what these poor kids need is time.” At the funeral everyone spoke of sorrow and time and then Clement led his motherless children and their sorrow into a tiny ship where they were frozen alive for a trip that lasted twenty months, but seemed to them an eye blink, a dream. So had they been given time? Or was their sorrow frozen with them?"
Definitely a passage worthy of reflection.
Girl in Landscape, in all its shadows, spoke of humanity’s (and alien’s) need for leadership that allows individual freedom of expression (limited government) rather than a dictator and a Big Brother of sorts (1984); posed the question of “what is normal?”; explored a world without creativity and the arts; and certainly gave us a look at what could happen if we don’t care for our planet.
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