Jonathan Lethem’s Girl in Landscape is a novel that marries the unconventional mixture of Western and Science Fiction in a manner that blurs the lines of genre expectations and keeps the reader open to the strange outcomes that may happen as a result. All preconceived notions that one may have (including myself) about a Science Fiction novel, elements of weird, eerie scenes and grotesque figures in a foreign context, as well as the heroic, masculine figures, dynamic drama and exploration of unexplored territory typical of a classic Western are seamlessly fused into one larger entity that, while keeping the defining characteristics of both, also expand upon each other in a manner that throws both stereotypes out of the genre-specific window. Lethem does so successfully by emphasizing the imagery of a Western (more specifically, John Wayne’s film “The Searchers”) landscape with it’s vast and cloudless prairie terrains that evoke the feeling of freedom and the urge for adventure and exploration. He applies this classic imagery with something new and peculiar, but identifying to the genre of Sci-Fi; the mutated figures of the Archbuilder community and the esoteric societal norms of their so-called “town” that they claim to be a part of.
The reason that I, the reader, was able to accept not only the elements of the Science Fiction “genre” preset in the novel (as I generally keep my distance from most things entirely fictional) was because of the manner and the constancy by which Lethem managed to shift between first-person narrative mode that kept me at the same learning pace as Pella and a third-person omniscient that kept me from knowing too much about the other characters. This allowed me to maintain interest and accept the new Sci-Fi qualities of the novel, just as Pella was adjusting to them as an outsider.
I found elements such as Lethem’s subtle blending of genre norms, the classic tale of acquiring adulthood, and the young female point-of-view to be the most defining characteristic of Girl in Landscape, as well as the most personally relatable. The role that Pella plays as a young girl, not only adjusting to her surroundings as a normal teenager has to, but trying to adapt to social interactions that take place on a different planet, not to mention with the addition of a new species (as if interactions between men and women don’t sometimes seem foreign enough). Her struggle is relatable; everyone has felt alienated, felt as though they are the only one acting maturely, possibly too maturely such as during Pella’s encounters with Efram Nugent, felt as though they have been misplaced within their physical and their social surroundings. This novel highlights these universally awkward moments of pre-adulthood in a context that makes me glad that at least I have only had to deal with these social situations within human relations.
I developed empathy and sympathy for Pella, as well as the other children, and even the Archbuilders on some occasions as they are described to be child-like in maturity toward the end of the book. I empathize with their frustration of being misunderstood because of their own lack of credibility or the manipulation they are subjected to by the human adults. I sympathize with Pella’s urge to escape into the body of a household deer in order to try to better understand what exactly is happening in the community. After the death of Caitlin, it seems that there is no turning back for Pella, every circumstance she has but subjected to has forced her to take a stand for her own opinions.
While more obvious themes of Western classics and the Sci-Fi frontier dominate the plotline of the novel, the defining characteristic that stuck out to me as the conflicts in the novel resolved was the universally relatable narrative of adaptation to loss and misplacement, the mixture of discomfort, both physically and mentally, that one must encounter when entering adulthood or moving to a new home and especially when both occur simultaneously. The loss of a parent and the discovery of self are experiences that have their place both separately and within each other and this is something that I found Lethem to convey beautifully within the character of Pella and her struggle to assert herself as an adult and an individual in a place where both of these have seemed to be duties neglected by the other inhabitants.
I read the book in under three separate sittings and was captivated by Lethem’s handling of such sensitive subject matter. I am glad I was pushed into taking the leap into a new sub-genre of novel and found the characters and the plotline to be evoking in multiple ways.
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