Girl in Landscape: A Novel
by Jonathan Lethem

List Price: $13.00
Our Price: $5.85
You Save: $7.15 (55%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.38 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of Girl in Landscape: A Novel

Book Review: Weird & wonderful - Sci-fi with soul
Summary: 5 Stars

At first I was struck by some similarities in a novel I read 2 years ago ("Straitjacket & Tie" by Eugene Stein), but as Lethem's story progresses the clash between Archbuilders and humans becomes less of an alien/Earthling struggle and more of a metaphor of all explorers in new worlds, both on land and in the heart. It is hard to ignore the essential American frontiersman and Native American analogies that Lethem's story evokes as well.

What makes this book so compelling is that we discover the Planet of the Archbuilders and its secrets as Pella does. Discovery is part of the novel's rich landscape. Pella - a growing teenager confilcted with herself and family - tries so desperately to find a new place in a new world that she can call her own and, as a result of the alien virus, floats out of her body becoming a literal outsider - sometimes looking in on herself. There is also the alien's discovery of the English language and the way the Archbuilders (particularly Hiding Kneel) make use of its poetry and even learn to make jokes.

This is a novel that speaks to our very humanity forcing us to look at how we treat each other, how we exclude others because of difference, how we all keep looking for a new home - a better place where we can finally belong.

Literature & Fiction Books

• Science Fiction & Fantasy