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Summary: Not your classical science fiction
Review: Lethem is nothing if not inventive; each of his novels is different from all the others, and they seem to have only superficial similarities with anyone else's work, too. Thirteen-year-old Pella Marsh, just edging over the cusp into womanhood, is the oldest of three children of Clement and Caitlin -- the former a failed politician in a post-enviro-catastrophic America, the latter now dead of cancer. They've transplanted themselves to the over-bioengineered World of the Archbuilders in order to escape Earth, but our world's most basic interpersonal problems have accompanied them. The Archbuilders -- those few who remain after the great bulk of them went off into deep space -- are quiet, gentle, curious polylinguists whom the humans don't really understand and probably never will. There are only a handful of other families in their little town-without-a-name: The Kincaids, with a son Pella's age, the drunken Grants with their two socially warped offspring, a lesbian couple with a baby, and a few bachelors. But one of those is Efram Nugent, the personification of violent inadaptability whom Pella sees as part of the rock of the new planet, almost an undeniable force of nature, and whom she alternates between fearing, loathing, and idolizing. Perhaps it's really the Planet of Efram. And he's far more adaptable than anyone could know, because he, like Pella, declines to take the drug that keeps him from inhabiting the "household deer" in his sleep and speeding and spying across the valleys, witnessing all the personal human things that no one else should see. There's a certain titillating Nabokovian flavor here (though without his humor) but don't let that distract you. The story is mostly a bleak but moving look at human inability to be anything other than human, regardless of the landscape.
Rating: 
Summary: Lethem continues to be fascinating
Review: Once again, Jonathan Lethem has written an engrossing novel that defies simple classification. Only now, after reading four of his books with radically different settings and stories, am I beginning to see the threads that connect his oeuvre; for Lethem is a master at writing beneath the surface, at putting thoughts into your head without being so blunt as to put them directly on the page. This book might be called a Western/sci-fi/psychodrama but even stringing together fifty-seven categories wouldn't do it justice.
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Summary: Compelling coming of age story
Review: Pella and her family, leave behind an underground earth, their fathers political defeat, and their mother's unexpected death for the planet of the archbuilders. The great civilization built by the archbuilders is left in ruins, and the currenct archbuilders are deemed poor copies of their once great ancestors by the immigrants. In a dusty frontier "town" with a few other families, archbuilders, and the unspoken leader, Effram, Pella finds herself a political pawn. First to her father as he decides she and her brothers will not take the medication to protect them from the archbuilders virus. Then to Effram who is trying to undermine Pella's fathers' place in the town as a leader, and kill the remaining archbuilders. The adults fear and prejudice toward the archbuilders prevent them from understanding the archbuilders, and leads to violence in the town. These actions rip the town apart and damage the fragile community. Finally Pella, her family broken by the move, and tired of watching the destruction of the town by Efframs' anger at the remaining archbuilders, begins to fight for justice. For herself and the others. Pella's transformation by the events in the town and the archbuilders virus, and Efframs anger at the current archbuilders and obsession with their ancestors make for two compelling characters. Tension, anger, voyeriusm, and grief color this story making it wonderful and at times suspenseful read.
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Summary: Lolita on the Homestead...
Review: This book is so interesting and original. Lethem melds the pioneers of the American West and sci-fi with his own brand of storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful book
Review: This book is so interesting and original. Lethem melds the pioneers of the American West and sci-fi with his own brand of storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: Weird & wonderful - Sci-fi with soul
Review: This is what novel writing is all about, a truly imaginative exploration. Lethem may have been pegged as a science ficiton writer, but he is one of the most intriguing young American Fiction writers working today regardless of genre. "Girl in Landscape" should be one of those crossover type books the people who like to label writers are always so eager to discover. 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.
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Summary: Crazy and Unusual, but fun
Review: This was quite a ride for me. I enjoyed this book and the creatures seemed very confusing, but I began to understand. I love the plot and the setting. I like the time period also, after the apocolypse. Anyway, I recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy or heart.
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