Christine Lai's "Landscapes": Reading Some of the 2024 Republic of Consciousness Prize (Canada & USA)

Image from Goodreads

After hearing that it was longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness prize, I was looking forward to reading Landscapes by Canadian author Christine Lai, published by Doubleday (Two Dollar Radio). Lai’s story has been called a “country house novel” and although I have no idea what that meant, I felt a pull towards her 2023 publication as my mind conjured images of Oscar Wilde’s infamous play, The Importance of Being Earnest; Tom Stoppard’s play, Arcadia; and even Ann-Marie MacDonald’s play Belle Moral.I initially started reading the physical copy from the library while listening to the audio version (published by Highbridge Company) on Everand (the app formerly known as 'Scribd'). However, the two versions have quite a lot of discrepancies. Based on the first chapter only, I feel that the physical copy has been made to suit North American readers and the audiobook has been made to suit a British audience. Either way, the changes between the two were so vast that I couldn’t follow the book while listening to the audio and quickly ditched the audio. Once I focused on the physical copy of the book, my reading experience was much more enjoyable.

Overall, there were parts of this novel that I loved and parts that were just a disaster for me. Let’s start with what I loved:

1. The obvious time and care that Lai dedicated to her research about art and art history: The content about art, while not a topic that I usually gravitate to, was written about in such detail and in such interesting ways that I felt I was hanging out with someone who loves the craft, thought, and details of art (visual, photographic, written, etc.). Some readers could find the art content pretentious, and I admit that sometimes even the writing could be pretentious (the diction for sure), but I loved those parts.

2. The focus on violence against women in art: This content paralleled the storyline about Penelope’s own experience as a survivor of sexual assault. I think that this was where the story also shone for me as it’s clear that it’s an important topic in this story and a broader context (perhaps even for Lai). I could see readers not feeling that this content is woven into the main text well or that Lai wasn’t able to incorporate the artistic violence into Penelope’s/Julian’s stories, but I didn’t mind that content being set off at the end of each chapter.

3. Setting the scene: I feel that between Lai’s writing about the setting and my imagination, I was able to envision the setting and feel the ambiance of this so-called “country house novel.” I’m a big fan of writers setting the scene via their writing. If there’s no atmosphere in this type of story, then the whole novel could have fallen flat.

4. I loved the themes in this story! They’re great talking points because themes of ownership, power, loss, destruction, disrepair, and violence occur alongside (and at times juxtaposed with) those of creation, repair, reproduction, rebuilding, restoration, preservation, and survival.

5. Lai is a very good writer. Landscapes is her debut novel? Colour me impressed!

Okay, here’s what drove me crazy, and it’s only one thing: Lai did a great job of creating the setting, but only the environment and only to a certain extent. On the flap of the dustcover, it’s written that this story is set in the “near future,” but there is no initial “world building” of this period. To make matters worse, when Lai set this in an England that hasn’t seen rain for three years, I couldn’t believe that I was being asked—as a reader—to suspend disbelief to the extent that I blindly believe after a 3-year drought, there’s no chaos—even in their isolated, insular home. I’m sorry. I couldn’t buy it because at times it was such a worry but then at other times not. For example, Penelope was worried and anxious about a broken pipe and water loss on 11 October but then took a shower with little hesitation or concern about water use on 14 January. I struggled to imagine that there were water rations without explanation; that there was water in the Seine and a snowstorm in England (after the 3-year drought) without a reaction akin to feeling saved. You haven’t had rain for 3 years and the first thing you’re going to do is play in the snow? What?!? I don’t buy it and don’t think that care, time, or research went into those parts of the story. Had the author or publisher wanted readers to believe in a romanticization of water loss then they should have known that, at this point, it’s a touchy subject at best and tossed that content.

Although the water issue was a sticking point for me, it kept making me scratch my head and would pull me out of the story. Other bits didn’t make much sense either, such as:

• Julian observing a couple showing a wedding album with actual photographs to someone (not digitized but physical photographs that were developed);
• Penelope waking up night after night from nightmares but Aidan (her partner), who is presumably sleeping in bed with her, never wakes up or notices them; and
• The survival of a postcard from 1904 which is described as “fragile”. Okay, but what makes the postcard fragile? Damage? Not likely time but it’s not clear. I mean, there are books with finer (related to thickness) paper that have survived longer, so why is the postcard fragile?

I know I’m being nitpicky, but Doubleday is charging $29.95+tax (CAD) for this book. While I’m happy to support indie presses, I’m still going to be very picky about what I choose to spend my hard-earned money on, and a beta reader or proofreader could/should have picked up on these inconsistencies/oddities. I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to fully immerse myself in a world/place/time/environment that I’d wanted to.

I wouldn’t discourage others from reading Landscapes because Lai is a beautiful prose writer, and I would read another book that she writes. However, I wouldn’t purchase it brand new. I borrowed the hardcover from my local library.

Review on Goodreads here.