Imagine a gorgeous, intricate, elegant pop-up book. Now imagine it is not for children, but for adults—for adults fascinated with art, drawn to art, but not art historians or anything like that. Christine Lai paints with words with such effective specificity that the world of LANDSCAPES leaps off the page in three dimensions.

“I recall the thrill of being surrounded by these images on the wall. I remember how it felt to be captivated and confused by them, to be a complete loss for words.” (Pg. 18)

Lai is anything but at a loss for words. Page after page, Lai describes art in a way that does not require the research to see what the painting actually looks like. 

Opening this novel is like entering an atmosphere. Set in the near future after catastrophic weather events, Lai reimagines what the world looks like on an everyday basis, when beauty must be found in the fading of an old way of life. 

There are buildings in disrepair with plants sprouting in the cracks; nomad tribes of people moving from place to place in order to be near clean water, breathable air. Lai mixes research with imagination to dream up what the world may look like if humans don’t find a solution to the environmental changes that are already occurring. 

“Each time I experience a sense of loss, I remind myself that none of this was mine to begin with, and none of it was as important as it seemed.” (Pg. 13)

Her protagonist, Penelope, is an academic and an art lover. She is archiving the remaining works of art and literature that she and her life partner Aiden own as they prepare to sell their home. As she archives, her memories of a violent encounter with Aiden’s brother, Julian, surfaces. 

The novel lives mostly in the internal life of Penelope as she projects herself into the stories of the art around her. In this projection she sees herself as part of the art, and experiences her own memories as their own works of art. 

Like some of her memories, Penelope highlights when violence in art hides behind the beauty of the craftsmanship.

“…the way violence is embedded in a gleaming landscape.” (Pg. 18)

After all, money won through violence often finances art and then the images themselves often display violencees—especially toward women—and then men and women alike divert their attention from the violence and revere the craftsmanship without fully considering the impact of the images. 

“When I first stood before Poussin’s THE ABDUCTION OF THE SABINE WOMEN, I was seduced by the intense colors. The ultramarine appeared to exert a physical force that leapt out of the frame and into the space of the gallery so that I was pinned to the spot, unable to move or avert my gaze. I was so transfixed by that blue that I nearly overlooked the violent nature of the subject.” (Pg. 11)

Lai also unearths the deeper issues with class surrounding art. Penelope comes from a working-class background and therefore experiences the value of the art through the emotional experience of the art, whereas Julian comes from wealth and experiences the value of the art through actually possessing it. These themes present in great detail as Lai moves between Penelope’s internal life versus Julian’s internal life, thus exposing two very different perspectives on art. And, of course, this reflects two very different perspectives on life lived as well.

In the end, Lai has us reveling in the beauty of creation, the cycle of life, and even in the beauty of destruction, but she mostly has us questioning what we should value and in what way shall it be valued? Academia is meaningless in a world that is so brutalized by the climate that survival takes president. How to survive a drought; how to build a fire; how to survive bands of thieves; how to find food. Are any of us who are straining for some form of superficial glory through business, academia or art actually equipped to thrive as the planet is changing?

“At the refugee camp, it shocked and shamed me to realize that all of my research could not tell me what to do when money ran out, when the earth ceased to produce food. Ideas and theories could no longer hold together the disparate parts of the world.” (Pg. 15)

I don’t pretend to have the words to explain what Lai accomplishes here, but somehow the novel feels like walking inside of someone’s memories as if you could walk inside of great paintings - paintings that are fading and covered in life’s muck, which somehow, only adds to the beautiful. 

This all begs the even deeper question; as violence touches our lives in different forms and varying degrees, can we, in fact, still choose to find the beauty in destruction or are we obligated to reject it on all levels in order to course correct the future?

LANDSCAPES lingers in my mind like a mysterious dream. It feels familiar and yet challenges me. I highly recommend this book. Don’t get scared off by the many mentions of famous art, you don’t need to know art to fall for these characters. Penelope alone will carry you through the story and leave you wishing for more… so, so much more. I was sad to leave her after the final pages.