Status
Available
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Collection
Publication
Tor Books (2013), Edition: 1, 288 pages
Description
"An American writer of travel guides in need of a new location chooses to travel to a small and obscure Eastern European country. The moment Grafton crosses the border he is in trouble, much more than he could have imagined. His passport is taken by guards, and then he is detained for not having it. He is released into the custody of a family, but is again detained. It becomes evident that there are supernatural agencies at work, but they are not in some ways as threatening as the brute forces of bureaucracy and corruption in that country. Is our hero in fact a spy for the CIA? Or is he an innocent citizen caught in a Kafkaesque trap? Gene Wolfe keeps us guessing until the very end, and after"--
User reviews
LibraryThing member LamontCranston
It promises much and makes hints towards deeper meanings but mostly people just sit around explaining what they did and why they thought something violating the cardinal rule of show don't tell, ultimately it is all for naught as it never amounts to anything with a final revalation repeating an
And the note at the end is atrocious in its ignorance and simplicity.
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earlier better Wolfe book.And the note at the end is atrocious in its ignorance and simplicity.
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LibraryThing member LancasterWays
I finished Gene Wolfe's novel The Land Across several days ago and since then have been mulling how best to approach reviewing it. I'm still unsure how to begin, perhaps because Wolfe confused me, a reaction, I suspect, shared by other readers. Absent a plan of action, I'll just dive in.
The Land
Grafton's captors spirit him to a village, Paraustays, confiscate his passport, and, in a puzzling twist, make him the prisoner of a citizen. Grafton may wander Paraustays at will, but he must sleep in the villager's house, lest his guard be shot. Grafton eventually escapes Paraustays for the capital, and is briefly involved with a revolutionary group, the Legion of Light, before the state captures him again. After a period (a few months, a year?) as a prisoner, Grafton begins collaborating with the state security apparatus, the JAKA. Grafton's search for an escaped prisoner (his previous cellmate) points to an organization devoted to demon worship, the Unholy Way. Oh, and there's an undead severed hand with a mind of its own.
That's as much of the plot as I can share here without really giving anything away.
Again, The Land Across is like a dream. Wolfe creates an atmosphere both of meandering circularity and inevitability. Paraustays, for instance, is laid out in uneven blocks, some lots the size of a house and others enormous. The streets are unnamed. Traveling anywhere involves a great deal of walking, an inconvenience on which Grafton comments more than once.
The dreamlike nature of the story is further emphasized by Grafton's character. Grafton is the narrator, and his writing is conversational, almost as if he is speaking instead of writing. Grafton's language is awkward, stilted, shifting from the oddly formal ("I will not say any more about that.") to the informal ("Well, you know what I mean."). Grafton speech is anachronistic. Although the book takes place sometime after the fall of communism, Grafton often lapses into aged colloquialisms: An attractive woman, for instance, might be a "looker." Wolfe is an older man, in his eighties, but, given his reputation as a writer, I think this was a deliberate choice. How old is Grafton, anyway?
Readers will wonder just how a reliable a narrator Grafton really is. Although he is up front about when he won't share information with the reader, for instance, to protect a character's identity, he doesn't seem very trustworthy. Grafton sleeps around, both with his captor's wife and with Naala, the JAKA agent who is his handler. Indeed, Grafton cooperates with the JAKA, eventually becoming an agent, a status he clearly enjoys: He receives a badge and a gun and a certain prestige, which he uses to procure rides and, at one point, to rob someone with impunity. And revelations in the final chapter may surprise some readers.
The plot of The Land Across is convoluted and, occasionally, illogical, but I suspect that's part of the point. The country that is the setting of the book isn't supposed to make sense, so why should the story, involving, as it does, revolutionaries, devil worshipers, prisoners, priests, and intelligence agencies? All, or most, is made clear by the end of the novel. Readers should be prepared to set aside their desire for neatly wrapped packages and instead keep moving forward, much like Grafton himself.
The Land Across is a puzzle not easily solved; it's both delightful and frustrating. Wolfe is clearly an experienced and skilled author, capturing Grafton's character and the strange logic of foreign dictatorships. Recommended for readers who appreciate the strange and the surreal, with just a touch of the supernatural.
The Land
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Across is, superficially, at least, an account of an American travel writer's trip to an unnamed Eastern European country. Grafton, the narrator, intended to visit the country and write about it in his next book. Grafton's experiences result instead in The Land Across. It is clear from the beginning that something isn't right: Grafton's flights to the country are canceled three times. He opts instead to fly to Germany and to travel by train to his destination. Grafton is still on the train when he is taken prisoner by the country's border guards. Tellingly, Grafton is asleep when the guards accost him. Much of The Land Across is strange, pastiche, dreamlike: Did it really happen?Grafton's captors spirit him to a village, Paraustays, confiscate his passport, and, in a puzzling twist, make him the prisoner of a citizen. Grafton may wander Paraustays at will, but he must sleep in the villager's house, lest his guard be shot. Grafton eventually escapes Paraustays for the capital, and is briefly involved with a revolutionary group, the Legion of Light, before the state captures him again. After a period (a few months, a year?) as a prisoner, Grafton begins collaborating with the state security apparatus, the JAKA. Grafton's search for an escaped prisoner (his previous cellmate) points to an organization devoted to demon worship, the Unholy Way. Oh, and there's an undead severed hand with a mind of its own.
That's as much of the plot as I can share here without really giving anything away.
Again, The Land Across is like a dream. Wolfe creates an atmosphere both of meandering circularity and inevitability. Paraustays, for instance, is laid out in uneven blocks, some lots the size of a house and others enormous. The streets are unnamed. Traveling anywhere involves a great deal of walking, an inconvenience on which Grafton comments more than once.
The dreamlike nature of the story is further emphasized by Grafton's character. Grafton is the narrator, and his writing is conversational, almost as if he is speaking instead of writing. Grafton's language is awkward, stilted, shifting from the oddly formal ("I will not say any more about that.") to the informal ("Well, you know what I mean."). Grafton speech is anachronistic. Although the book takes place sometime after the fall of communism, Grafton often lapses into aged colloquialisms: An attractive woman, for instance, might be a "looker." Wolfe is an older man, in his eighties, but, given his reputation as a writer, I think this was a deliberate choice. How old is Grafton, anyway?
Readers will wonder just how a reliable a narrator Grafton really is. Although he is up front about when he won't share information with the reader, for instance, to protect a character's identity, he doesn't seem very trustworthy. Grafton sleeps around, both with his captor's wife and with Naala, the JAKA agent who is his handler. Indeed, Grafton cooperates with the JAKA, eventually becoming an agent, a status he clearly enjoys: He receives a badge and a gun and a certain prestige, which he uses to procure rides and, at one point, to rob someone with impunity. And revelations in the final chapter may surprise some readers.
The plot of The Land Across is convoluted and, occasionally, illogical, but I suspect that's part of the point. The country that is the setting of the book isn't supposed to make sense, so why should the story, involving, as it does, revolutionaries, devil worshipers, prisoners, priests, and intelligence agencies? All, or most, is made clear by the end of the novel. Readers should be prepared to set aside their desire for neatly wrapped packages and instead keep moving forward, much like Grafton himself.
The Land Across is a puzzle not easily solved; it's both delightful and frustrating. Wolfe is clearly an experienced and skilled author, capturing Grafton's character and the strange logic of foreign dictatorships. Recommended for readers who appreciate the strange and the surreal, with just a touch of the supernatural.
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LibraryThing member timjones
At his peak, around the time of [The Fifth Head of Cerberus], [The Island of Doctor Death] and the [Book of the New Sun] tetralogy, Gene Wolfe rose to be among the greatest authors speculative fiction has produced. At times, his subsequent "Long Sun" and "Short Sun" series approach those heights,
With all that preamble out of the way, I'd rate [The Land Across] as something of a return to form. It's set on a much smaller canvas than his greatest works, but this twisty tale of an American sort-of innocent abroad in an imaginary East European country kept me interested and entertained throughout, and there was enough of the trademark Wolfean pulling the wool over the reader's eyes, and then pulling it away again to reveal new perspectives, to keep me well satisfied. A worthy extension to the Wolfe canon for those that know and love his work, or a good starting point for those who don't.
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but in general I've been a bit disappointed with his recent work - though perhaps I'm like one of those fans of a classic rock band who keeps insisting that they play only their old hits, and refuses to listen to the new stuff.With all that preamble out of the way, I'd rate [The Land Across] as something of a return to form. It's set on a much smaller canvas than his greatest works, but this twisty tale of an American sort-of innocent abroad in an imaginary East European country kept me interested and entertained throughout, and there was enough of the trademark Wolfean pulling the wool over the reader's eyes, and then pulling it away again to reveal new perspectives, to keep me well satisfied. A worthy extension to the Wolfe canon for those that know and love his work, or a good starting point for those who don't.
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LibraryThing member ScoLgo
Have you ever traveled to a foreign country where the primary language is different from yours? Perhaps people there speak a rudimentary version of your language? While visiting that place, do you find in yourself a tendency to start speaking somewhat in the manner of the indigenous people? Maybe
Our main character is Grafton, an American writer of travel books who hears of a country in Eastern Europe (in a land across the mountains), for which no travel books have been written. Taking it upon himself to write such a book, he buys an airline ticket to the place. But the plane is not able to land so he tries again - with the same result. "This is a difficult country to get to!", Grafton says to himself. Taking the train, he finally reaches his destination but upon arrival, his passport is confiscated - and he is immediately detained for not having a passport! Dumbfounded, he is then taken not to jail, but to a local residence where he is told to stay or the man living there will be shot to death! Subsequent events become more and more strange from there.
Judging by the blurb on the inner leaf, one might get the impression that Grafton is to be a hapless victim, in over his head and doomed to struggle from one challenge to the next. In fact, it doesn't take him long to weasel his way into the good graces of JAKA, the secret police. He quickly goes from prisoner to lackey to secret policeman - getting into fights and getting with the women - all while unraveling occult mysteries that involve hidden treasure, a secret society, a severed hand, (still attached to an incorporeal witch), the church, a mysterious man in black that may or may not be the ghost of Vlad the Impaler, and an American voodoo-doll manufacturer and his wife - both also imprisoned in this strange Kafkaesque country in which they have become mired.
The preceding paragraph only begins to describe the strange shenanigans that go on in this short but very complex novel. Many reviewers complain about the writing style - and the way the characters are voiced - but I found that voicing to be one of the more effective things about the book. At the end of the day, this may not be one of Wolfe's strongest works but, let's face it, a mediocre Gene Wolfe novel will still stand head & shoulders over most other contemporary urban fantasy. This is a strange book, with a lot going on, that will undoubtedly stand the test of time and be enhanced by a re-read or three.
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it's just me, but I have definitely found myself doing this when visiting other places and cultures. As a result, the voice of the protagonist in The Land Across was not too difficult for me to identify with. At first, the odd syntax of the dialogue between characters was slightly off-putting but it didn't take long for things to click into place.Our main character is Grafton, an American writer of travel books who hears of a country in Eastern Europe (in a land across the mountains), for which no travel books have been written. Taking it upon himself to write such a book, he buys an airline ticket to the place. But the plane is not able to land so he tries again - with the same result. "This is a difficult country to get to!", Grafton says to himself. Taking the train, he finally reaches his destination but upon arrival, his passport is confiscated - and he is immediately detained for not having a passport! Dumbfounded, he is then taken not to jail, but to a local residence where he is told to stay or the man living there will be shot to death! Subsequent events become more and more strange from there.
Judging by the blurb on the inner leaf, one might get the impression that Grafton is to be a hapless victim, in over his head and doomed to struggle from one challenge to the next. In fact, it doesn't take him long to weasel his way into the good graces of JAKA, the secret police. He quickly goes from prisoner to lackey to secret policeman - getting into fights and getting with the women - all while unraveling occult mysteries that involve hidden treasure, a secret society, a severed hand, (still attached to an incorporeal witch), the church, a mysterious man in black that may or may not be the ghost of Vlad the Impaler, and an American voodoo-doll manufacturer and his wife - both also imprisoned in this strange Kafkaesque country in which they have become mired.
The preceding paragraph only begins to describe the strange shenanigans that go on in this short but very complex novel. Many reviewers complain about the writing style - and the way the characters are voiced - but I found that voicing to be one of the more effective things about the book. At the end of the day, this may not be one of Wolfe's strongest works but, let's face it, a mediocre Gene Wolfe novel will still stand head & shoulders over most other contemporary urban fantasy. This is a strange book, with a lot going on, that will undoubtedly stand the test of time and be enhanced by a re-read or three.
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Awards
World Fantasy Award (Nominee — Novel — 2014)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Science Fiction and Fantasy — 2013)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2013
Physical description
288 p.; 6.45 inches
ISBN
0765335956 / 9780765335951