Landscape: Memory

An excellent debut work that, through the lens of a homoerotic teen's diary or sketchbook, brilliantly portrays the atmosphere of San Francisco in the year 1915. With Maxwell, the narrator, his totally modern parents, and the allure of San Francisco during its second flowering—the glimmering years between the disaster of 1906 and the sobering effects of World War I—Stadler succeeds in a magnificent way. When Max visits the Pacific Exposition with his best friend Duncan, the son of a Persian sculptor, the prose is flavored with historical detail and childlike joy. Yet tragedy strikes early when Max's father crosses the Bay to Bolinas to continue his bird-watching hobby.

Memory and dreams seem to fill this novel with a unique show more atmosphere. It seems like there is always something that is just beyond the horizon, a fleeting suggestion of the unknown. The combination of dramatic adult changes in circumstances contrasts with the growing young love between the two boys. The beautiful prose style and the effective narrative reminded me of William Maxwell's The Folded Leaf or John Knowles' A Separate Peace. This was an engrossing novel that deserves to be saluted for both the complexity of its themes and the author's lyricism. show less

Max is obsessed with understanding memory, and to help him he is encouraged to keep a record of his daily life as he sees it. Max is sixteen years old, the date he starts his record is August 1914, and the place is San Francisco. It is just a few years after the devastating earthquake, and construction of the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair is under way. Max lives with his very modern mother and father, but spends most of his time with Duncan his friend, a fine Persian boy he first met just after the earthquake.

As Max keeps up his frequent entries central to his thoughts is the landscape drawing he is constructing along with his mother's help, a landscape drawn from memory, a recent summer spent near Bolinas, and much of his show more pontifications about memory relate directly to his drawing, but he also develops is thoughts on memory in other connections, sometimes at length. But Duncan features very much in Max's accounts too, the two boys appear devoted to each other, and during the course of the coming year their relationship becomes physical. Max's descriptions of their intimacies are beautifully recorded, all the more so for their complete innocence, it seems the two boys accept their deep friendship and where it leads unquestioningly and absolutely naturally.

The account takes us from 1914 through to the beginning of 1916, and during that time the two boys begin their studies at Berkeley. We are reminded of the war raging in Europe by regular letters from Max's uncle who is serving with the British army. We also get a brief flash back to the earthquake as Max describes how he came through. The book is also illustrated with regular updates on the progress of Max's landscape.

I loved this book, it is unusual in it construction, a series of diary entries and while it took a little while to warm to this I suddenly found myself entirely drawn into the story. The two boys are delightful, intelligent but unassuming, fit and lithe, they enjoy numerous adventure in and around San Francisco, sometimes getting up to good natured mischief, and their friendship is nothing short of perfection. However, there is tragedy to come, yet the book manages to leave one with positive feelings. show less

Read it in high school and totally loved it. Couldn't remember its title or author for the longest time, but now that I've found it again, I totally want to re-read it. Captured the atmosphere and mood of the time wonderfully. And the incorporation of the paintings was seamless and just right. Beautiful book.