Landscape: Memory (First Edition)

Stadler, Matthew

ISBN 10: 0684191857 / ISBN 13: 9780684191850

Published by Scribner (New York), 1990

About this Item

New York: Scribner, 1990. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. Very Fine in a very fine dust jacket. Publisher s original price intact on jacket flap. Comes with archival-quality mylar dust jacket protector. A tight, clean, unread copy. Octavo, 317 pages. Author's first book, winner of the Scribner Prize for a first novel. "Landscape: Memory" tells the story of a man whose carefully ordered life begins to unravel after an unexpected encounter forces him to reckon with desire, memory, and the fragility of identity. Matthew Stadler (b. 1959) is an American novelist and critic, noted for his explorations of sexuality, politics, and urban life. He later published "Allan Stein" (1999, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award), "The Sex Offender" (1994), and "Chloe Jarren's La Cucaracha" (2002). "Landscape: Memory" was his debut. O-stock.

Seller Inventory # 3256

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Landscape: Memory (First Edition)
• Publisher: Scribner (New York)
• Publication Date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684191857
• ISBN 13: 9780684191850
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

Max and Duncan, two boys living in 1915 San Francisco, are fascinated by the earthquake of 1906 and the World's Fair, and spend most of their childhood looking for clues to an understanding of them

Reviews

Amid the rubble of San Francisco's 1906 earthquake, Max Kosegarten, the narrator of this lyrical first novel, becomes the inseparable boyhood friend of Duncan Taqdir, son of a Persian sculptor and an English archeologist. Set mainly in 1914-1916 and told in diary-like entries interspersed with 36 brooding illustrations by the author, the story follows the boys as they become lovers, ultimately separated by college and a tragic accident. Together they explore California's woods, beaches and mountains, and search for evidence of the earthquake that brought them together. Their excavations as well as Max's reading of Ruskin and Cicero, point to this sensitive novel's motif: how memory accretes into character and shapes perception. Another theme is a teen's acceptance of his homosexuality. Max's perky, self-absorbed mother, who is having an affair with Duncan's father, is sharply drawn. Letters from Max's uncle, serving on a hellish front in WW I, add period flavor.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.