Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Candlewick (2017), Edition: First Edition, First Printing., 160 pages
Description
Science Fiction. Science Fiction & Fantasy. Humor (Fiction.) Young Adult Fiction. HTML: National Book Award winner M. T. Anderson returns to future Earth in a sharply wrought satire of art and truth in the midst of colonization. When the vuvv first landed, it came as a surprise to aspiring artist Adam and the rest of planet Earth �?? but not necessarily an unwelcome one. Can it really be called an invasion when the vuvv generously offered free advanced technology and cures for every illness imaginable? As it turns out, yes. With his parents' jobs replaced by alien tech and no money for food, clean water, or the vuvv's miraculous medicine, Adam and his girlfriend, Chloe, have to get creative to survive. And since the vuvv crave anything they deem "classic" Earth culture (doo-wop music, still-life paintings of fruit, true love), recording 1950s-style dates for the vuvv to watch in a pay-per-minute format seems like a brilliant idea. But it's hard for Adam and Chloe to sell true love when they hate each other more with every passing episode. Soon enough, Adam must decide how far he's willing to go �?? and what he's willing to sacrifice �?? to give the vuvv what they w… (more)
Awards
Thumbs Up! Award (Top Ten — 2018)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 2018)
CCBC Choices (2018)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Teens (Fiction — 2017)
New York Public Library Best Books: For Teens (Fiction — 2017)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2017-09-12
Physical description
160 p.; 9.56 inches
User reviews
LibraryThing member lilibrarian
After the vuvv come, life is difficult for many humans. Adam and his family are struggling to get by. His father has left them, and they take in another family as boarders. Adam and his girlfriend put on a reality show about teen love for the aliens - that brings some income for a while. When
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Adam's landscape paintings are entered in an interstellar art contest, he has a chance for real change in his life. But that, as everything else since the vuvv came, did not work out as expected. Show Less
LibraryThing member bluesalamanders
Landscape With Invisible Hand is set some time after extraterrestrials - the vuvv - have made contact. Not only have they made contact, but they made contracts too. Lots of contracts. They will sell technology and medicine and buy (some specific kinds of) human art and culture. The result is
I wanted to like this. I feel like the author was trying to say something about the state of the world (or at least the United States) today. I just don’t think it worked. It didn’t help that the vuvv didn’t really make sense. And the message was especially muddled by the sudden turn of events at the end, whenthe chronically ill main character was cured for no apparent reason, then found a new girlfriend, and had a brilliant idea that helped his family magically get out of poverty. Not a particularly believable or relatable ending.
Overall, I found the book neither compelling nor satisfying.
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extreme economic disparity between the wealthy few who can trade with the vuvv and the poor many who are losing their jobs to vuvv technology.I wanted to like this. I feel like the author was trying to say something about the state of the world (or at least the United States) today. I just don’t think it worked. It didn’t help that the vuvv didn’t really make sense. And the message was especially muddled by the sudden turn of events at the end, when
Overall, I found the book neither compelling nor satisfying.
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LibraryThing member yoyogod
This is a sort of YA, science fiction novel set in a future where Earth has encountered an alien race called the vuvv, who instead of conquering the place, invite humanity to join their economic prosperity alliance. This leads to the rich getting richer, and everyone else getting much, much poorer.
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It's largely a not-so-subtle take on the modern divide between the ultra-rich 1% and the rest of the world as told through a series of vignettes each titled after a work of art created by the protagonist. I thought it was good, but incredibly depressing and not something I would recommend reading for fun. Show Less
LibraryThing member s_webb
I didn't really like FEED, but the hype surrounding Anderson convinced me to give him another try. However, after LANDSCAPE WITH INVISIBLE HAND, it's safe to say I won't be reading any more of his books. The only thing that kept me reading until the end was the fact that this book is short with
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short chapters, so it wasn't a huge investment of time. I found many elements of the plot unrealistic, the characters boring and one-dimensional, and the ending unsatisfying. This was a good idea for a book—just poorly executed. Show Less
LibraryThing member bluepigeon
M.T. Anderson's Landscape with Invisible Hand is an incisive look at human nature. Every detail of the transformation the human race goes through during the alien colonization is an accurate reflection of the many times peoples and nations were colonized by others here on Earth. Just like the
Anderson's attention to detail is, as usual, noteworthy. There are many little things that evoke past and current situations all around the world. There are also some universal themes that comically weave their way into the story, like the humans who shave their hair and start walking on all fours, to be like the vuvv, all with a mixture of egotistical zeal and complete shame.
The ending, the solution to Adam's problems, is perhaps the most incisive criticism of our world and society today; though it makes perfect sense and should be expected, since it is how things are here and now, it still manages to surprise.
Recommended for those who like dining rooms, family photos, intestinal explosions, and broth.
Thanks to LibraryThing and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange of my honest review. I read it in one sitting!
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economic class divide that grows exponentially when a peoples is colonized by a greater force, the human race suffers a great divide when the vuvv, the super-tech aliens that can cure any human disease and manufacture anything without effort, decide to expand their technological empire to our planet. While the rich humans live in comfort and plenty in the sky (literally), the masses are left jobless and without basic infrastructure. To the vuvv the humans are a primitive, spiritual race; they do not see the point in lifting the masses up from the filth. To the rich humans, the vuvv present opportunity and a good life. And just like any colonizing power that is alien to the natives, some vuvv find the human race fascinating, their art amusing, their notions of love intriguing, yet all from a sanitized distance.Anderson's attention to detail is, as usual, noteworthy. There are many little things that evoke past and current situations all around the world. There are also some universal themes that comically weave their way into the story, like the humans who shave their hair and start walking on all fours, to be like the vuvv, all with a mixture of egotistical zeal and complete shame.
The ending, the solution to Adam's problems, is perhaps the most incisive criticism of our world and society today; though it makes perfect sense and should be expected, since it is how things are here and now, it still manages to surprise.
Recommended for those who like dining rooms, family photos, intestinal explosions, and broth.
Thanks to LibraryThing and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange of my honest review. I read it in one sitting!
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LibraryThing member curioussquared
Landscape with Invisible Hand reads more as a short allegory commenting on the current economic environment than as a novel. However, Anderson still manages to paint a vivid, depressing world where resistance truly is futile.
Adam lives on an earth ruled by the vuvv, alien overlords who came,
I read this in one sitting. It's quick and urgent and you don't want to put it down, but it's also deeply depressing. I don't know if I would say I enjoyed it, but I was engrossed and interested. If you liked Anderson's Feed, you'll probably like this too.
Adam lives on an earth ruled by the vuvv, alien overlords who came,
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solved the world's problems, and destroyed the economy, since most human jobs were made unnecessary. Adam's father disappeared, and he and his mother and sister try to figure out how to go on while his mother searches for work. Adam has a disease caused by drinking contaminated water and he copes with his painting and drawing as his condition slowly deteriorates. I read this in one sitting. It's quick and urgent and you don't want to put it down, but it's also deeply depressing. I don't know if I would say I enjoyed it, but I was engrossed and interested. If you liked Anderson's Feed, you'll probably like this too.
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LibraryThing member True54Blue
I really wanted to like this book but I can't rate it higher than three stars. The premise is about two teens faking love to support their families in the face of an alien invasion. However, before that story line really takes off emotionally we're into another story line about being true to your
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art in the face of the necessities of life. I think that Anderson tried to do too much in this short book while failing to develop the characters in a deeper, more meaningful way. It's like there's two stories joined together and neither is satisfying. By the end of the book I couldn't have cared less what happened to either main character so at least I didn't find it depressing as some reviewers noted. Show Less
LibraryThing member mtlkch
I really didn't like this book. I thought it was depressing, including the parts that I think weren't supposed to be. I kept waiting for something good, at least a little bit good, to happen, but in my opinion, nothing did. How much more can one teenager go through?
LibraryThing member Stevil2001
M. T. Anderson is a master of many genres: satire, romance, historical fiction. Here he returns to science fiction, the genre of his most popular novel, Feed, with Landscape with Invisible Hand. The bookmark that came with my review copy of Landscape with Invisible Hand includes this quotation from
The main character is Adam, who as Anderson's quote indicates, himself becomes a commodity: he and his girlfriend Chloe (whose family rents from Adam's because they can't afford their own home) livestream their relationship to vuvv observers, who fund them in a sort of Patreon- or Kickstarter-esque way because they find human coupling really fascinating. The vuvv especially like 1950s culture because that's when they first came to Earth, so Adam and Chloe try to emulate the period in their relationship. Even though they make good money, this lack of authenticity soon begins to wear on their relationship, but the worse it gets the more they need it.
The other quote Landscape with Invisible Hand brought to mind was this passage from the first chapter of The War of the Worlds: "And before we judge of them [the Martians] too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?" In its way, Landscape with Invisible Hand is much more of a The War of the Worlds update for the twenty-first century than the Steven Spielberg film or Independence Day. Like Wells's novel, it mirrors what our civilization does to other ones with aliens coming to ours. The way the vuvv economic needs cause the human economy to collapse, and the vuvv "help" humanity by doing occasional medical missionary work, or claim to enjoy human art, but have an out-of-date, ossified, condescending way of perceiving it, mirror the way America can treat countries outside of "the First World." Just as the Martians were us all along, so are the vuvv.
It's not a fun read; it's probably one of Anderson's darkest (not that he's consistently lighthearted or something). Even the jokes are typically dark and depressing, such as the ongoing development of how Chloe's brother is reacting to the vuvv invasion. It's very potent though, and well put together in the way that every M. T. Anderson novel is. Probably it's biggest crime is that it's short, with just 149 pages that aren't exactly packed with text. This prevents the characters from achieving the kind of depth necessary to really fell their tragedy, like you do in Feed even though the characters in that book are almost universally awful. On the other hand, its length makes it a compelling, quick read-- I zipped through the whole thing in two evenings and felt satisfied. I suspect Landscape with Invisible Hand will be a minor work from a major talent.
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Anderson himself linking the two: "If Feed was about constantly being sold to, Landscape with Invisible Hand is about how we now have to constantly have to sell ourselves." An alien race called the vuvv has come to Earth, bringing their advanced technology-- which has completely wrecked the human economy. The 1% get richer through their investment in vuvv technology and manufacturing, but many humans are quickly put out of work by automation, and then things spiral out of control-- as people can't afford things, other jobs progressively collapse, leaving the majority of humanity unemployed.The main character is Adam, who as Anderson's quote indicates, himself becomes a commodity: he and his girlfriend Chloe (whose family rents from Adam's because they can't afford their own home) livestream their relationship to vuvv observers, who fund them in a sort of Patreon- or Kickstarter-esque way because they find human coupling really fascinating. The vuvv especially like 1950s culture because that's when they first came to Earth, so Adam and Chloe try to emulate the period in their relationship. Even though they make good money, this lack of authenticity soon begins to wear on their relationship, but the worse it gets the more they need it.
The other quote Landscape with Invisible Hand brought to mind was this passage from the first chapter of The War of the Worlds: "And before we judge of them [the Martians] too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?" In its way, Landscape with Invisible Hand is much more of a The War of the Worlds update for the twenty-first century than the Steven Spielberg film or Independence Day. Like Wells's novel, it mirrors what our civilization does to other ones with aliens coming to ours. The way the vuvv economic needs cause the human economy to collapse, and the vuvv "help" humanity by doing occasional medical missionary work, or claim to enjoy human art, but have an out-of-date, ossified, condescending way of perceiving it, mirror the way America can treat countries outside of "the First World." Just as the Martians were us all along, so are the vuvv.
It's not a fun read; it's probably one of Anderson's darkest (not that he's consistently lighthearted or something). Even the jokes are typically dark and depressing, such as the ongoing development of how Chloe's brother is reacting to the vuvv invasion. It's very potent though, and well put together in the way that every M. T. Anderson novel is. Probably it's biggest crime is that it's short, with just 149 pages that aren't exactly packed with text. This prevents the characters from achieving the kind of depth necessary to really fell their tragedy, like you do in Feed even though the characters in that book are almost universally awful. On the other hand, its length makes it a compelling, quick read-- I zipped through the whole thing in two evenings and felt satisfied. I suspect Landscape with Invisible Hand will be a minor work from a major talent.
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LibraryThing member RefPenny
Set in the future, this teen novel tells a gloomy story of Earth after an alien invasion. The Vuvv's advanced technology has destroyed the Earth's economy and most humans scrape out a miserable existence on Earth while the Vuvv, and a few super-rich people, live in luxury condos floating above the
This book presents an interesting view of how an alien invasion may occur and the consequences of adopting advanced technology. It could be seen as an allegory of colonisation but the bleakness and weak characterisation make this a less than satisfying read.
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Earth. One of the few ways that people can make money is to live-stream their romantic relationships for the Vuvv to watch. Adam and his girlfriend decide that this is the only way to make ends meet but it strains their relationship to the breaking point.This book presents an interesting view of how an alien invasion may occur and the consequences of adopting advanced technology. It could be seen as an allegory of colonisation but the bleakness and weak characterisation make this a less than satisfying read.
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LibraryThing member bfister
This spare, short novel is a good companion to the author's FEED, which I felt was one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. This is disturbing, too, while also having the kind of dark, bleak humor as the earlier book.
The landscape is the one Adam lives in and the one he paints, a suburban
The vuvv don't look like our imagined aliens, more like boxy coffee tables, but they have a flair for commerce, which unfortunately leads to economic inequality, environmental catastrophe, a loss of employment except for precarious gigs and self-marketing through social media, and epidemic hunger and desperation.
The vuvv have a particular yearning for American culture from the fifties and Adam and his girlfriend manage to support their families briefly by uploading falsified puppy love encounters. Being watched by aliens on a pay-per-view basis is not conducive to romance. Adam loses his girlfriend and before long he might also lose his chance to make the kind of art he makes - the landscapes that show what his world is really like, on the ground beneath the floating villas of the wealthy.
I read this story in one sitting. It's weirdly propulsive while also being laconic and often depressing. (Adam suffers from a humiliating disease caused by bad water that make him gurgle and fart and rush to the bathroom at awkward times - the anxieties of adolescence magnified.) The invisible hand is sometimes a little heavy, with the vuvv clearly representing the market fundamentalism that promises progress and delivers misery for most and enormous wealth for the undeserving rich. But there is still art, and even public libraries, and Anderson's own style, blunt as it is, can be lovely. For example, this passage near the end of the book:
"Ships arrive from other stars, tracing lines of credit and expense through the skies, constellations of commerce. We sit on the porch in the evening and listen to the insects chitter like the fever of our drained, exhausted Earth. Orbital stations glimmer in the last light.
"We thought there was a great distance between the future and us, and now here we are, falling through it."
So lovely, but also with a Message, and as is often the case in novels of ideas it sometimes pokes out a little too much. In a way I found this novel less upsetting than FEED (perhaps because Adam and his sister are such decent people in spite of the degraded world they live in) but it has the same power to provoke thought. It's a bleak view of the future without the usual rebel-forces-fight-back salve. Instead, it just makes you think about the not-really-human life forms (multinational corporations) that have been granted human rights without responsibilities and have incredible power that make decisions about our planet and our lives while insisting on displays of a 1950s fake vision of who we are and what matters.
I don't do stars because so much depends on what you want from a book as a reader, but I thought it was very good and well worth reading as an unromanticized dystopia where (some of) the kids are all right but nobody is going to win love or battles because that's too easy. As William Gibson said in a recent interview, dystopia is already here, but unevenly distributed. The hardships these characters face are the lived experience of many on this planet - just without the spaceships.
The landscape is the one Adam lives in and the one he paints, a suburban
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America that has become polluted and desperately poor while the rich live in floating villas high above. The invisible hand is Adam Smith's - only in this near future, the giant corporations that promise great technological advances provided they're given a free hand to make the most of the economy are from outer space. The vuvv don't look like our imagined aliens, more like boxy coffee tables, but they have a flair for commerce, which unfortunately leads to economic inequality, environmental catastrophe, a loss of employment except for precarious gigs and self-marketing through social media, and epidemic hunger and desperation.
The vuvv have a particular yearning for American culture from the fifties and Adam and his girlfriend manage to support their families briefly by uploading falsified puppy love encounters. Being watched by aliens on a pay-per-view basis is not conducive to romance. Adam loses his girlfriend and before long he might also lose his chance to make the kind of art he makes - the landscapes that show what his world is really like, on the ground beneath the floating villas of the wealthy.
I read this story in one sitting. It's weirdly propulsive while also being laconic and often depressing. (Adam suffers from a humiliating disease caused by bad water that make him gurgle and fart and rush to the bathroom at awkward times - the anxieties of adolescence magnified.) The invisible hand is sometimes a little heavy, with the vuvv clearly representing the market fundamentalism that promises progress and delivers misery for most and enormous wealth for the undeserving rich. But there is still art, and even public libraries, and Anderson's own style, blunt as it is, can be lovely. For example, this passage near the end of the book:
"Ships arrive from other stars, tracing lines of credit and expense through the skies, constellations of commerce. We sit on the porch in the evening and listen to the insects chitter like the fever of our drained, exhausted Earth. Orbital stations glimmer in the last light.
"We thought there was a great distance between the future and us, and now here we are, falling through it."
So lovely, but also with a Message, and as is often the case in novels of ideas it sometimes pokes out a little too much. In a way I found this novel less upsetting than FEED (perhaps because Adam and his sister are such decent people in spite of the degraded world they live in) but it has the same power to provoke thought. It's a bleak view of the future without the usual rebel-forces-fight-back salve. Instead, it just makes you think about the not-really-human life forms (multinational corporations) that have been granted human rights without responsibilities and have incredible power that make decisions about our planet and our lives while insisting on displays of a 1950s fake vision of who we are and what matters.
I don't do stars because so much depends on what you want from a book as a reader, but I thought it was very good and well worth reading as an unromanticized dystopia where (some of) the kids are all right but nobody is going to win love or battles because that's too easy. As William Gibson said in a recent interview, dystopia is already here, but unevenly distributed. The hardships these characters face are the lived experience of many on this planet - just without the spaceships.
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LibraryThing member nbmars
This science fiction story takes a dark satirical look at a future in which an ostensibly benevolent alien race, the vuvv, has come to earth to colonize it, literally living up in the sky above the rest of the people. They arrived with promises of advanced technology and lives free of work. There
Plausibly a biting look at communism, or colonialism, or even capitalism (there is a lot of discussion of “the invisible hand” of the market determining worth and value), or at a world divided between the 1% of the vastly wealthy and the rest of us, there is much to contemplate in this book. The colonizers see only what they want to see, and ignore the suffering in their wake. They impose the culture they prefer (amusingly, that of the U.S. in the 1950’s) on the populace, and aren’t willing to accept anything else or to examine the effects of their colonization. The 1% of humans who benefitted think only of their own pleasure and superiority. The rest of the world becomes so desperate people will contemplate just about anything to rise above the sinkhole of their lives.
We learn about all of this through the main character, Adam, a high school student who is an aspiring artist. Each chapter is headed by the title of a painting he is doing to portray the action he describes.
Adam is quite sick from a gastrointestinal disease resulting from untreated tap water; as part of the vuvv’s austerity measures, municipal water is no longer purified. Possibly this is a metaphor for the way everyones lives have turned to sh*t. Adam, in spite of growing increasingly septic, summons the strength to enter a vuvv-sponsored art contest in a last-ditch attempt to make money for his family.
The outcome of the contest suggests to Adam the real way to survive in vuvv society, taking yet another jab at our current social, political, and cultural milieu.
Evaluation: Generally I love the work of this author and I appreciate the points he was trying to make. But ultimately this story fell flat for me. While it raises a lot of interesting issues, the overtly allegorical quality of the story kept it too “unreal” and prevented me from engaging much with the characters.
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are a small percentage of those on Earth who, investing in vuvv technology, manage to become rich, but most humans are now in a permanent state of poverty and despair; the human economy could not stand up against what was provided by the vuvv.Plausibly a biting look at communism, or colonialism, or even capitalism (there is a lot of discussion of “the invisible hand” of the market determining worth and value), or at a world divided between the 1% of the vastly wealthy and the rest of us, there is much to contemplate in this book. The colonizers see only what they want to see, and ignore the suffering in their wake. They impose the culture they prefer (amusingly, that of the U.S. in the 1950’s) on the populace, and aren’t willing to accept anything else or to examine the effects of their colonization. The 1% of humans who benefitted think only of their own pleasure and superiority. The rest of the world becomes so desperate people will contemplate just about anything to rise above the sinkhole of their lives.
We learn about all of this through the main character, Adam, a high school student who is an aspiring artist. Each chapter is headed by the title of a painting he is doing to portray the action he describes.
Adam is quite sick from a gastrointestinal disease resulting from untreated tap water; as part of the vuvv’s austerity measures, municipal water is no longer purified. Possibly this is a metaphor for the way everyones lives have turned to sh*t. Adam, in spite of growing increasingly septic, summons the strength to enter a vuvv-sponsored art contest in a last-ditch attempt to make money for his family.
The outcome of the contest suggests to Adam the real way to survive in vuvv society, taking yet another jab at our current social, political, and cultural milieu.
Evaluation: Generally I love the work of this author and I appreciate the points he was trying to make. But ultimately this story fell flat for me. While it raises a lot of interesting issues, the overtly allegorical quality of the story kept it too “unreal” and prevented me from engaging much with the characters.
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LibraryThing member PeskyLibrary
Landscape With Invisible Hand by M.T. Anderson has a lot of classic YA themes going for it: a dystopian future, teenage troubles, and an artistic main character to name a few. Then it has some features that are way out there including non-humanoid alien invaders that have taken over the world. Adam
I enjoyed parts of this book, but found some things so strange and out of place they were hard to take. Hardly any background or context is given at the beginning, leaving the reader to figure out what is actually going on. By the time I had my head around everything the book was half over and even more random things were happening. This book is very short, and I feel if the author had spent a bit more time fleshing out the invasion and subsequent conflicts, I may have bought into it more. I still think Landscape has a lot of interesting aspects worth exploring as a satire piece about society, love, and art.
(As an extra bonus, Anderson, a New England native, weaves in some local shout outs including one to our very own ISL.) PK
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and his family are just trying to survive in this world that has been completely changed almost overnight to one with very few jobs or opportunities. Told in a series of vignettes titled and reflective of Adam’s artwork, Landscape is an allegory about our society and where we may be heading. I enjoyed parts of this book, but found some things so strange and out of place they were hard to take. Hardly any background or context is given at the beginning, leaving the reader to figure out what is actually going on. By the time I had my head around everything the book was half over and even more random things were happening. This book is very short, and I feel if the author had spent a bit more time fleshing out the invasion and subsequent conflicts, I may have bought into it more. I still think Landscape has a lot of interesting aspects worth exploring as a satire piece about society, love, and art.
(As an extra bonus, Anderson, a New England native, weaves in some local shout outs including one to our very own ISL.) PK
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LibraryThing member sleahey
Seventeen year old Adam is a talented artist but in the future of this story the world has become impoverished with the arrival of the Vevv, who have eliminated most jobs because of their advanced technology. As a result, Adam's family can barely survive, especially after his father took off. For a
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while he and his girlfriend make money by televising their romance, a la 1950's, which the Vevv find fascinating. But when the romance goes sour and the income disappears, Adam hopes to win an art contest and the prize money so his family can stay afloat. Short on science, somewhat stronger on character development, this teen novel is a quick read with a satisfying resolution. Show Less
LibraryThing member deslivres5
I'm still not sure if I liked this book, but I did enjoy read it! The absurdity of the world after the alien invasion and the new rules of life had me laughing out loud in parts. But the utterly sad state of life of Adam and his family and the humans in general gives one pause. A quick (149 page)
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read and Adam's perseverance to survive makes it worth reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member foggidawn
When the aliens came, they brought with them plentiful technology to upgrade manufacturing, medicine, farming, and every aspect of human life. Their arrival brought about the end of work, which immediately heightened the divide between rich and poor. Now, a few lucky humans provide services or
Like most of Anderson’s work, this novella is both thought-provoking and depressing. I’m sure I’ll be pondering it for the next few days.
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entertainment for the vuvv. Adam and his girlfriend Chloe hate each other, but they signed up to be on a channel for the aliens to view (vuvv are fascinated with human courtship rituals), and the money they bring in is keeping their families afloat. Adam, a visual artist, desperately wants to find another way to make money, but how far will he have to go?Like most of Anderson’s work, this novella is both thought-provoking and depressing. I’m sure I’ll be pondering it for the next few days.
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LibraryThing member mjspear
Once again MT Anderson uses some imagined future to reflect upon very real, very present issues. Landscape tells the story of Adam (get it?) and his beleaguered, fractured family whose middle class lifestyle is destroyed by the (friendly) invasion of the alien vuvv. While the vuvv promise
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universal, free healthcare and total social security (get it?), in reality, only a few humans are eligible. Most, including Adam's family, are subjected to a lower earth-bound class while the vuvv hover in the heavens (get it?) When Adam's father leaves in the night and his mother unable to find work (she was a bank assistant in her previous life (get it?) they take in lodgers. In the new tenants is teen Chloe. She and Adam feel an immediate attraction and they hit upon a way to make money. Since the vuvv are intrigued by romantic love (a concept unknown to them since their reproduction means equals spawning) Adam and Chloe agree to "act out" romantic interludes using 50s lingo (the vuvv's delight). All goes well until Adam and Chloe begin to grow apart. (Adam is an artist; Chloe, a pragmatist). In probably the funniest breakup scene ever, they split up. How can Adam retain his identity as an artist, live with his "ex" and survive vuvv? Anderson has much to say about the role of art, conformity, classism, and love. Bravo! Show Less
LibraryThing member JanaRose1
An alien race has landed on earth. With their astute bargaining skills and advanced technologies, they have created a huge divide between the rich and poor. Adam and his family are dirt poor, struggling to earn enough money to feed themselves. When Adam and his girlfriend Chloe decide to record
This was a very bizarre book, but in a really good way. I think it will be a big hit with middle schoolers and perhaps even teenagers. Overall, a hit!
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their experiences, the Vuvv watch fascinated, enamored with true love. Adam and Chloe begin to despise one another and when their relationship falls apart, the Vuvv demand their money back - after all, they were selling true love and true love lasts forever. Desperate, Adam enters an art contest, hoping to win enough to save his family.This was a very bizarre book, but in a really good way. I think it will be a big hit with middle schoolers and perhaps even teenagers. Overall, a hit!
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LibraryThing member fromthecomfychair
This novella started out promising but ran out of steam. Satire on our reliance on technology, the divide between the rich and the poor. The ending was not believable--If the vuvv are so technologically advanced, then it doesn't make sense that the family can escape them. Disappointing, cause Feed
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was great. Show Less
LibraryThing member cindywho
The aliens have come and the humans have been colonized. White middle-class family forced to live in poverty like most of the rest of the planet. Meh.
LibraryThing member deeEhmm
For a novel, I might bump my rating down to 3 stars, but I'm counting this as a long short story or novella because it was such a whizz to read (on audio, but I'm pretty sure the print experience would be similar) and because it captured such a perfect snapshot of a world's emotional portrait. I
The alien takeover of earth has happened, and it turns out that they are not only superior to us in the usual ways (technology, intelligence), but also way bigger consumers and way more at ease in their bigotry. Adam and his girlfriend, Chloe, stage a youtube-style reality-based series of their day-to-day lives as teen lovers; but when the relationship strains against 1950s-era puppy love perfection, then spurs, they find themselves threatened by disgruntled alien consumers. The aliens control every supply chain and every industry; Adam's dad, formerly a car salesman, is out of work and out of ideas; his mom, formerly a banker, can't even get work slinging soup at Heather's Bucket o Broth, a local food truck. Adam, an artist, must puzzle through the mainstream (alien) appreciation of his fairy-tale landscapes of a world he's never even seen and the disregard received by his real landscapes, depicting a crumbling human culture.
A unique premise, no? And super-interesting questions! Truly an enjoyable read, but over too quickly (unless you're seeking a long short story).
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didn't have the impression of diving very deep, but I loved the clarity that Anderson achieved in the story he told. The alien takeover of earth has happened, and it turns out that they are not only superior to us in the usual ways (technology, intelligence), but also way bigger consumers and way more at ease in their bigotry. Adam and his girlfriend, Chloe, stage a youtube-style reality-based series of their day-to-day lives as teen lovers; but when the relationship strains against 1950s-era puppy love perfection, then spurs, they find themselves threatened by disgruntled alien consumers. The aliens control every supply chain and every industry; Adam's dad, formerly a car salesman, is out of work and out of ideas; his mom, formerly a banker, can't even get work slinging soup at Heather's Bucket o Broth, a local food truck. Adam, an artist, must puzzle through the mainstream (alien) appreciation of his fairy-tale landscapes of a world he's never even seen and the disregard received by his real landscapes, depicting a crumbling human culture.
A unique premise, no? And super-interesting questions! Truly an enjoyable read, but over too quickly (unless you're seeking a long short story).
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LibraryThing member clrichm
I'm sort of unsure of how I felt about this one? The story was compelling, absolutely. I love the unique take on alien invasion that isn't about overt subjugation or annihilation but which destroys life as we know it through the more mundane channels of economic imbalance. My main issue lay in
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finding characters with whom I could sympathize. I wanted to like Adam, but that sort of fell apart at the end a bit when it got harder to see inside his head. I think the author did make the right choices with the ending, particularly in one particular twist that would have felt unbelievable had it gone the way it looked as though it would. Anyway, it'll definitely stick with me for a while. Show Less
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