The Land

August 1, 2020
A troubled young man in search of his lost love finds himself involved with White supremacists in this novel set in the uncertain days leading up to Y2K. Lucien, the unappealing hero, has been withdrawn ever since recovering from a car accident, spending his days pretending to still be a college student. An offer to act as a winter caretaker for a house whose owners have left for warmer climes becomes an opportunity to investigate a nearby Christian Identity church whose pastor is the husband of Maura, the woman he loved. Lucien met her when the two of them worked at a bank, and he has not seen her since she disappeared at the same time the bank found $5,000 missing. If that weren't premise enough, the novel features mystic-religious visions that seem more inspired by the covers of Christian metal LPs than anything else. In addition, there's the mysterious long-lost daughter of the couple Lucien is caretaking for and a collection of books containing art looted by the Nazis, none of these anything but distractions from the main plot. At times, the book seems to be about how easy it is to be seduced into racism, but Lucien's flirtations feel too na�ve to be believable or for the reader to have a stake in his going astray. A speech toward the end rebuking the White supremacists for perverting Christ's true message is the final mawkish touch. There's nothing solid in the foundation of this book.

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August 24, 2020
Maltman’s middling latest (after The Night Birds) centers on a man’s search for his missing lover in the winter of 1999 among religious zealots in the Minnesota hinterlands. With Y2K looming, Lucien Swenson takes a job house-sitting at an isolated homestead, ostensibly to recover from a car accident that thwarted his plans to finish college and embark on a career as a game programmer. But the set-up is a cover for Lucien’s investigation into what happened to Maura, his lover he last saw in the summer. Maura was the young wife of a preacher at the Rose of Sharon fundamentalist church, and she lived among other faithful congregants in a cultlike encampment called the Land. After Lucien moves near the church, he adopts an assumed name and integrates into its community of violent, racist believers led by blind matriarch Mother Sophie. As Lucien searches for Maura, he becomes complicit in the church’s preparations for a Y2K apocalypse and the subsequent race war the cult believes is coming. Unfortunately, heavy-handed symbolism and convoluted plotting mar the intriguing set-up, and Lucien’s search for Maura ends up being little more than a MacGuffin. While Lucien is an enjoyably slippery narrator, the work as a whole feels undercooked.

September 1, 2020
When beautiful Maura goes missing, 21-year-old Lucien, with whom she has been having an affair, goes in search of her. His quest leads him to the Rose of Sharon, a white-supremacist church where Maura's husband, Eli, is the assistant pastor. Keeping his identity secret, Lucien?hoping to discover Maura's whereabouts?ingratiates himself with the leaders of the church, including Mother Sophie, its blind founder who miraculously cures him of his migraines. It's the winter of 1999, and Y2K looms, promising?so the Rose of Sharon's white-supremacist congregation believes?the apocalypse. In the meantime, Lucien, a computer nerd, is developing a computer game called The Land, which coincidentally (not!) is the name of the supremacist camp. What are the hate-filled Rose of Sharon leaders planning? Maltman's very dark novel deals dramatically with considerations of good and evil, of angels and demons, creating a visceral sense of danger, for Lucien's life will be at risk if his identity and his relationship with Maura are discovered. Metaphysics and mystery merge in this haunting, thought-provoking story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)