Pilgrims Upon the Earth

First, I'd actually give this book 4.5 stars if I had the option. Now... Pilgrim's Upon the Earth picks up thematically from Land's earlier work. The main character struggles with issues of alienation, knows despair and isolation without fully recognizing or naming the emotions. The main character, Terry, is a loner with no real relationships or ties to people, in many ways mirroring Land's experiences in Goat. Both undergo traumatic and violent experiences; both withdraw even further after the incidents. I like Goat. I like this as well. It grabs you and doesn't bother to let go, but does so seemingly without even trying. It's to Land's credit that the book moves almost effortlessly from scene to scene, propelling the reader forward yet lingering over details that sink into Terry's psyche. Land's depiction of Terry is note-perfect - Terry is odd, weird even, yet for reasons we may not even know, we readers are drawn to him and his life. He acts out of sorts - is a true character of the margins - yet we see in him a perfect model of youthful alienation so common in the '80s. Again, it's to Land's credit that the obstacles of this generation are so pitch-perfectly presented, yet done so without recycling any of the standard tropes so common among books set in this time period - copious cocaine usage and rampant hedonism. Though Terry and his compatriots do experiment with illegal substances, it's depicted in the light of youthful rebellious boredom, not as something more, and perhaps more momentous. This is an excellent book, and well worth the read.

This book is a wonderful, terrible depiction of Southern rural helplessness and cruelty, and right at the center of it is a boy so human and captivating that his ruin is inseparable from his stature. Pilgrims, through a sadder-than-desolate landscape, reveals an admirable marvel in Terry, for whom I felt worry, pity, and a strange, rising admiration--a blood-red love grows from this character who's had nothing but wide eyes, a sad, sad love, and crumbs of his father's amazement for the natural world to keep him from biting down on culture that would, in return, consume him.

So concentrated and haunting and painstaking and sad, but also beautiful, with moments of real humor. There is something really unflinchingly honest in the prose, a perfect rendering of the teenaged main character's overwhelming, not fully articulate vulnerability. Evokes in an inescapable way the pain and beauty of first love and human loss and loneliness. And the language and vision are genuine, original, poetic, heartbreaking.