Death by Landscape

by Margaret Atwood

“Death by Landscape” (1989) is a complex and multi-layered story that explores themes such as the unknown, memory and guilt, and coming of age. It also embodies many of Atwood’s theories of Canadian literature, including the prevalence of nature and the notion of survival.

Also available in the anthology Wilderness Tips

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, School, Classics, Literature, Read For School, Read For College

25 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.

Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth ­ in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.

Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.

Reviews

[Anabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"No matter how far back in you go, there will be more. And the trees themselves are hardly trees; they are currents of energy, charged with violent color. Who knows how many trees there were on the cliff just before Lucy disappeared? Who counted? Maybe there was one more, afterwards."

So hauntingly beautiful.

[Gabrielle Grosbety · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Margaret Atwood’s “Death by Landscape”, Atwood uses ambiguity and pathetic fallacy to help describe Lois’ inner conflicts and complex relationship with the world around her, specifically the wilderness, after the disappearance of Lucy, her childhood summer camp friend. The story is told from Lois’ perspective as a grown woman, as she is still haunted by their friendship. Female friendship is intense, violently powerful, and emotional, and each of these qualities appear in the bond between Lucy and Lois. Lois still can’t reconcile with her emotions and sense of responsibility for her friend’s disappearance and death the day that they hike up to Lookout Point, which looks out over a lake. The girls talk for a bit before Lucy goes off to go to the bathroom, only to never return. Lois is left to wonder what happened that day forever.

There are fundamental, unsolvable uncertainties that characterize life and Lois is faced with living a life with no closure, but only being tormented by and wrestling with ghosts from the past. The title, “Death by Landscape”, suggests these feelings of alienation that Lois feels about her own life and how the landscape of Lucy’s death has become pervasive and all-consuming.

The title also doesn’t necessarily imply causality of Lucy’s death, but rather it explains how Lucy’s death, especially the ambiguity and suddenness of it, has made Lois live and see the world with everything having a trace of her in it. Every landscape, thought, moment, and feeling is influenced by their friendship. Most of all, though, Lois’ world is dominated by the same kind of “trackless wilderness” where the summer camp was situated. Even as an adult, she spends time feeling detached and passively observing, instead of actively living, while Lucy even seems to live inside her paintings and watch her from inside the safety of them.

Ultimately, this is a tale of friendship, loss, and the realities of life and humanness. Ambiguity enriches the story by giving away nothing and always leaving us to wonder how it could’ve ended, as life is filled with unpredictable endings. Under every moment there are an infinite amount of possibilities for how it could’ve been lived. Life is fragile and tenuous and Lois is continually forced to live with not knowing, and only holds onto the memory of who Lucy was and what their friendship meant, but the ending gives hope that sometimes that can be enough, too.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found in "Saturday Night" July 1989. I've read a few collections of Atwood's stories but hadn't come across this one before. An elderly woman sits in her condo looking at her art collection of landscapes on the walls. From here she reminisces about her time at a summer camp during the post-war years and an event that lead to her eventual taste in art. Typical brilliant Atwood.

[Rebecca Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite Atwood short story. Haunting.

[Floor · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Sara McAvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. One of the most effective short stories I have read. Haunting.

[Helena · Rating 4 out of 5]

First reading this a young woman, I was left frustrated. Unresolved circumstances and emotions felt heavy-handed and almost cruel at a time when I was trying to understand the world. I didn't enjoy this then, but now I do. Lois looks back on and carries her past in a way that I recognize in myself and many women in my life.

[Ida De Boodt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Who knows how many trees there were on the cliff just before Lucy disappeared? Who counted? Maybe there was one more, afterwards."

[Erin Cutts · Rating 4 out of 5]

the ending was so beautiful - "Everyone has to be somewhere, and this is where Lucy is." DAMN

one of the best short stories i've ever read

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for school.
first didn't really understand what the theme and message was, but when we discussed it in class I really started to appreciate the story.

[Markie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Atwood has a real knack for looking at and inside invisible women. Like older women, landscapes aren’t as banal as they appear. Some harbor an invisible girl, like a tree, falling alone in the wood. Does she make a sound?

[aly ☆.。.:* · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautifully written wow im actually amazed

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first time reading Margaret Atwood. It captivated me and also I would say that the Pons edition is very good for learning English.
It's wonderful the way Atwood leads you through the story. Nature is omnipresent and the memory of the innocence is present in the mind of an adult woman, who can see the past following her like an endless echo.
I recommend it very much.

[Lea Dokter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-constructed short story with a surprising, lovely, creepy ending.
Me and a classmate had to present on this for one of our literature courses, explaining and evaluating a secondary source. We chose a paper by Lauren Rule, delving into the imperialist angle and critiques in this work. The secondary article makes for an interesting read and a new view of this story, I would highly recommend it!

[Emi Atze · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story, it captures the importance of childhood and deals with the phenomenon of trauma.
Great writing! I'm excited to read more.

[Eloise]

This piece has uncovered a truth about myself I did not know I had— I do not like mystery when an answer is not given! Although a huge fan of twists, ambiguity, and minor resolution in movie and film, I realized that no resolution at all makes me feel… unnerved?? It’s weird but reading this piece felt like I was listening to a song and very quietly underneath there was an uncomfortable high pitched tone ringing out or something, and kudos to the author as I believe this was her intent— to create an environment devoid of safety and rank with danger. Well written, and obviously an engrossing piece, but I wouldn’t recommend it because it just leaves a muted, gray feeling of discomfort. I also won’t rank it because I feel my emotional response to it is creating a bias wherein I wouldn’t be ranking the story, prose, and characters accurately!

[Katelyn Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the early pages of Death by Landscape, I was met with a very ominous feeling. Once the backstory begins and Lucy is introduced, she is presented as a stereotypical upper-class girl who thinks she is above being at camp. But as the summers pass, we start to see the progression of Lucy's mental state, subtly foreshadowing what happens at the lookout. Although it is unclear what exactly happens on the lookout, I believe the clues planted within the text make the likelihood that she took her own life very high. But the most intriguing part of the text for me was Lois' paintings. In the beginning, the way the artwork is displayed is described as "European" and having "more of an impact" as opposed to how it was displayed at Lois' old home. Now that Lois lives alone, the art being described as having "more of an impact" directly ties to her memories of Lucy. Lois has nothing to distract her from her old friend. The paintings are described as filling Lois with "a wordless unease" and will never go near her late husband's family cottage with "wild lakes and wild trees." It obvious that the wilderness serves a traumatic reminder for Lois, but then why is her home decorated with that reminder? One could argue that the title, Death by Landscape, is a reference to Lucy's death, but I think it is referencing Lois. Lois is killing herself with these landscapes, that are representative of Lucy and her death, but won’t actually face what happened and gain closure. Lois wants to remember her, which is found in the paintings, but won't let go of Lucy and Lois's guilt surrounding her death, which is her inability to go the cabin in the woods.

[Remy Donald · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a moment to get into this story, but by the end I was absolutely captivated. I was questioning for a moment how the beginning paragraphs were going to tie into the stories of Lois and Lucy from camp, and then they were tied together seamlessly and I was in awe. I love how this story details coping with the unknown. I enjoy how invested you as an audience get into the fixation Lois has on Lucy, until her panic becomes your panic when she disappears. The last lines were absolutely breathtaking in my opinion. “She is here. She is entirely alive.”

Also, there’s got to be some queer undertones to this. That level of a fixation on a friend? Especially after all those years? I understand there is an obsessive sense of guilt and mystery, but I almost feel there’s something more. That may just be my interpretation though.

(Read for Fiction Writer’s Workshop)

[Rebeka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a heartbreaking story about love, friendship, loss, memory and guilt. Atwood's short story is a multu-layered tale narrated by Lois as a grown woman, haunted by what happened to her friend Lucy.

"But a dead person is a body; a body occupies space, it exists somewhere. You can see it; yoh put it in a boy and bury it in the ground, and then it's in a box in the ground. But Lucy is not in a box, or in the ground. Because she is nowhere definite, she could be anywhere?"

I definitely recommend this short story to EVERYONE. But get ready to be sad and maybe even get some tissues. You might need it.

[Nadi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Discovered this one through Elvia Wilk's book of the same name. Knowing the ending in advance diminished the climax somewhat, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. My favorite part was hearing Lois process the blame "Cappie" attributed to her for Lucy's disappearance.

Find a free e-copy of Atwood's story here: https://litvote.com/death-by-landscap.... Would highly recommend also reading Wilk's chapter "Plants" in which she analyzes the original text.

[Ron Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Atwood, the author was born in 1936 in Canada. She was well educated and was an award winning multimedia writer...plays, novels and short stories. DEATH BY LANDSCAPE is a nostalgic read of summer camps, friendships and becoming an adult. This is an entertaining short story with a twist I'll not reveal. It is a fun read. I love nostalgia. I'm definitely going to search out some of Atwood's novels. rgj

[linette :] · Rating 5 out of 5]

Realizing I never added this short here… but this story has haunted me ever since I read it. Margaret Atwood is a genius and I cannot recommend this to anyone enough.
“Despite the fact that there are no people in [the paintings] or even animals, it’s as if there is something, or someone, looking back out.”

[cowluver12 · Rating 5 out of 5]

i dont know exactly why but this story is genuinely so reminiscent of childhood to me. great way of conveying that stage of life when u realise all people have their own struggles in life. and when she looks back at it all and portrays that part of her life through art...literally like seeing a flash of all our futures as we hold our most significant memories from childhood with us alone.

[Corie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story really got to me, it is a framed story and I completely forgot about the frame until the end when we were taken out of the main story. It is very interesting and completely gripping. I also love Atwood's metaphorical style with nature relating to life

[cycads and ferns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still, it was as if she was always listening for another voice, the voice of a person who should have been there but was not. An echo…. Who knows how many trees there were on the cliff just before Lucy disappeared? Who counted? Maybe there was one more, afterward.

[The Wrath of Eleny · Rating 5 out of 5]

"But a dead person is a body: a body occupies space, it exists somewhere."
I love how simple and relatable this story feels, all the while it explores such jarringly complex and dark topics. Beautiful 10/10

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story really was intriguing. From the very beginning there is a layer of mystery. Atwood creates very memorable characters which I really liked.

[Pedro Trujillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great short story

[Clare Bird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read and thought provoking. It's a great reminder that we all have different coping mechanisms and they can consume our lives.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing read, I didn't expect to enjoy a story for a class as much as I did. I have a weird want for a full-length text from Lucy's perspective. Although this text is absolutely amazing.