In Domesticated Land Susan Lipper navigates an apocalyptic world poised between inertia and the end of mankind, somewhere in the California desert. Uncannily tranquil, the landscape offers a trans-historical litany of monuments, icons and signs from which the author and protagonist constructs a narrative interspersed with the words of historic and contemporary women. Putting female subjectivity into relief, Lipper obfuscates the romantic notion of the desert as a land of freedom and self-enlightenment. A lone snake, a dilapidated home, the remains of a cinematic stage set, the head of a fallen woman, a military base, barbed wire: such facts create fiction, and one that serves as an unnerving political admonition concerning the current state of America. Domesticated Land is the enigmatic finale in a trilogy of books, following Grapevine (1988–1992) and trip (1993–1999). The three-part journey, which spanned nearly thirty years and ended in 2016, saw Lipper travel from the forested Appalachian frontiers in the East of the United States – with a stint across the I-10 highway – to the so-called wilderness of the West. Her expedition was anchored in a dual search for ‘true’ America and her own territory: a personal, female perspective of a male-driven land, and a new fictional account of a well-trodden narrative.
96 pages, 27.1 x 24.1cm, hardcover, MACK (London)