Land Of Milk And Honey – A Novel By C Pam Zhang
The opening pages of C Pam Zhang’s second novel, Land of Milk and Honey, present a vivid depiction of a planet in perpetual crisis, mirroring the realities of our own world. The devastating effects of climate change have left the Earth covered in smog, crops withered, and countries plagued by famine. Zhang is among the growing number of writers who address the question of how to live in a dying world. However, her exploration goes deeper, delving into the pursuit of pleasure amidst the ongoing collapse and the moral implications of such pursuit while countless others struggle to survive.
The novel’s protagonist is a 29-year-old American chef working in England, trapped as the United States closes its borders due to the spreading smog and rising geopolitical tensions. Simultaneously, she receives news of her late mother’s apartment burning down in a riot. Zhang skillfully weaves these two events together, emphasizing their equal significance in the chef’s life. While acknowledging the severity of the famine in Southeast Asia and the Americas and the ongoing blame game between superpowers, the chef mourns the loss of her beloved ingredients like peridot grapes and buttery mangoes, and laments the disappearance of the flavors she once cherished.
Even amid catastrophe, the present needs and desires persist, as evidenced by the cravings of one’s palate. Zhang employs food as an embodiment of gratification and pleasure, drawing provocative parallels between the yielding nature of strawberries and a woman’s inner thigh.
After being forced to cook with less desirable ingredients, such as gritty mung-protein flour, the chef finally reaches her breaking point and quits her job. In the cold, dimly lit room, she realizes that there is no future for her culinary creations without the ingredients she loves. Deprived of her beloved elements, she decides to embrace her desires, taking on a position as a private chef in an exclusive European mountaintop community inhabited by the ultra-wealthy. Her new employer, along with his enigmatic daughter Aida, a scientist focused on biodiversity, works to preserve the richness of the Earth for the privileged few. Here, in the land known as Terra di latte e miele—“the land of milk and honey”—the chef is tasked with preparing extravagant meals for investors.
Zhang’s portrayal of a world on the verge of destruction raises complex questions about self-interest. She challenges readers to contemplate the significance of individual actions in the face of an environment in irreversible decay. The loss of her mother’s home and the subsequent upheaval in her life lead the chef to accept the twisted, transactional nature of her job on the mountain, relishing in the comfort and abundance it provides. Moral dilemmas slowly erode her once staunch commitment to doing what is right. She goes on to prepare lavish meals, consuming and discarding without concern for starving children, driven by the belief that fairness is an elusive concept in a world obsessed with scarcity.
As the chef’s relationship with Aida grows, she finds herself falling in love, reveling in her own sensual pleasures. Despite her increasing powerlessness and the demands placed upon her by her employer, she realizes that her own pleasure is something she can reclaim. The intertwining of their lives allows the chef to embrace her desires fully, savoring every moment of passion. Zhang’s writing dances between prose and poetry, melding evocative emotions with intricate details. While the weightiness of her sentences may occasionally tip the balance or confuse the narrative, the story overall immerses readers in an exploration of primal feelings:
“Three years, can you imagine, gray days and gray nights, no lovers no family no feasts no flights no fruit no meat and suddenly this largesse of freckles down her torso, this churning, spilling free … Against a still-dark sky, this emergent landscape of her body. Lunar dunes, slick valleys, her throat a shifting topography.”
Within the confines of her narrative, Zhang argues that pleasure is an integral part of life and survival. Human nature is rooted in desire, and the ceaseless pursuit of it is intrinsic to our existence, regardless of its selfish or futile nature. The relationship between the chef and Aida embodies this philosophy. As they become entangled, the chef becomes less preoccupied with the hypocrisies she witnesses on the mountaintop.
At times, the novel may come across as preachy, diverting attention from Zhang’s mesmerizing prose. For instance, Aida hosts a hunting party where the investors mercilessly kill off a species of chimpanzee that Aida deems unworthy of preservation. The chef confronts Aida, appalled by this cruelty considering her supposed love for the animals in her labs. Aida defends her actions, highlighting the collective responsibility we all share for the destruction of the environment. Despite these occasional heavy-handed moments, it remains difficult, in most instances, to discern the narrator’s moral stance and, more importantly, how readers should feel about her. The chef’s decision to abandon the mountaintop and sever ties with Aida contrasts with her fond recollections of their time together. Zhang resists succumbing to an overwrought critique of climate disaster and individual greed, opting instead for a subtle exploration of her characters’ motivations and yearnings. The ethical complexities of the novel manifest in the chef’s fragmented memories of Aida’s face, a cipher without clear meaning.
In her second novel, Zhang encourages readers to embrace their desires, even in the face of potentially dire consequences. She emphasizes that pleasure is an integral part of life and individual existence, offering a counterpoint to the stark conclusion of her debut novel. The desires of her characters take center stage, while moral judgments take a back seat. The final pages of the book showcase Zhang’s restraint, resisting the temptation to descend into an exaggerated condemnation of climate disaster and greed. Her message is clear: she wants so that she may continue to live.
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