Land Shadows Discussion Guide

Chapters I

By R.J. Striegel
Designed for College–Graduate Level Book Clubs & Literature Seminars

Chapter I: The Clearances

Summary:
Set against the backdrop of the Highland Clearances, this chapter introduces James and Mary McNeil as they prepare to flee their ancestral croft on the Isle of Barra. Striegel renders the land not just as setting but as sacred inheritance. The chapter explores emotional rupture, the erosion of communal trust, and the intrusion of imperial systems into domestic space. Religion, language, and memory become both tools of resistance and instruments of subjugation.

Themes & Literary Considerations:

  • Spatial poetics and the politics of place: How does the croft become a palimpsest of family, culture, and trauma?

  • Moral complicity and religious co-optation: Reverend Beatson emerges as a symbol of institutional betrayal.

  • Feminist resistance and emotional labor: Mary’s character embodies a quiet but resolute defiance.

  • First-person memory as historical reanimation: Narrative structure blurs history with felt experience.

Discussion Prompts:

  1. Land as Memory: Striegel gives the croft near-sacred weight. How does the narrator’s relationship to the land shape both his identity and his understanding of legacy? Can we read the croft as a “character” in its own right?

  2. Narrative Distance and Voice: Consider the chapter’s use of reflective first-person narration. How does this voice affect reader sympathy and narrative reliability? What techniques does Striegel use to blend personal memoir with historical fiction?

  3. The Ethics of Resistance: James is simultaneously moral, angry, and desperate. How does the novel frame “righteous defiance” versus “prideful stubbornness”? What are the stakes of dissent when the consequences are shared by family?

  4. Gendered Agency: Mary challenges James repeatedly while still supporting his plan. How does her character complicate the binary of compliant wife vs. radical partner? In what ways is she the moral center of the chapter?

  5. Religion and Empire: Reverend Beatson’s theology reinforces the landowner’s power. How does the text use him to critique the historical alliance between religious institutions and systems of displacement?

Chapter II: H.M.S. Badger

Summary:
The McNeil family escapes aboard John Crawford’s smuggler vessel, pursued by both state agents and a revenue cutter. The journey becomes a literal and symbolic passage from ancestral land to liminal sea. Fog obscures certainty; pursuit erases safety. Yet in this instability, new family truths and intergenerational lessons are passed down. The Arran boat, a product of marginalized ingenuity, becomes a vessel of both resistance and inheritance.

Themes & Literary Considerations:

  • The Sea as Threshold: The Hebrides are both exit wound and portal. The ocean oscillates between freedom and threat.

  • Illegality as Justice: Crawford, a smuggler, performs the most ethical act in the chapter. What does this inversion tell us about empire, legality, and kinship?

  • Parenting in Exile: What does it mean to protect innocence while enacting criminal resistance?

  • Narrative Rhythm and Tension: How does Striegel balance descriptive lyricism with high-stakes pacing?

Discussion Prompts:

  1. Smuggling and Moral Subversion: John Crawford’s actions blur the line between criminality and heroism. How does Striegel challenge traditional notions of law, morality, and resistance through Crawford’s characterization?

  2. Fog as Metaphor: Fog is omnipresent — literal and narrative. How does it reflect the psychological state of the characters? Does the fog obscure only danger, or does it also veil deeper truths?

  3. Voice of the Father: James offers philosophical advice to Murdoch mid-flight: “Land is everything.” How do paternal imperatives shift under pressure? Does this instruction reinforce, or subvert, the systems James flees from?

  4. The Badger as Imperial Threat: The H.M.S. Badger operates not just as a physical antagonist, but as a symbol of the state. How does its blind pursuit echo the structure of imperial logic? What might it represent narratively?

  5. Maternal Steadfastness: Mary rows with blistered hands. Her anger at John’s hidden contraband is met with pragmatism. What does her resilience tell us about gendered roles in diasporic journeys? Does Striegel assign her symbolic meaning beyond function?

  6. Narrative Control: The chase sequence reads cinematically. How does Striegel manipulate pacing, sensory detail, and silence to produce urgency? Consider what is seen, what is not, and what is imagined by the characters.

Extended Research Prompts:

  • Compare Land Shadows to other literary depictions of exodus: Famine by Liam O’Flaherty, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, or Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.

  • Situate the McNeil family's journey within frameworks of settler colonialism—do they leave as victims and arrive as participants in a new colonial structure?

  • Explore the representation of masculinity under siege. What does James’s introspection suggest about post-traumatic masculinity in historical fiction?