Lucy Church, Amiably by Gertrude Stein

-- First paperback edition.-- Both a detailed account of time spent in the country and a masterpiece of experimental 'landscape' writing, Stein's long out of print novel explores the interlocking nature of the human and natural worlds, the fluid boundaries of identity, and the ways in which language can be used for description.-- First published by Stein's own Plain Press ('30). First U.S. edition by Something Else Press ('69).

Lucy Church Amiably was written in the summer of 1927. Lucey itself is a small village in central France, located over the hill from where Miss Stein was staying, and over another hill from where the distinguished French playwright Paul Claudel was staying, which explains the references to Claudel and to hills in the text. It seemed lyrical to Miss Stein to name her character Lucy Church for the church at Lucey. This is the source of many of her names and images - they are puns from French to English.
Nothing much happens in the book. It would be impossible to prepare an outline of the plot (as opposed, say, to The Making of Americans). The action is purely interior: a great deal is noticed, digested, absorbed, compared. The result can be read simply as an account of being in the countryside, or more complexly, as an investigation into the interlocking nature of things and into the ways that language can be used for description.