September Monthly Read 2013: The Fields

[Susan]

Aah, yes. Not potatoes.

[[deleted user]]

Declan wrote: "He probably had a soft spot for those men because of the amount of men who would have been living homeless in Ireland at the time. Things have gotten much better but you'll always see them in town...."

He had some very nice qualities.

[Susan]

Loved your review, Declan. Wipe your ass status. Can I steal that phrase?

[[deleted user]]

Susan,it's yours if you want it. ;)

[Susan]

Thank you.

[John]

I almost wrote more about this book on the Burial Rites thread, but I thought I'd stay on topic and come back to this thread.... I'm halfway through the two, one on Kindle, one on Audio. I'm enjoying both, but as different as they are, but I'm enjoying the Fields more.

I'm intrigued why it was so universally panned and seemingly dropped as a group read because one or two people didn't like it. If we did that for every group read we'd never get anywhere. I'm eager to get into the spoiler thread and see more so I should hurry up and get to it.

I can't help thinking it's the voice. I previously discussed the breakdown of books in terms of plot/story, plausibility, quality of writing and characters. But I think I completely overlooked the author's voice. Some authors almost don't have a voice. Other times they are quite distinctive and it is probably the more distinctive voices that can put people on either side of a love/hate fence.

I wish more people had given it a chance, and made up their own mind. You might have been one of the readers who enjoyed Kevin Maher's voice. I think that's what I like about this book. We've read this story a 100 times but it's the voice it's written in that I am enjoying.

For the record - I think someone compared this to Skippy Dies. Which incidentally I hated. Now that was a voice that really grated on me.

I think my overuse of the word voice is probably grating on anyone who has read this far!

[Sarah]

Do u mean voice, as in book. ,,,,,,perspective. Or audio real voicewhichoften makes a real diff in how u like the read?

[John]

No not the real audio voice. The writer's voice as in:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writer%2...
http://www.rachellegardner.com/2010/0...

I guess it's another way of saying author's writing style - but that doesn't quite capture it as well.

[Sara]

@John ditto what Allan said. There's most extensive comments from many of us in the spoiler thread. I wouldn't say that it got dropped as a group read.

[John]

Ok - sounds like I would have been wiser to keep schtum until I'm finished. I was just getting a bit lonely here in the quiet unspoilt thread :)

Cheers

[[deleted user]]

This is one of the worst books I've read in a lobg time. In terms of the writer's 'voice' I found it to be grating and it irksome; lacking in any authentucity. I also think that Maher is a poor writer and that the young Kent could give him some much needed pointers. At it's best The Fields read like a bunch of poorly linked anecdotes. At worst it came across as disjointed rambling.

I'll stop now, but the it isn't often I have such a strong aversion to a book.

[Barbara]

John - I do agree with your point that a panning by some of us of a book (I own my panning of this book) should not discourage others from reading our monthly choice. I am glad you went ahead and are reading it.
As readers, we bring different things to our reading. I think this goes beyond simply our likes of certain genres (mysteries, scifi etc.) but has a lot to do with a book triggering something in us, often related to our own life experiences.
I would also add that in some cases, a book is not readily available in libraries, or used copies, or not available in the US, and some people will choose not to go out of their way to get a copy.