Spoiler Thread: The Fields

[[deleted user]]

This is spoiler thread for our September monthly read, The Fields by Kevin Maher.

I look forward to having a more in-depth discussion with you all and reading your thoughts and views.

Declan. :)

[Barbara]

I have 40 pages to go but am jumping in. I find the mood of this book uneven. Can't really explain it but a lot of the content is dead serious - abuse at the hands of a priest, teen pregnancy, mental illness - and the 14 year old protagonist who just seems to sail through it all. It seems that the publisher or marketing director decided to push this book with heavy promotion which got it into Tesco etc. at a big discount. I imagine this happens with certain "chick lit" the way it does here with James Paterson etc. Maher seems like a very very watered down Roddy Doyle with lots of shocking stuff thrown in. Having said all that, there are some parts I enjoy, especially when Finno arrives in England and London.

I wasn't sure what to make of Finno's dinner party with the gay men. I'm not sure what the point of all that was. It seemed to just add to the stereotypical ideas of those who fear that gay men and lesbians are on the prowl to "recruit" because people cannot believe that many people are "born that way" (if it's OK to quote Lady Gaga). It didn't make sense that grown men would socialize with a 14-year-old.

More to come when I finally finish the book. I don't really regret reading this book so I now know the publicity is all hype.

[[deleted user]]

I fell asleep before I finished it last night, Barbara, but I share all of the concerns you mentioned, and more.

I was mostly fine with the dinner party, but I couldn't understand why two men needed to partially undress to dance to Madonna with a child.

I'll have more to say myself, shortly.

[Mr. Owl]

Overall I wasn't impressed and thought the book completely formulaic. The recipe is Roddy Doyle plus an edgy storyline which, given the subject matter, is more than a little cynical.

Characters were badly drawn cut-outs - I struggled to remember which sister was which for example.

Despite the adolescent narrative the writing was still poor. This is no Catcher in the Rye.

I didn't find the "humourous" parts at all funny. If you can't be funny then don't try. (view spoiler)[The most irritating part is that the "Bobby Ewing" ending was a total cop-out. (hide spoiler)]

Honestly would not recommend this to anyone. Will not be hurrying to read any more of the author's work. Am struggling to come up with postives here. Only one I can think of is that at least its better than Gone Girl!

[[deleted user]]

I wanted to take time to cool down so I could give a more measured response on this book, but I got fed up waiting.

This is a terrible book and I hate it.

It's awful awful awful awful awful.

I've I were paranoid I'd be suspicious that this book was written with the sole purpose of annoying me

I don't know where to begin just yet, so I'll have to think on it a little longer. I'll be back in the afternoon.

[Barbara]

Declan - I hadn't read your comment yet but was thinking about writing another post during my morning walk. I found the ending ridiculous because as uneven as the book was in tone, all of a sudden at the end the author introduces what is "magical realism" in Latin American fiction. I mean, please, where did this come from?
I wasn't displeased with the vengeance carried out on the priest, but he could have been killed (maybe what he deserved). I also thought the miscarriage was contrived but I suppose such a thing could happen. This author may have grown up in Dublin, but he now lives in England. Based on comments from those of you who really know Dublin, he is really off base. As I have commented elsewhere, publishers are hyping this book for reasons I can't comprehend. I have started to be more cautious about publishers' praise or comments from unknown sources.

[Susan]

Declan, what makes me angry is this could have been a good book. It started out fun and I would have enjoyed reading about a childhood in the 1980's. Then it bounces to the rape by the priest. I thought Ok we're going to read about how he copes. Then we bounce to London where it just gets absurd. It is one of the worst endings of a book that I have ever read. Stupid stupid stupid.
First there are the glaring mistakes. I almost choked when I was reading about the camping trip with the randy priest. He made gluten free pancakes. In the 1980's? No one even knew the word gluten then and I doubt if there were any products made to be gluten free.
There is no feeling for Dublin in it. I was reading one of the reviews in Amazon that gave it 5 stars just because of the Irishness of it. What?
Then Jim becomes a spiritual healer in 2 weeks that normally takes 5 years to complete. Really?
I notice the person who nominated this has not made any posts. Is this another one of those set-ups like we had before?

[[deleted user]]

Barbara, that new-age horse-shite really got to me. I hate anything like that with a passion. The way Maher handled that stuff seemed to give it an air of credibility which bugged the hell out of me.

Almost everything about Saidhbh's pregnancy annoyed me. Of course she tells O'Culligeen, of course he manages to warn her that Jim will suggest an abortion, of course she'll hate him for it, of course she'll head over to England anyway, of course she'll change her mind and of course she loses the child anyway.

The language was inconsistent and unconvincing. One minute it's being narrated as though Jim is a little slow for his age and the next he's making little one-line witticisms that, I don't know, a professional journalist might make. And there were gems like "Soz is Billy's boyfriend, who is also gay.' Does he think we're too stupid to figure that out, or is Jim suddenly becoming stupid.

I agree with Seán about the characters, but I'd extend that to almost every other character bar Jim. Jim's father never felt like anything more than volatile brute on the verge of going berserk at any minute. He only tries to soften this when Jim returns to Dublin in the final pages, and then we're supposed to think that the father is important to the rest of the family, where previously we were led to believe they'd be better off without him.

I mentioned in the other thread that I didn't like the way some subjects were touched upon but never properly addressed. Soon after I mentioned this I reached the part where Devida confides in Jim that she would have divorced his father had she been able to. Why!!?? Was he abusive? Was he inconsiderate? Did she love her old flame who showed up every year? I hate big unanswered questions like that. It seemed to be his way of saying 'we didn't have divorce, either. That's how backwards we were.'

I think the less said about the ending the better. Suffice to say, I wanted to knock at Maher's door and ask for my money back. If I'd paid the full €17 I might have.

[[deleted user]]

@Susan. I had problems right from the get-go, but I definitely got more and more annoyed as I continued reading.

I'd forgotten about the gluten free pancakes. It was a big deal back then if you ate muesli on a regular basis.

I had porridge three days a week for most of the year, and five days a week during the winter.

[[deleted user]]

When I was reading Gone Girl I kept turning the pages through at least half of it, Allan. In spite of the plot holes and inconsistencies I still kept reading, even if it was only to see how much more hopeless Nick could be. I spent the whole time I was reading this wishing I was reading something else.

You mention this as a 'comic' novel, Allan, (I'm aware of the quotation marks), and I think that this was the problem. Barbara and Seán mentioned Roddy Doyle and the closest comparison I can make of his work to this is Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. That was by no means a comic novel, and no-one tried to categorise as such, but I was quite humorous at times -funnier than this anyway- because life can be humorous. Maher tries to cram the gags in left-right-and-centre, but most aren't even funny.

I can understand why most people are shocked by the rape scene, but that's why I think it was the best piece of writing in the book. It was appropriately shocking and disgusting. Its aftermath was surprisingly mundane, though. Jim did seem to just breeze through it quite easily. Again, this makes me think that Maher had nothing more in mind than checking off a list of issues from the '80s.

[Barbara]

I think I am going to lower my rating to 2 stars.

[[deleted user]]

I hope it wasn't because my angry rants ruined whatever enjoyment you had from the book, Barbara?

[Susan]

Didn't you find the scene in the tent pretty weird? How Jim was leading the priest on with his foot and all. It spoke of a sophistication beyond what I think Jim was capable of. He brought him almost to the point of climax and then left him. I think it was just too much.

[[deleted user]]

I did, Susan, but there were a lot of things that bothered me about the book, so I think I've forgotten a few of them. Also, if the other priest was so worried about the boys' well-beings, why didn't he just find some way of cancelling it?

Actually, I think this book bothered me so much that I'm actually looking for more reasons to hate it. Maybe I should take off from this.

I'll probably be back soon enough screeching 'AND ANOTHER THING THAT BOTHERED ME...'

Lol!

[Susan]

Thanks for the morning chuckle, Declan. I know just what you mean. Once you get started it's hard to stop.

[Mr. Owl]

Similar to Barbara, I lowered my initial rating. For some reason I had given this two stars and I later lowered it to one star.

Now I'm thinking we need a zero stars option.

[[deleted user]]

The only way you can give a 0* rating it to leave it unrated, but that won't affect the book's overall status.

[Susan]

Please feel free to use Declan's designation of wipe your arse with it. I can't tell you how much I enjoy that. I'm chuckling as I write.

[[deleted user]]

I'll probably set up the threads by Saturday evening. I usually like to a few days for nominations, a few for votes and leave a day or two for people to get the book, in case they need to order it.

Susan, I'm surprised you've only seen that bookshelf now. I already had two books on it.

[Susan]

Just call me Miss Unobservant. I checked it and haven't read the other two lucky winners so I guess I just never noticed it. What's the long finger designation? Year of the French and Ulysses don't seem to have much in common. Just nosy.

[[deleted user]]

I started reading those books and but never finished them. I intend to return to them at some stage, though. I was enjoying The Year of the French, but it clashed with my exams and happened to also be a monstrous size. Ulysses was very dull, but I've been told multiple times that it's a book worth finishing.

[[deleted user]]

I found the whole thing incredibly tedious, Allan, so I don't doubt that the adaptation was bad enough, itself. I don't beat myself up too much, though. The average I've spoken to who's finished it talk about the experience as though it were like running a marathon. Reading shouldn't feel like work. I don't care what anyone says.

I might try the audiobook. It's a great suggestion, but I'm enjoying the experience, so far, and I don't want to dampen it with Ulysses.

[John]

Ok finally finished.

In a nutshell, I enjoyed it.

Admittedly I think some kind of underdog rooting kicked in. The more you guys said you hated it, the better it seemed to me in an odd way. Just like in the opposite way, when a book gets completely overhyped, and I end up hating it (Skippy Dies) again. I honestly have no idea how much weight all that holds, I genuinely enjoyed it all. I have a very low boredom threshold and I was never bored.

I also have a soft spot for coming of age books. And I have a soft spot for 80s nostalgia. Set it in Dublin and I'm sold!

The writing almost reminded me of one of my favourite books, Rule of the Bone. Not in the same league at all, but with that book it took me a while to get my head around the fact that not all good writing needs to be beautiful descriptive prose. Rule of the bone is very plain writing... The format is: this happened, then this happened, then this happened. The coming of age in another country stories were also similar.

The hippy woo nonsense is funny. Because I read it in a way that he was completely taking the piss, but then there was the end... And the acknowledgements! Wow he really believes that crap. Might have spoiled it for me had I read it as intended. I have no time for that stuff and it has put me off other books. I honestly thought he was taking the piss out of that crap!

I'm also a bit sick of the child abuse trope in every second book in the last ten years and I personally found it refreshing to be dealt with almost comically. Even people who have suffered the worst tragedies often get through it with humour so I don't see why fiction can't do the same.

Doesn't really matter why I liked it though. I've found that with books, movies, art... If it works for you, it works, if it doesn't, it doesn't. The explanations neither matter nor sway other opinions.

[[deleted user]]

If Maher ever reads our discussion, John, your comments might just save him from a nervous breakdown.

[John]

Ha, maybe :)