Lead Review
- Book: The Field
- Location: Germany
- Author: Robert Seethaler
One of my all-time favourite reads has been The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler, so I was delighted to read this novel by the same author.
The premise is really interesting in that the stories featured are told from underneath the eponymous “Field” of the title, a patch of land where the storytellers now lie. They share their tales from beyond the grave.
This works in fact like a series of short stories – some very short like Sophie Breyer’s story which consists of one word. Most are voices going over periods of lives lived, recalling events that perhaps changed the trajectory of their lives. Some pour out their stories, others are more reticent….
Character overlap and provide continuity so that you can see reflections from both sides of the fence. Other chapters comprise a short, sharp contextualised piece.
Each new chapter introduces a new character, and sometimes a character in one story will be given their own follow up chapter. Robert and Martha are married, both have different views of how it is going. She suffers a rather odd demise. and he continues driving. Others are individual narratives that wind up fully rounded at the end, others are left open. We get to know a woman who runs a shoe shop; a man who runs the grocery shop, whose parents die and he has to deal with their ashes. Another man has a gambling addiction which affects his relationship. These are all individual stories of universal people, from all walks of life and from all age groups – Annelie Lorbeer, for example, has seen it all, and had reached a very grand old age when she died.
Did I enjoy it? His writing, as always, is wonderful and shines through the translation (thank you Charlotte Collins). But as a book I found I spent a lot of time just reading rather than absorbing. I didn’t feel particularly connected to anyone who trailed through the pages – they are, after all, deceased. Neat observations, a variety of very different and individual characters, together with well thought out – sometimes curious – scenarios don’t, when combined, necessarily make for a cohesive read. And that was what I was left with, something interesting but fractured and somehow distant, indeed, from another world. I am sure that was the intention.
The review in the Sunday Times (28.3.21) says “You’ll either buy into this and find it affecting, or think it twee and sentimental…”
Real credit to the design team behind the covers that created for his books. They are truly lovely and really invite the reader to pick up his work.
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