The Field by Robert Seethaler is a tale of life and death in Paulstadt. A story full of emotion and nonchalance, carefully balancing the line between the before and after.
The Field synopsis
If the dead could speak, what would they say to the living?
From their graves in the field, the oldest part of Paulstadt’s cemetery, the town’s late inhabitants tell stories from their lives. Some recall just a moment, perhaps the one in which they left this world, perhaps the one that they now realize shaped their life forever. Some remember all the people they’ve been with, or the only person they ever loved.
These voices together – young, old, rich poor – build a picture of a community, as viewed from below ground instead of from above. The streets of the small, sleepy provincial town of Paulstadt are given shape and meaning by those who lived, loved, worked, mourned and died there.
Book review
“A living person thinking about death. A dead person talking about life. What’s the point? Neither side understands the other. There are intimations. And there are memories. Both can be deceptive.”
What should a dead person talk about? Would a reader be most interested in reading about trivialities, wise reflections on life or the last breaths of the deceased? That’s what I asked myself before I started this book.
Through short anecdotes, the dead of Paulstadt introduce you to their town. It is a town filled with (imperfect) people who share both the good and the bad, their successes and their regrets. As they share their stories with you from their graves, having completed their lives, they are in the right position to look back on it all. Robert Seethaler skillfully blends observations and remarks about the end and beginning of human lives. His chosen perspective lets him connect life and death in an interesting way.
Anecdotes
A good example of this is how Louise says that only suicides and lovers know what it’s like to jump into a river, even though you know it flows into an abyss. Hanna talks to us about her deathbed as if she has all the time in the world. Ironically, time is all she has left after her death. The contrast with the content of the narrative – someone’s last hours slipping away from them – makes this anecdote special.
At times, the story feels poetic, such as when Gerd recounts the deaths of his father and mother. The anecdote that stuck with me the most is Stephanie’s: I could feel the emotion – more the farmer’s than her own – when she left her daughter alone with him. Sometimes you read more about someone’s thoughts than you want to know. What I appreciate most about The Field is the different voices of the narrators and the wide range of emotions they show. Not every anecdote is interesting, just as you don’t find every person you meet in real life interesting.
Reading experience
“In his opinion it was only like this, with one’s back to the world, in peace and quiet and with no distractions, that a thought could be thought through to the end.” And that is how I like to read books.
It wasn’t until I had read a third of the book that I began to appreciate the story. Each new person whose life I shared sucked me further into the book. Jumping from head to head, like a parasite taking over the (dead of) Paulstadt. Reading these stories of the dead makes you feel alive. It is soothing, this story of life and death in Paulstadt. It feels like the author is paving the way for something bigger.
The Field is not a book I would recommend to most people; in fact, I would not recommend it to anyone I know. That’s mainly because it takes a while to begin to appreciate the story. Until then, the book can be boring. But if you are in the mood for a book like this, it might impress you.
Interested?
Get your copy of The Field from Amazon (available 18 March 2021).
Book details
Title: The Field
Author: Robert Seethaler
Translator: Charlotte Collins
Publisher: Picador
Pages: 241
ISBN (13): 9781529008067
Publication date: 18 March 2021
About the author
Robert Seethaler was born in Vienna in 1966 and is the author of several novels, including the international bestselling, Man Booker Prize-nominated A Whole Life. He also works as an actor, including in Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth. He lives in Vienna and Berlin.
Many thanks to Picador and NetGalley for a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
