Willem's Field: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: One of the best so far in 2003
Review: WILLEM�S FIELD by Melinda Haynes

If you are in the mood for something different, try reading Melinda Hayne�s dark comedy WILLEM�S FIELD. Full of quirky characters, it takes place in Purvis, Mississippi, a stereotypical small rural town. In the opening chapter, we are introduced to Willem Fremont, a successful businessman who also suffers from extreme panic attacks. He is on his way to Purvis to find his childhood home, in the hopes of remembering what caused him to have these panic attacks to begin with. So bad are these attacks that he finds himself sometimes fainting, or reacting in a manner that only an insane person would react. In this scene, Willem is having a meal at a roadside restaurant, and a paper crown dangling from the doorway of the restaurant is starting to make him crazy. As this paper crown continues to move with the wind that is blowing from outside, he can only hold it in for so long when he suddenly runs to the door and starts to scream. This is just one of his typical attacks. The oddest movement or thought will set him off, and he has no way to control it.

In the meantime, the Till family back in Purvis are going about their every day lives. They are the family that happen to live on the land that is next to Willem�s old family plot, but decades ago the land was abandoned for reasons unknown. The Till�s began to pay the taxes on this property, so now the descendants have legal rights to it. It is this land that Willem Fremont is in search of.

The Till�s comprise of Bruno and Sonny, brothers both of whom live on this land. Sonny lives with their mother Eilene, and to Eilene�s disappointment, Sonny doesn�t know the meaning of the word �work�. He lies around all day, eating and working on a boat that he thinks will help him make some sort of living. Bruno is a Vietnam War vet and he too sits around all day, claiming that a neck injury prevents him from doing anything, including sex. His wife Leah takes care of their farm, looking after the cattle and their crops. She has no choice, as there is no one else that will do it. And brother-in-law Sonny does everything he can to get out of doing any of the work on the farm.

Leah becomes a pivotal character when she falls into a ravine while in search of a missing cow, and there she finds a whole new world, including the missing cow and a house that had been abandoned years ago. She returns to this place often, and it is one of the places where the worlds of the Till�s and Willem Fremont collide.

It would take too long to fully describe all the characters and the various sub plots of WILLEM�S FIELD. However, I�d like to state that although it took me a while to fully get into the book, by the third chapter or so I was fully absorbed in the lives of the Till�s and poor Willem�s panic attacks. It isn�t apparent in the beginning, but there is a point to this book, despite the different storylines that weave in and out of the story. Once I completed reading the book, I was able to say that this was probably one of the best books I�ve read in 2003.