Mr. Field's Daughter

by Richard Bausch

James Field--single parent to Annie--is grief stricken when she elopes with the drug-dealing Cole, and upon her return years later, broken-hearted and a mother, they must reconcile

Genres: Fiction, Novels

347 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1989

About the author

An acknowledged master of the short story form, Richard Bausch's work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Harper's, The New Yorker, Narrative, Gentleman's Quarterly. Playboy, The Southern Review, New Stories From the South, The Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories, and The Pushcart Prize Stories; and they have been widely anthologized, including The Granta Book of the American Short Story and The Vintage Book of the Contemporary American Short Story.

Richard Bausch is the author of eleven novels and eight collections of stories, including the novels Rebel Powers, Violence, Good Evening Mr. & Mrs. America And All The Ships At Sea, In The Night Season, Hello To The Cannibals, Thanksgiving Night, and Peace; and the story collections Spirits, The Fireman's Wife, Rare & Endangered Species, Someone To Watch Over Me, The Stories of Richard Bausch, Wives & Lovers, and most recently released Something Is Out There. His novel The Last Good Time was made into a feature-length film.

He has won two National Magazine Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Fund Writer's Award, the Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The 2004 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story and the 2013 John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence . He has been a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers since 1996. In 1999 he signed on as co-editor, with RV Cassill, of The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction; since Cassill's passing in 2002, Bausch is the sole editor of that prestigious anthology. Richard Bausch teaches Creative Writing at Chapman University in Southern California

Reviews

[Julie G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have you ever read a novel that was filled with a tension pulled so taut, it made your stomach, your bowels, your mind, beg for release?

I have. A few examples that spring to my mind immediately: Philip Roth's American Pastoral, Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood and Tarjei Vesaas's The Ice Palace.

All three of those novels had me just about doubled over with pain, yet I could not stop, had no desire to stop reading any of them. I knew I could have no peace, no relief, until I had finished those stories, saw them to the end.

The hands on her shoulders tighten, just slightly, and something inside her understands that it's tension, not something meant to communicate anything to her.

And here we are now, with the newest entry, Mr. Field's Daughter. (And one that I enjoyed even more than all three novels mentioned above).

Who would ever look at this late 1980s cover, or read that particular title, and think that they'd end up tangled in their bedsheets, holding their comforter over their head like a tent, reading this novel at 1am with only the light from their phone?

From the moment that James Field shouts at his daughter's new disaster of a husband, “I'll kill you!” I had no peace, no mental break, from thinking about this story.

I promise you, I would have read this book, cover to cover, in one sitting, if I hadn't been on spring break with my girls, running around, having fun.

No matter how late we ended our days this week, I was at it again, wishing everyone Goodnight, but then dashing for the protection of my covers and cracking the book open again.

My God, what a bounty! Fearless writing, a story of our brokenness and our unlikely redemption, three complicated parent-child relationships, and, my favorite: a brother and sister pair who find comfort, living together in retirement, as widow and widower of their former lives. I knew I wouldn't be free from this story until I turned the last page.

Somehow, this book and several of Richard Bausch's novels have gone out-of-print, and they have almost no actual presence here on Goodreads.

If you know anything about me at all, my friends, you'll know that's about to change!

Hands down, one of the best books I've ever read.

Night, and the snow blowing outside, a prodigious storm ramming the house, and I was not afraid, but full of grief for us all, and still, in the middle of that hurt, praying for what was mine in the world.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Publishing is a pretty tough business, even if you're oozing with talent. I know several writers who are brilliant and close-to-unknown. It doesn't compute with me, and as a result, I often feel jaded and grumpy about readers and the publishing industry. Richard Bausch is another such writer, who is seemingly unknown in the general reading population, and that just isn't right.

Bausch is mainly known for being a master of the short story (and I do have a hefty complete collection of his short work on my bookcase to jump into another day), but he also published around a dozen novels. Mr. Field's Daughter is one of those novels, and the first of his that I've read. It's a story about James Field, a man who had to raise his daughter Annie on his own after the unexpected death of his wife, and who did his darnedest to do right by her, but who had to watch her waltz out the door with a soon-to-be-junkie and all-round-deadbeat, Cole Gilbertson. Annie comes back home with her small daughter after the marriage has ended, and everyone continues trying to find their complex footing. Unfortunately Cole returns too, years later.

I found the beginning of this novel to be really strong and compelling, painting James Field's devastation at the leaving of his daughter. His following and stalking her, his staying in seedy motels, drinking, wondering how on earth they got here. I saw the great short story writer at work too, in the chapter about the death of his wife.

There's a lot to appreciate here, and it must be said that Bausch captured a complexity in the characters and their relationships with each other that feels real. However, as the book goes on, I noticed a tinge of 1990s Hollywood that peeps in here and there, that felt a bit over the top.

Sorry, I just watched "Boys on the Side" the other night for the first time, and I'm fresh from that aesthetic (make of that what you will) and couldn't help but notice this novel has a pinch of that. This pinch might be due to a) the fact that this was published in 1989, close enough, so it came by it honestly and b) the first person narration head-hopping tells us exactly what each character thought at every pivotal moment, sometimes quite dramatically or with heightened emotion.

It can be illuminating to get multiple viewpoints, but in this case I feel it left little to the imagination and made the story bigger and more operatic than it needed to be. I would have been happy with a limited 3rd narrative voice, with a little zoom in on James Field, rather than getting up close and personal with all the characters.

That being said, I know when I've read something of quality, and this is it. Mr. Field's Daughter is a thoughtful and sensitive look at relationships, with particular insight on the tender wounds we receive and inflict on each other even when we are doing our best, and with the most loving intentions.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr. Field's Daughter, Richard Bausch's tale of a fractured family, slowly draws me in. I meet James (the titular Mr. Field), Annie, Linda, and Ellen. Bausch tells of their struggles to find their way back to each other, complicated by some other relationships.

While it gets off to a slow start and is in places a bit melodramatic, Bausch's prose is assured and his characters fully fleshed out and vivid. His use of interior monologues and shifting points of view helps me see his characters and relate to them.

James: “I’ve had trouble being patient sometimes, and sometimes I’ve probably been too patient. I did some things to enforce my will when I thought it had to be enforced, for her safety and well-being. I tried to be a friend to her, when that was called for and, a lot of the time, probably when it was not. I listened to her as much as I could, and I think I did as well as anyone does under the circumstances. . . . It was like everything I’d tried to teach her and everything we’d been to each other--it just all--it--none of it mattered.”

Is there any parent who has not experienced doubt? We do our best and hope it sticks. And when things go wrong we can't help but agonize over our mistakes, perceived or real.

Annie: “He made mistakes, like anyone, and they were all the mistakes of wanting more than he could have: perfection, a fatherhood that obliterated the possibilities for unhappiness, misunderstanding, unintentional cruelty, failure. He worked at it and I grew up resisting him at every turn, almost as though that were what I had been assigned to do in the world.”

With age comes wisdom. In the midst of my teens it was sometimes hard to see that my parents were doing their best with what they knew at the time, just as my beloved and I did our best for our daughters. We all want so much for our children and to spare them any harshness that we can. At some point we hopefully mature enough to recognize the good intentions and our own parts in our family dramas.

Bausch explores these themes of love, loss, and redemption as he asks if we can recognize and forgive our own imperfections and if our hearts can expand to give love and forgiveness to our imperfect family? And then can we recognize that we deserve love and open up to receive it?

Publication 1989

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty good book, but I'd give it 3.5 stars if possible. It's not really a 4-star book. Having just completed a couple of hard books, this was a breeze to finish, and I appreciate that it had some depth despite being a quick read. There's nothing really lyrical about the language, though there are endless descriptions of the cold wind, bright sun and lake views of Duluth, Minn. and the region around it (as well as Champaign, Ill. occasionally). But while you get the feeling of what it would be like to live in such as miserable place, where it's seemingly cold about 8 months of the year, that's not really the point of the book anyway.

The book is the tale of a fractured family and how things go off the rails for more than one generation and -- possibly -- finally start to turn around after tragedy. The main story follows James Field, a widower who raised his daughter Annie by himself because his wife died of a tonsillectomy when the girl was about 5 (don't remember exact age). Annie grows up angry and rebellious, which is understandable, and at age 19 she takes off with a good-for-nothing dope and coke head named Cole Gilbertson, who's about 5 years old than she is. James tries to get her back but just angers Annie and Cole with his verbal attacks on Cole. So, Annie is pregnant, and four years into her marriage she leaves Cole, moves home, divorces and tries to restart her life. The story picks up four years after that, with Annie as a librarian, raising 8-year-old Linda, and still living with her dad. Annie has met 52-year-old Louis, a retired Army captain or colonel, and she's going to take the plunge with another man. And again her father James is unhappy about the situation, in this case due to the huge age difference (27 vs. 52). Louis is sweet enough -- a widower himself and with a son, Roger, who's 21 and a college dropout but not on drugs.

So, the story then revolves around Cole's continued downward spiral as he's increasingly running out of options and becoming angry and delusional. Cole's mother, with whom he has been living, dies of old age, and Cole is thrown out of her house due to unpaid taxes. Cole has a falling out with his best cocaine dealer, and that dealer wants revenge. Cole charms yet another younger woman to help him get what he wants, which is his own revenge against Annie and, especially her dad. But it goes badly -- of course -- and tragedy ensues. The positive ending is that Cole winds up dead, so at least he's not able to bother anyone else as they try to pick up the pieces...which they seem ready to do.

The thing that's memorable about the book is that is has very nice interior monologues and narration that give the reader a feel of what it's like to be in someone else's head. I realize that a lot of novels do this (most novels?), but this one does it very well. Cole's descent to madness, his incessant need for highs from coke or pills, and then whiskey to calm himself, those are deeply moving (and frightening) passages. Anyone who thinks drugs are glamorous should read this book. Annie's confusion over how she's run her life, how she is always fighting with her father though she knows he's on her side and doing the best he can, represents how many of us operate with our parents. Annie's daughter Linda's sad life as a fat 8-year-old makes you ache because you know she's compensating for the emptiness of her young years. James (the dad) can't help having his own sorrows and fears overtake his life, even as he knows he needs to change. Louis's (new lover of Annie) reflections on how this unusual love has rejuvenated him is very believable and makes you root for his happiness.

There are several affecting scenes in which the author tells the same small incident from two people's perspectives, which builds on this form of narration that shows people's deepest feelings. For example, James remembers a night when he came into Annie's room when she's maybe 6 years old and having a nightmare and trying to calm her. But he would not allow her to sleep in his bed because the book he bought, "Raising a Child as a Single Parent," said you're never supposed to let them sleep with you, or they won't develop independence. But Annie remembers that same night as an example of how she was trying to comfort her dad by lying to him about the source of her fear -- it was a nameless fear, so she made up a nightmare -- and that she a few years later realized that he moaned in his own sleep, and that she went to comfort him, too. It is these moments in the book that stay with me -- that reveal how people hide their deepest thoughts and feelings from each other, sometimes with indifference, sometimes with anger, sometimes with cliched promises of love. Sad, but true.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars, rounded up.

This novel, first published in 1989, reminds me of Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout except it explores the struggles of a father raising his young daughter alone after the unexpected death of his wife. It is a moving portrait of their complex relationship made even more complicated when the daughter moves away and marries a man that her father desperately warned her not to.

Richard Bausch shifts perspectives between James Field and his daughter, Annie, while also including the perspectives of the other characters central to their lives. Most of the narratives are written in third person, but there are several first person narratives of James and Annie which give the reader a better understanding of the inner turmoil that stems from their father-daughter bond.

This story is plot driven in parts and there is an underlying tension throughout, so I won't go into any more details. The prose is outstanding and there are numerous passages that are worthy to be savored. I'm always fascinated when I read a book like this one that was considered contemporary when it was released but still holds up so well decades later.

*A huge heartfelt THANK YOU to Julie G for her wonderful review of this very underrated novel. If not for her, I would have never even known about it.

[Christine Boyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was big and bold, fast and furious, and at times a bit over the top! Just like many of the novels, and films from 1989 - when this book was published.

A very quick-paced, heavy dialogue book. I enjoyed it! And even though there was so much dialogue, the author still did justice to both the setting and plot, too. I first read one of Richard Bausch's short stories in "Best American Short Stories of 1990" and I made a note there of his good use of dialogue as well. Then my sister recommended this novel.

There were some internal-thoughts passages that went on too long, but overall I loved the suspense and had a hard time putting down!

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel left me in confusion regarding my final assessment of it. At times I was enthralled with the inner dialogue and musings of the characters. At other times I was impatient that these passages went on far too long. Also, there is much detail of everyday life and conversation that is repetitive of the same theme, that being that these characters have trouble openly discussing anything and never get to any decision or resolve. And so I have settled on giving it three stars. Not a great novel but definitely a good one.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

He is a very talented and prolific writer, but this early book was too dark for me involving drug use, murders and in my opinion child abuse.

There is a very concerned and kindly grandfather whose reward was to be shot twice.

[Katie]

only character i liked and identified with was Gilbertson. he was the book, to me. everyone else was boring. and i couldn't SEE the other people....their characters were hazy and changing at times...in fact, i hoped that mister field had died when the kid shot him....too much? ;)

[Trisha Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story of a lonely man and "loss" and his daughter who marries a drug addict and has a child from the man.