The Past Leads a Life of Its Own

by Wayne Fields

Book Overview

The Past Leads a Life of Its Own is a compelling collection of stories centered around one boy's childhood in the rural midwest in the 1950s, his love of nature, his family, and their often nomadic existence.

"Going through these pages quickly would be like chug-a-lugging a jar of honey fresh from the comb, or wolfing down a slow-cured, hickory-smoked country ham. It is a rich and complexly flavored work of fiction, a book to be savored."--Harper Barnes, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Set against the rhythms of nature, Fields's 16 luminous, interrelated stories celebrate a boy's coming-of-age. . . . The beauty of these deeply felt stories lies in their spare, ear-perfect language and in quiet epiphanies."--Publishers Weekly

" A] beautifully subtle work. . . . Here are a series of vignettes, each capturing some moment in nature, poetic and ethereal. . . . They] are like stones skipping on water, capturing the struggles of a family leaving one way of life behind for another, Fields remembers the feeling of a time and a place gone forever."--Library Journal

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226248585
• ISBN13: 9780226248585
• Release Date: November 1997
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

The Drama of Humble Lives

This is a superbly written collection of stories set in the rural Midwest during and after World War II. The ordinary lives of humble people is so removed from our fast-paced techno-world that it seems like reading about a different planet. We forget sometimes how hard it was to earn a dollar. How important it was to earn that dollar honestly, and to be fairly treated by those who did the paying. Life lived so close to the earth is full of beauty and humor mixed with danger and sorrow. Children died of illnesses we now vaccinate for. Heart-wrenching it must have been for so many people to have worked the land for generations, only to lose it because of money. The chapter headings set the scene with beautiful poetic observations of nature: a snake in the wood pile, a nest of birds, a frog feasting on insects, etc. This is a heartwarming read, especially so for those who grew up in the Midwest during the depression years. Field's introduction dealing with memory is wonderful, too.