Customer Reviews

The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Paulsen's The Beet Fields does indeed evoke Hemingway in its spare, evocative prose. I have been a bit underwhelmed by some of Paulsen's recent fiction for young adults and was pleasantly surprised to read such a superb memoir. Yes, I did buy it for the young adult collection of my library and am puzzled by another reviewer's comment that it was "inappropriate" for her library. It is indeed unflinching in its look at Paulsen's often brutal childhood experiences, but that makes it all the more memorable.

The Beet Fields is full of wonderful writing and imagery, but its characters lack the redeeming qualities that I would hope to find in a YA novel.

The 16-year-old boy who is the protagonist of the novel is introduced to us as his mother is attempting to seduce him. From that point, the confusion that he must feel develops into a nearly uncontrollable urge for sex. As he works to support himself, he encounters many people, but none take on a true role as mentor, or even friend, to the boy. When he finally fulfills his sexual desires with an older woman, we see no consequences either for the woman or the boy; in fact, the boy has now become "a man" who continues his rather unfocused life by joining the service.

Paulsen further complicates matters (for want of a better phrase) by presenting Mexican migrant farm workers who buck the stereotypes, yet the carnival workers and most of the other characters he encounters follow the stereotypes with a vengeance.

The story needs redeeming characters or, at least, consequences for actions that occur. All we see is a boy wandering through life with no purpose other than making it through each day. While that might be the case for some adolescents, I found no hope presented for those young people in this novel.

The Beet Fields: Memories of the Sixteenth Summer
The young boy never stopped working, went on until the day was done, and learned about the world and life in just one long summer. The book The Beet Fields is about this young boy's summer when he learns many life's lessons. He goes on many adventures over his long summer, starting out with parents who are serious alcoholics. However his whole life changes when he ran from his life in search of a new beginning. This book is great for teens, because it follows a young boy through the many adventures in life.
He left his home for something different a new life. On his adventures he learns about migrant labor, hunger, friendship, profanity and lust. In the book he is never given a name, we just know him as boy, the young innocent man curious for adventure. He discovers how life can be dangerous and exhilarating. He learns the secret of sadness to be found on an isolated farm in the middle of nowhere. He finds his other adventures by joining a carnival and running the geek show. Near the end of the summer he thinks he knows it all, all the lessons to be learned in life. When he meets Ruby, his life changes. She urges him to not leave the world without a fight. It's one long interesting summer for the boy.
The Beet Fields is a great guidance for young teens. His life brings journeys across different people and jobs. The boy sticks with what he needs to do to make a living and fights through his down times and enjoys the good ones. He doesn't follow in his parents path and instead hoes his own down the beet fields. This book is a great example of sticking and working with what you have. This quote shows how the boy keeps going even though he would much rather be somewhere else with someone else "Rows of beets a mile long. Left and right for a mile and then turn and start back, halfway up to meet the Mexicans coming back. Eleven dollars an acre. Four rows to the acre, a half acre a day, all day the hoes cutting, left and right, the rows never ending, and even trying to catch up with the Mexicans was not enough to stop the boredom, nothing to stop the awful boredom of the beets." On the next page it continues, "He worked hard, his head down, the hoe snaking left and right. An hour could have passed, a minute, a day, a year. He did not look up, kept working ..."The book goes on in great detail about his other adventures. He finds other jobs working on different farms. He makes it almost halfway across the United States on his own catching up with other people, and ends up with a carnival job traveling across the U.S. How the author describes how he manages his life. This is a great read for teens looking for an interesting and adventures book.

Gary Paulsen is a talented author who has written many books for young readers to enjoy. However, I feel that this book is too explicit in the detailing of the strip show and the sex with Ruby to be placed in a young adult reading catagory. Books that are recommended as young adult should be acceptable reading choices for ages ten and up; my ten year old son has read two of Gary Poulsen's other "young adult level" books so far, they were introduced to his fourth grade class at school from his teacher. The material in "Beet Fields" is not at all appropriate for this age group and parents of youth need to be made aware of the contents of this book. Yes, the cover does show that it is about a summer of a sixteen year old; however, young Gary Poulsen fans will want to read everything by this author and as a parent I think other parents need to be made aware of the sexual content of this particular book, regardless of the age of their children.

The book The Beet Fields is about Gary Paulsens teenage years. Paulsen is famous for the books that he writes and for running the Iditarod, a 1200-mile race for Iditarod Alaska to Nome. His accomplishments in The Beet Fields are that he runs away from home at sixteen, works the fields with immigrants, and learns to support himself. The book focuses on people helping other people because they want to, not because they have to. The parts that seemed glossed over were why he left home, where his father was, and that the book just ends.
The book was easy to read and understand. Information is well organized and in order. The strongest aspect of the book was that a sixteen-year-old boy ran away from home and supported himself by doing odd jobs. The ending and beginning need to be improved because the end just ends and the beginning does not give you any background.
I gave four stars to the book because it is an incredible book, and has a lot of details. I would recommend the book to people who enjoy adventure, and suspense, because it takes you all over South Dakota. Paulsen is trying to tell us that there is more to people then we think, and that we should get to know people before we put them down. I think it is an important message because I get to know people first, like he dose in his books. Paulsen passes his message successfully through his books.

I really liked this book. Despite some more adult conten that, no, would not be apropriate for even i think 13 and/or 14 year olds, for the appropriate age group it is a great read! I have been through so many paulson books I can barely remember them all, but it still amazes me that gary can write on so many subjects. A breakaway from the usual adventure outdoors books, and even the indian and american historical books, this book still shows off paulson's love an talent for drawing in all kinds of people. This is not just a book for tean-age boys, though if you refuse to read anything else read this. The struggles "the boy" goes through are very real and very interesting. His freindship with the mexicans helps to show that when in need and in the real world diversity does not matter, and his latching onto carneys is a great turn of events. This book shows the value of hard work and is of course a coming of age book, but if anything it is definately a paulson book and i thouroughly enjoyed it!

Gary Paulsen's latest installment in his collection of memoirs is a glimpse into his sixteenth summer, when he left his drunken parents to pursue life on his own. He takes work as a laborer in the beet fields, where he befriends Mexican workers and learns to hunt pigeons with his bare hands, and later does farm work, joins the crew of a traveling carnival, and learns about lust and love from an older, much more experienced woman.

While this isn't a book for younger readers, it will most definitely find an audience with teenagers who are familiar with Paulsen's writing and yearn to know more about his hardships and adventures when he was their age. Readers who enjoyed Hatchet and its sequels will find that the details of Brian's survival in the wilderness find an equally appealing match in the stories of Paulsen's own survival on the road in The Beet Fields.

A Review by Clint

This book is about a boy with a troubled home life so he decides to take a chance and help himself. He finds many friends along the North Dakota prairies that give hope but his old life continues to trouble him. He has troubles with the law, girls and again his former life.

This book seems somewhat real but is still fictional. It fits right in with the rest of the books that you may have read about being lost in this world. The characters in the book are seemingly real almost all are hard working farm hands or illegal Mexicans and some are alcoholics. The book does not have a ton of action but it kept me wanting to know more.

I suggest that anyone who has ever read a Gay Paulsen book and liked it read this book. I personally think this book is one of the top 15 books I've ever read.

I personally don't read books that often, but I needed a books for a class project,so I chose this one. I was surprised because this book is really good. I would recommend it to anyone that just wants something to read. There are many interesting facts that the author portrays in the book. This book understands some of the different things a young adult may go through in life. The author did a very good job on writing this book.

While I might have my qualms about 14 year olds reading this too, I thought it depicted the way a teenager thinks about the mysterious of sex very well. I am a little disappointed about the "unfinished" aspect of the end, and abrupt changes in the different settings, the writing more than makes up for it. You are able to stand in "the boy's" shoes and feel and think like he does. Like all Paulsen books, it is good for reluctant (male?) readers, and my favorite one so far.