Field Guide: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "You could fly into Townsville, the small university town on the northeast edge of the island-continent, but Annabel took the student's cheap route; there'd been..." (more)
Key Phrases: stinging trees, cathedral fig, field scientist, Professor Goode, John Goode, Lila Wallard (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The certitudes of scientific research yield to the unsolvable mysteries of emotional connection in this accomplished debut. Annabel Mendelssohn, 28, opts to do her graduate work on spectacled fruit bats far from home, at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. True, she is impassioned by her studies, but she also needs to process the death of her marine biologist brother, Robert, who was killed in a diving accident two years before. Robert suffered from clinical depression; his death looked suspiciously like suicide. Annabel relies on her married sister, Alice, who works in grant administration in Connecticut and has her own secrets, to be her link to home and family while she adjusts to her new surroundings, e-mailing disavowals of her growing attraction to her charming, absentminded professor, John Goode, who is undergoing a divorce. When Professor Goode disappears abruptly, his intimates wait a while before they become concerned, since he's known for "forgetting everything important for long enough to lose it." But eventually his 28-year-old son, Leon, comes home to Australia from Boston, where he works at a museum, to help look for the wayward professor. When his search through the jungle intersects with Annabel's derailed bat research, they join forces, and Annabel's longing for her brother is displaced somewhat by her anxiety about Leon's father: their bond, she thinks, is enhanced by her "expertise in being left." Gross's deceptively spare style glistens with pungent language and precise aper?us. Annabel's keenly observed evocation of the fecund rain forest is counterpointed by her wry insights about herself and her family. Though the book settles to a comfortable, obvious close, Annabel's double quest to discover the meaning of absence, set against the mysterious tropical world teeming with life, has a satisfying symmetry. (Apr. 4)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

American graduate student Annabel Mendelssohn is still grieving the loss of her brother in a diving accident when she embarks on a scheduled journey to study spectacled fruit bats in the rain forest of Queensland, Australia. In e-mail messages home to her concerned older sister, she details her impressions of these curious creatures and of the various human specimens she encounters along the way. Assigned as her project director is the attractive and eccentric Professor John Goode. He proves to be an enthusiastic and supportive mentor but then mysteriously disappears before she can complete her work. When the professor's son, Leon, also a scientist, is called home from Boston to look for his father, Annabel abandons her project to join him in the search. Predictably, over shared chasms of loss, they connect. Although somewhat scattered in focus, this beautifully written debut novel offers appealing characters and provides a unique view into the sensuous scientific world of field study with all of its attendant hardships and marvels. Recommended for all public libraries. Sheila Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1 edition (April 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805064923
• ISBN-13: 978-0805064926
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,529,392 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Review of Field Guide, March 26, 2001

By A Customer

A fluid, beautiful book. The reader is instantly mesmerized by the author's sharp perception into humanity. Gross easily takes on large conflicts such as independence vs. dependence, freedom vs. obligation, and love vs. loss, and treats them with subtle insight and grace. The details are stunning and the characters have an unpredictable depth that twists and turns deliciously as the reader travels deeper into the rain forest. Readers will find themselves in Annabel Mendelssohn even if they've never been to the Australian rain forest to study bats! A wonderful combination of poetic prose and page-turning urgency. I couldn't stop thinking about it long after I finished. I'm so excited that I've discovered a new favorite author. An absorbing, rich read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual, enjoyable read, April 20, 2001

By	Lynn Adler (Cherry Hill, NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

An unusual setting and an unlikely subject form the backdrop to this first novel by Gwendolen Gross. American, Annabel Mendelssohn, has come to the wilds of Australia to do graduate field work on her favorite subject, spectacled fruit bats. Despite uncomfortable conditions, it is a life's dream come true, as well as an escape from haunting memories of her beloved brother's death two years before; that is, until her strange professor, for whom she harbors a vague attraction, goes missing. Her research is further disrupted by anti-environmentalist loggers as well as the appearance of the professor's son, Leon Goode, newly arrived from his student and work stints in America. Eventually the two meet and go in search of the professor, along the way discovering their own mutual attraction and the similarity of family circumstances that invisibly bind them.

Interspersed with the Australian segments are glimpses of Leon's life in Boston and that of Annabel's sister's in Connecticut, flashbacks of memory, as well as E-mails and imaginary letters that travel between the two sisters, that contribute to our understanding of the characters' inner lives. These devices bring balance and the exotic Australian outback enlivens the plot to what might otherwise be a ho-hum story.

5.0 out of 5 stars Intense and mesmerizing, March 27, 2001

By A Customer

Field Guide draws the reader into a lush Australian rainforest setting to join the search for a professor who has "gone missing." The prose is radiant, exploring the themes of disappearance, loss and love, with sensitivity and intensity. An amazing book! I am eagerly awaiting Gross's next novel.