The Fields by Kevin Mahar

The Fields opens in Dublin during the 80s and we find Jim Finnegan as our protagonist. He is only 13-years-old and we are immediately thrown into his innocent world, joining him and his best mate on cycle trips. There is an instant enthusiasm from Jim as learn about his family, including 5 sisters, his distant father and typically Irish, gossipy (is that a word?) mother. They are an extremely varied bunch, all with their own traits, but slowly fade into the background as we explore Jim's character more and more.

We soon begin to learn that Jim isn't as straight forward as we first think. The innocence still remains in his voice throughout the novel, but his actions start to become more and more erratic. This all escalates in him eventually stealing someone's girlfriend, whose name is so Irish I'm not even going to attempt to type it let alone say it. There are some very uncomfortable scenes with her, as learn about them passionately kissing, bearing in mind he is only 14 by this time. Kissing very soon leads to more (I'm not going to spell this out for you), and for me the uncomfortable feeling just continued here. The way that Mahar has told it through Jim's childish voice just doesn't make it sound right, and maybe that was what he was trying to get at. But for me, the feeling of complete gross out never left me in these scenes.

Now the front cover of the novel promised a heart warming and laugh out loud story. I'm not sure these are quite the words to describe this novel, especially when Jim becomes an altar boy and a priest starts to take an unhealthy, and very illegal interest in him. These scenes of rape, again told through Jim's innocent eyes really put me on edge. I've always been funny with the power of religion, and the fact that the priest continues to blame Jim for what the rape he is committing, just adds to the tension that I felt reading it. I was so on edge, people on the train must have thought I was feeling a tad ill. But it is important to hear these stories, as well know to well the stories of abuse that come out of the church.

Jim's relationship continues during this time, and there are so many opportunities for him to tell someone, it almost starts to become annoying. But then we must remember he is only a child, but the sheer honesty and naivety of the story telling makes it the more real, and we soon realise he is powerless to tell anyone. Who would believe him over the highly regarded local priest?

The story soon moves onto London where Jim and his girlfriend have traveled in order for her to have an abortion. It made me extremely sad to see the lengths they had to go to in order to abort the foetus; Ireland has never exactly been tolerant of it. And it is when the story moves to London that the hit and miss novel really falls apart for me. It just seemed a bit ridiculous, whether it was the 15 year old Jim working in a bar with a lot of gay men (who by the way beat up the priest when he visits Jim in London- creepy- and you can't help but smile), or the spiritual classes he attends where they teach people to heal, it doesn't ever feel right for me.

So for a novel that I was expecting to laugh out loud to (I refuse to put that abbreviation here), I was highly disappointed. There are some lovely moments between Jim and his family, but these are heavily taken away from when there is too much focus on the spiritual healing, and the details that just seem too far fetched, and doesn't seem realistic enough. This is such a shame for a book that deals with hugely modern issues such as the abuse that children suffer and the poor sex education they are giving. But Mahar does achieve one thing; finding a suitable voice to innocently present these issues and make them seem to much worse because of it.

The Fields is published by Abacus, an imprint of Little, Brown books in the UK.