- Paperback: 176 pages
- Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition (Feb 8 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0375873058
- ISBN-13: 978-0375873058
- Product Dimensions: 15.7 x 1 x 21.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 45 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #940,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
The striking cover picture of a beautiful young man's bare, muscular back foreshadows the sensuality of this brilliant autobiographical novel for older boys by the author of Hatchet and Soldier's Heart. In this remarkable book, Gary Paulsen reworks material from his own life that has appeared earlier in his novels, to tell--with simple words and Hemingwayesque cadences--the story of a summer when a 16-year-old boy became a man.
Fleeing his mother's confusing drunken advances, a boy runs away and finds work in the beet fields of North Dakota. Wielding a hoe for long, hot days, he learns about cruelty from the farmer's wife and about kindness from his Mexican coworkers. Later an attraction to a girl glimpsed only once leads him into accepting a job driving a tractor, but a brush with the deputy sheriff sends him running again, only to be taken in by a sleazy carnival as a roustabout. He learns to shill for the geek, a fake wild man of Borneo who bites the heads off chickens, and yearns for Ruby, the voluptuous hootchy-kootchy dancer. During the summer the boy learns about life and people and his own ability to work and survive, and when Ruby invites him into her bed, his transition to manhood is complete.
While the sensual scenes and occasionally gritty language may make this novel problematic for adults, there is not a 15-year-old boy around who would not find that this poetic, powerful novel speaks to his soul. (Ages 14 and older) --Patty Campbell --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
No stranger to memoir, Paulsen (My Life in Dog Years; Father Water, Mother Woods) returns to a series of episodes he previously fictionalized in the 1977 Tiltawhirl John and now presents the material "as real as I can write it, and as real as I can remember it happening," as he says in an author's note. It is punishingly harsh stuff: 16 years old in 1955, "the boy," as he is called throughout, wakes up to find his drunk mother in his bed and realizes that tonight "something [is] different, wrong, about her need for him." He runs away and lands a backbreaking job on a beet farm in North Dakota, where his wages are cancelled out by the farmer's charges for the use of his hoe, for the tumbledown lodgings and for the only food available, sandwiches made of week-old bread that cost a dollar apiece. Eventually the boy starts working with a carnival, where he learns carny scams and is initiated into sex by the carnival stripper, Ruby. In a mannered prose style, Paulsen serves up strings of studied, impartial observations in paragraph-long sentences. The technique calls attention to itself, as does the occasional circumlocution (e.g., the seemingly endless sentence describing intercourse with Ruby concludes with "sinking into the wetness, the forever-warm wetness of Ruby"). Paulsen fans, however, will probably respond to the vote of confidence in their ability to handle such gritty subjects, and no one can fail to appreciate the author's transcendence of the appalling circumstances he describes. Ages 14-up.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
My Review,
By larry (Ms) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer (Mass Market Paperback)
I think the book was pretty good. It started of slow and i didnt think i would like it, but it didnt get interesting until the middle of the story. The story is about a sixteen year old boy who spends his hot summer days in the beet fields on North Dakota. He works from early that morning till almost dark along with Mexicans. The Boy meets to friends named Bobby and Rudy, who teach him many things and change his life for the best.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Beet Fields Memories of a Sixteenth Summer,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer (Hardcover)
The Beet Fields Memories of a Sixteenth Summer is a book about the author's, Gary Paulsen, experiences. After "The Boy," as he is called, runs from his drunk parents he ends up working the beet fields with the Mexicans. As he juggles farm jobs, runs from the cops, and seeks love, he has many adventures. This book never has a dull moment and always keeps the reader on his or her toes. Each job ends quickly with split second decisions to take another. You never know if he will fall off a barn or fall in love with the farmer's daughter he has seen only once. The best part of all was the fast pace which never bores the reader.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Beet Fields Memories of a Sixteenth Summer,
By justin (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer (Hardcover)
The Beet Fields Memories of a Sixteenth Summer is a book about the author's, Gary Paulsen, experiences. After "The Boy," as he is called, runs from his drunk parents he ends up working the beet fields with the Mexicans. As he juggles farm jobs, runs from the cops, and seeks love, he has many adventures. This book never has a dull moment and always keeps the reader on his or her toes. Each job ends quickly with split second decisions to take another. You never know if he will fall off a barn or fall in love with the farmer's daughter he has seen only once. The best part of all was the fast pace which never bores the reader.
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