The Field by Dave Lapp. Conundrum Press, 2024. 978772620948. 552pp.
In the book’s first episode, young David Lapp, inspired by his friend Edward, draws dirty pictures and puts them on the edge of the vocabulary board in Ms. Lewis’s class. Edward then turns David in. Ms. Lewis tapes a note to David’s mother, along with the drawings, to David, who has to wear them for the rest of class.
There’s some more trouble before summer vacation starts. It’s not all Edward’s fault — especially the incident with the angry gym teacher during a square dancing session, when the teacher slams David up against the wall for goofing off. But Edward is always there. He gets David to collect “bees eggs” in a jar. He shows David the dead cat he found. When David takes his new friend Hussein to the field, Edward and Jack drop a hammer on Hussein’s head from their treehouse. It’s no wonder David’s mom thinks Edward is bad news. She wants him to stay away from Edward. He doesn’t. And it’s just the beginning of a long summer.
It’s easy to see why the book is dedicated to Chester Brown — it shares Brown’s matter-of-fact tone in showing the trouble the boys get up to. It’s not all horrific, but a lot of it reminded me of how thoughtless and cruel my friends and I could be as little kids, particularly to bugs, birds, and each other. And it made me remember the fields where I’d disappear with friends carrying bb guns and books of matches, and of all of the weird, horrible adventures we had.
This is not a book for children, though at first glance it might look like one; it is the ultimate gift for men of a certain age, who grew up where suburbs abutted natural areas, and whose parents thought sending them outside all day was better than having them watch TV. (If they’d known what we were doing, I think they would have begged us to watch more TV.)
