At Play In The Fields of the Lord

by Peter Matthiessen

Imagine my surprise as I groped through the aisle of the library, seemingly in the "M" section when I came upon several of Peters books in the fiction section. I thought he only wrote nonfiction. I picked this book of the three or so offerings and laid it on the stack I was accumulating for the weeks reading.

As I began to read I immediately became sucked in and totally immersed in the story, the setting, the characters. It began to occur to me, about midway through, that this book reminds me of the countless books as a child I eased out of the library under the watchful nose of my Mom and read under the cover of my room, at night while the family slept but I could not. I would be totally immersed in the story, spellbound by the world out there I knew nothing about, fretted over the emotions and needs of adults that I could only hope to someday to understand.

Obscure books that no one else read, but were life changing for me.

This was a good book, one I could not put down and turned the pages greedily. Mr. M's prose is astounding and tender. One line went like this...we found ourselves like butterflies pinned to the trays of our mortality....

The characters were each and every one, fascinating. Though the central character, Moon was someone that I wanted to overcome the hand life had dealt him and in the end perhaps he was the only one who had successfully been reborn, redeemed, saved.

Fascinating book, lot of topics to give thought to such as forcing our idea of a Higher Power that is better, more redeeming than the "savages" idea of a higher power. Who exactly are the savages here? The love between Wolfie and Moon, a manly love, one of desire and two halves making a whole.

A study of faith and loss. Everyone looses. Even Moon, who lost so much to end up in the god forsaken back waters of So America, somehow overcomes in the end. As does Andy, as does Martin, who ends his life work as a martyr killed by one of the converts.

I'm certain there is much more to this parable, this warning, this deep story layered with subtle preaching and astonishing revelations.

I will be searching out rather than stumbling upon more or Mr's books.