Gary Paulsen's "pseudo-memoir," THE BEET FIELDS: MEMORIES OF A SIXTEENTH SUMMER, is, by his own admission, an attempt to render an honest look at a small piece of his own life. He writes, in an Author's Note, that he has often used parts of his life in other books, "in softer forms," then continues -

"But here it is now, as real as I can write it, and as real as I can remember it happening."

And it does seem pretty damn real - at times even raw - as he tells how he ran away, the summer he turned sixteen, from a home with abusive, alcoholic parents. The central character - presumably the author himself - is unnamed, called only "the boy."

"He was only half awake, fighting sleep, half dreaming, half knowing. His mother was there beside him. She had come to his bed many times drunk, to sleep with him ... But tonight, even half dreaming, he knew something was different, wrong, about her need for him, and he rolled and pushed and stood away in lonely horror, while she lay there moaning ... And he ran ..."

Such a suggestive and shocking introduction immediately brought to mind Earl Thompson's classic and notorious autobiographical novel, A GARDEN OF SAND. And because the protagonist is known only as "the boy," I thought too of Tony Earley's sweetly innocent Depression era novel, JIM THE BOY. But there is more of Thompson's gritty feel to Paulsen's story than there is of Earley's innocence.

Because THE BEET FIELDS is, more than anything, a coming-of-age story, which follows the boy through his various adventures across the flatness of North Dakota, working with Mexican migrants hoeing beets, followed by more dawn-to-dusk labor on a farm, an escape from an unscrupulous deputy sheriff, a harrowing night ride west with a Hungarian immigrant, a short stay with a lonely widow on a barren farm and, finally, a stint as a "carny," with a traveling carnival, where he meets the beautiful and exotic Ruby, who is, to the boy, "simply, everything."

There were things in this book that took me back to my own adolescence, even down to midway burlesque shows in traveling carnivals, something I experienced my fifteenth summer. Even the back-breaking labor of hoeing, the farm work, and the mind-numbing fatigue that follows all felt familiar. Paulsen succeeded in his aim. He made it "real."

At Barely 150 pages, THE BEET FIELDS is a quick read, but its essence will linger. It's a powerful little book about growing up. It may be aimed at a young adult audience, but it will resonate equally with adults. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )

Known only in the book as “the boy,” a 16-year-old escapes his broken home and drunken parents to survive on his own. He starts out as a migrant worker laboring in beet fields alongside the more adept Mexicans. A farmer later hires him to drive a tractor to work his fields. After being arrested by the sheriff for being a suspected runaway, the boy escapes and ends up hitching a ride with an older woman who takes him in for awhile and has him help repair machinery. Next he joins a traveling carnival where he helps set up rides, rounds up audiences for the acts, and learns the way of the carny. It is also there that he loses his virginity to Ruby, the exotic dancer and wife of the carnival owner. Raw and graphic, but honest all the way through.

Based on Paulsens real life experiences as a migrant worker and carny after running away from home at the age of 16. ( )