The FieldThe Field

Dave Lapp's new memoir unpacks a long, hazy 1970s summer and reveals that when we look beyond nostalgia, childhood is complicated--and rarely innocent. Dave's on the verge of summer vacation and change is on the horizon. Developers have begun digging up a field on the edges of Dave's universally familiar small town, presenting endless nooks and crannies for Dave and his fearless friend Edward to explore. Over the course of the summer, while the town's adults remain focused on their fractured marriages and neighbourly resentments, the children are allowed to run wild in the field, collecting caterpillars and tadpoles, catching field mice (which they smuggle home), and nursing a curious fascination with Dave's mother's matches and their potential for disaster. As the summer meanders on, Edward brings a new friend into the circle. But John's got a mean streak that's strong enough to flip Dave's world-and his place in it--upside down. In The Field, Ignatz-nominated creator Dave Lapp examines a time when kids stayed out until the streetlights came on--and exposes the dangers, foibles, and wildness of childhood in the 1970s.