Literary Fiction · ThoughtfulVacationing in Mexico, Walter McKee runs into Gordon Boyd, an old friend he has not seen in about fifteen years
The Field of Vision
A settled American on vacation in Mexico meets an old friend who has drifted through life
Walter McKee is a middle-aged, financially successful American on vacation in Mexico with his wife Lois and their son Gordon. He runs into Gordon Boyd, a failed playwright and drifter he has not seen in about fifteen years. The reunion stirs old feelings for both men and their families, especially for Lois, who has lingering feelings for Boyd. The novel contrasts McKee's stable, routine life with Boyd's unsettled one, and it moves between the perspectives of several characters.
More about this book
Who
Walter McKee, his wife Lois, their son Gordon, and Gordon Boyd, a failed playwright and drifter. Lois's father Tom Scanlon and Boyd's psychiatrist Dr. Leopold Lehmann also appear.
World
Mexico in the 1950s, with a bullring as a key location, plus New York, where Boyd lives, and the midwestern plains of the father's past.
What makes it different
It is written in the style of high modernism, and the story moves between the perspectives of several characters.
Feel
Reflective and compact, at 251 pages. It won the 1957 National Book Award for Fiction.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- The Field of VisionWikipedia
- The Field of VisionEBSCO Research Starters