Like Eliot's Prufrock or Beckett's Molloy, the narrator of Katharine Kilalea's first novel, OK, Mr. Field, is an introspective middle-aged man bewildered and saddened by what his life has become. The eponymous Mr. Field lives on a hillside above a seasonal beach retreat for the Cape Town wealthy. His house is a knock-off of the famous Le Corbusier work, Villa Savoye, where he wanders glassed halls and rugged grounds musing on his career as a pianist--cut short by a disabling train accident--and pondering why his wife has left him. He skims newspapers, half-heartedly works crossword puzzles, obsesses over the widow who sold him the house and occasionally walks to town, comparing the busy tics and tacs of "normal" people to his own ennui. A contemporary existentialist, Mr. Field has lost his way--and maybe lost his mind.
South African-born and now living in London, Kilalea is a poet (One Eye'd Leigh) and former publicist for an architectural firm. With a flair for language and metaphor, the concise, wry and contemplative OK, Mr. Field is also rich in the arcana of architecture. Le Corbusier's stark minimalism appropriately mirrors the malaise of Mr. Field's life. Alone as he is, however, Mr. Field still longs to connect--if only with the stray dog he takes in. If a sadness permeates this book, it is the restless melancholy of one who sees his torpor and strives to overcome it. With subdued resolution, he notes: "The important thing, I decided, was to stay vertical." Beckett would approve. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.