It is touted as business-themed fiction and compared to AMC show Mad Men. I have never watched Mad Men so I can't speak to the comparison. Sam Spiegel is an ad man. His father was an ad man. His father's father was an ad man. The Minefields follows Sam as he comes into manhood, begins a job at a NYC ad agency and then leaves his dream job to help his dad's company that is floundering. The emotional pull of the book happened early in Sam's life when his brother suffered a terrible accident. The accident is indelibly painted on the lives of Sam's family as blame is placed on all members. (blaming never seems to work...why can't we figure that one out as a human race?!?) Suspending reality of the circumstances after the accident was difficult to do - perhaps I've had too much First Aid training, but the sequence of events just did not quite add up for me.
Throughout the novel, Sam comes across as the ultimate salesman. He is a golden boy, even referred to by his older brother as the golden son. Sam can do no wrong. He marries not his childhood sweetheart and "Sam champion", but Amy, the girl he meets in college. "We got each other. And the rest, as they say, is history."
The Minefields reads as though I were sitting in a bar with Sam Spiegel - he's had a few too many and wants to unload his life's story. As a witness does to a train wreck, I had to keep reading/hearing Sam's story. "And so I rode the roller coaster that was my life.......But how was the war going? Exactly what was the war? Who started it and why did it rage on so? And how might it all come out in the end?"
With salesman tactics I try to avoid (but in reading a novel about a consummate salesman that was a bit hard to do!), and a flawed hero that I simply could not relate to, The Minefields simply was not for me. If you like to know more of the back story about ad agencies and those who work within the walls, The Minefields may be the book for you.
Helpful Hints: Have a Jewish dictionary handy. There are words thrown in at regular intervals that I was not familiar with, and the Jewish customs mentioned are not readily known.
In a Word: Cliched
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Publisher: When Words Count Publishing | Published January 25, 2012320 pages | Genre: Business FictionComplimentary copy through Meryl Moss Media
