FIELDS, Jennie 1953-

PERSONAL: Born July 25, 1953, in Chicago, IL; daughter of Ira Samuel (a certified public accountant) and Belle Harriet (a homemaker; maiden name, Springer) Fields; married Steven W. Kroeter (marriage ended); children: Chloe Melinda. Education: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, B.F.A., 1974; University of Iowa, M.F.A., 1976. Hobbies and other interests: Painting, writing, music.

ADDRESSES: Home—452 8th St., Brooklyn, NY 11215. Agent—Lisa Bankoff, International Creative Management, 40 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Affiliated with Foote, Cone, and Belding (advertising agency), Chicago, IL, 1977-79; affiliated with Needham, Harper, and Steers, Chicago, 1979-82; Young and Rubicam (advertising agency), New York, NY, senior vice president, 1982-85; Leo Burnett, Chicago, senior vice president, 1985-89; Young and Rubicam, senior vice president and creative director, 1989-93; Lowe and Partners, senior vice president and creative director, 1993-95; Bozell, senior vice president and creative director, 1995-98; Robert A. Bicher Inc., 1999—.

AWARDS, HONORS: Clio award; National Addy award; Effie award; Chicago Addy Gold award; two Lions Cannes International festival awards.

WRITINGS:

Lily Beach, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1993.

Crossing Brooklyn Ferry: A Novel, Morrow (New York, NY), 1997.

The Middle Ages, Morrow (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor of short stories to periodicals, including Story Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Ball State Forum, and Chicago.

SIDELIGHTS: Since the early 1990s, Jennie Fields has published a trio of novels that focuses on the intricacies of relationships. Her Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, whose title alludes to a poem by Walt Whitman, portrays the struggles of the Finney family as they try to recover from the accidental death of their eldest daughter. Hoping to snap her husband, Jamie, out of depression, Zoe decides to move their well-to-do family from Manhattan to Park Slope in Brooklyn. Zoe falls for her new neighbor, the high school English teacher Keeven, all the while hoping that her husband will recover. Several reviewers considered Park Slope to be a character in its own right, including a Publishers Weekly critic, who called the novel "an extended love letter" to the gentrified, old immigrant part of Brooklyn where Fields lives, and Booklist contributor Brian McCombie, who praised the author's "expertly evoked . . . almost tactile sense of time, place, and people." Michael Harris of the Los Angeles Times also called her writing "vivid" for its many sensory details, adding that "Fields is good at rendering the stop-and-start rhythm of relationships."

Despite the strengths of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, a Publishers Weekly contributor found the denouement "pat" and female characters "unsympathetic," while Entertainment Weekly writer Vanessa V. Friedman thought characterizations marred the "already affecting love story." In Library Journal, Jan Blodgett approved of Fields's expressive language, summing up the novel as a "modern folktale about the redemptive powers of love and sacrifice."

If the power of love and sacrifice are the themes of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, the need to change in order to avoid regrets is the theme of Fields's subsequent novel The Middle Ages, whose title refers to both midlife and a time prior to enlightenment, in this case personal enlightenment. The latter novel recounts the story of architect Jane Larsen, a divorced mother of teenaged twin daughters, who takes stock of her life after she is downsized. Fulfilling unfulfilled dreams or renewing a long-past love loom large on Jane's horizon in this "warm-hearted if wandering" novel, to quote a Publishers Weekly reviewer, who predicted the tale might "resonate" with middle-aged readers. Remarking on the "complexities [that] make for very enjoyable reading" in her Library Journal review, Sheila Riley also suggested that The Middle Ages would appeal to women in midlife.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 15, 1997, Brian McCombie, review of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, p. 1561.

Entertainment Weekly, May 30, 1997, Vanessa V. Friedman, review of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, pp. 66-67.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 1997, review of CrossingBrooklyn Ferry, pp. 485-486.

Library Journal, June 1, 1997, Jan Blodgett, review of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, p. 146; July, 2002, Sheila Riley, review of The Middle Ages, p. 118.

Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1997, Michael Harris, review of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, p. 5.

New York Times Book Review, July 13, 1997, Betsy Groban, review of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, p. 18.

Publishers Weekly, February 22, 1993, review of LilyBeach, p. 83; April 28, 1997, review of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, p. 48; June 24, 2002, review of The Middle Ages, p. 35.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), June 29, 1997, review of Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, p. 11.*