I enjoyed The Poppy Field very much, reading it in two sittings. An evangelical preacher from Indiana is called to preach the Gospel in Guatemala and drags his wife and two children there very much against their will. From the moment they land, they are faced with what the wife, Katherine, feels are insurmountable problems and dangers, including the run-down shack they are to live in, but the husband, Phil, is certain God will provide for them and protect them. Though as a pastor’s family they are nowhere near wealthy, in the United States, they enjoyed a surfeit of riches, compared to most of the Guatamalans they met. The locals are devastatingly poor, with one exception: Alfonso Cardenas, a Mexican living in Guatemala, is wealthy, charming, handsome, and philanthropic. He gradually insinuates himself into the lives of the pastor’s family to the point of having them live under his protection in his compound. He becomes a sexual temptation to Katherine, who is fed up with Phil’s neglect of her and his family in his eagerness to proselytize. Alfonso’s extravagant lifestyle is quite attractive to her daughter. Katherine and her son sense a darkness to Alfonso that Phil refuses to accept. He remains convinced that God, through Alfonso, is taking care of his ministry and his family.
The rapid pace of this book with its ever-escalating menace made me unable to put it down. Kellems does a great job of capturing the overwhelming sense of foreignness expatriates experience when first landing in a different country. The contrast between the richness of the Guatemalan land and its biodiversity with the indigence of the majority of its inhabitants is stark and well-captured. Kellems herself, a former Peace Corps worker in Guatemala, has the background of dealing with poverty in addition to currently owning a coffee plantation there, so she writes from her soul about her adopted country.
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The Poppy Field (Grand Canyon Press, May 11, 2024) is available through:
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