Fieldwork received controversial attention with Stephen King's review ["How to Bury a Book."] While King lauds, at length, the novel's "mystery," "narrative voice full of humor and sadness" and suspense, he issues a scathing attack on its publisher, FSG, for poor marketing choices. King writes:
Why, why, why would a company publish a book this good and then practically demand that people not read it? Why should this book go to waste? Is it because there are people in publishing who believe that readers who liked The Memory Keeper's Daughter are too dumb to enjoy a killer novel like Fieldwork? If so, shame on them for their elitism. Letting ''Fieldwork'' go to waste | The Pop of King | Books | Entertainment Weekly
Early in Mischa Berlinski's gripping and entertaining first novel there is a piece of postmodern skittishness which points to a truth that novelists shy away from: their trade embarrasses them. When you first start making things up, you expect that someone is going to tell you to stop.