Sundress Reads: Review of Dinner in the Fields

Attracta Fahy’s Dinner in the Fields (Fly on the Wall Press, 2020) captures the essence of small moments, memories, and observations, revealing that a busy world can offer quiet moments of significance if you pause to notice. Fahy guides readers to places where time slows or freezes altogether, creating a space to reflect on the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary. 

Dinner in the Fields delves into intricately silent lives in the smallest town, laying bare their essence. In “Woman in the Waterside House,” Fahy writes, “I have no reason to trust sympathy, / when I tell you I hid for thirteen / days, waiting for marks to disappear” (8). Her storytelling ability demands attention for every word. Finishing the woman’s story, she writes, “Easier to pretend my life / is full, than to face the shame / in your eyes, mine, / and the shame of the world, / when you are a woman with a fist over your face” (Fahy 8). In a few short lines, Fahy produces incredible characters with rich pasts and emotions.

Between heart-wrenching stories, Fahy’s doleful images and moments prove literature’s potential as a cathartic tool for realization. In “Etchings,” Fahy writes, “There will be no miracles in a graveyard / amongst the dead, little happens / in the quiet presence / of departed souls” (10). Here Fahy creates profound stillness; her words convey the woeful narrative of the poem and also invite the reader to ponder existence. She reminds readers, in the setting of a still and silent graveyard, that life is momentary.   

In “Hy Brasil,” Fahy captures a narrator’s profound and all encompassing affection for a specific person by portraying it as a connection distinct from anything else. She writes: 

“Here on the mainland we are
unforgiving, overindulged, ignoring
the beauty.
I’m anchored, in love, tied like a boat
 to your image.” (Fahy 9) 

Fahy contrasts the mainland’s overindulgent nature by highlighting the tendency to overlook its beauty. The metaphor of being anchored in love and tied to the image of a beloved underscores the narrator’s deep commitment. Her ability to explain extraordinarily complex feelings through nature metaphors is one of the most notable aspects of the collection.  

Fahy also weaves themes of love, loss, and connects it to the relentless force of nature. In “How Did I Love You,” Fahy writes of the secret tragedies nature reveals about humanity: “Love took me to the last foot, / leaving shore, / my love deeper than that first step / into the depth, / the ocean, another land, / sweeping me off my feet, floating / to music, / your smile, / my death” (31). The imagery of moving to the last foot, leaving the shore, and the depth of love symbolized by stepping into the ocean creates a deepened idea of what it means to love.

Dinner in the Fields beckons you to go outside, even on less-than-gorgeous days—revealing beauty in all the places the wind has touched, where water has eroded, and in the spaces nature has reclaimed. Fahy reminds you how remarkable nature is in every word:

“When the stars dance
they arrive at night
in a sheet of sparkling
pleasure, into our heart.
My heart also moves,
raw and bright.” (Fahy 24).

Dinner in the Fields offers another way to look at the world: appreciatively, wistfully, kindly, and expectantly. Fahy paints vivid pictures of the powerful, beautiful forces present in a tree, a bird, a lightning strike. 

The combining, overpowering themes of nature and time’s relentlessness come to a peak in “It is 3am.” With the narrative of walking back from a bar with someone, Fahy turns a seemingly meaningless moment into a slow, beautiful experience. She writes,

“We slip into morning, walking Merchants Road,
our feet pace the moon, its timeless light, cloaks,
just enough to dull this truth: I was young once,
no need for fragile kiss, eyes that search
for depth.
… I would go anywhere tonight
… Still here, I slow to the beat of your steps, tall grey buildings
shadow our frames. We smile to each other, glance
at empty cars, parked like soldiers into little squares.
I’ve moved in circles, tasting paths to love
never found the one,
now there’s you.” (Fahy 25).

Her words remind you to be appreciative of every part of life, the beauty in every time of day. What is usually an hour of anxiety, hecticness, and unplanned disorder, Fahy’s version is slowed down, allowing your mind the opportunity to wander.

Ultimately, Attracta Fahy’s Dinner in the Fields is a truly powerful collection. One statement that well-represents the collection is from “Picking Potatoes:” “With tasks well done, / we believe in a greater life. / Longing connects us to fields / beyond our world. / We will grow into what we leave” (Fahy 27). With rich images and profound words, these poems force introspection and make for a highly engaging read.

Dinner in the Fields is available from Fly on the Wall Press

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Caitlin Mulqueen is a senior at the University of Tennessee majoring in English and Journalism. She loves reading, playing piano, watching sports, and the Oxford comma. She has worked as an Editorial Graphics Production intern at ESPN, is a copy editor at The Daily Beacon, a student writer for Tennessee Athletics, a graphics and video operator for the SEC Network, and a marketing/social media intern for the Knoxville Ice Bears. With the majority of her undergraduate work being in sports media, literary media has remained her sincerest passion, finding stories that come out of sports to be as moving as those from literature.