Sundress Reads: Review of Dear Outsiders

This sense of family is furthered by the consistent use of “we” to flesh out the sense of self within the poems. “What are we looking for? Why are we looking? A family eating oatmeal, folding socks into each other, reading in natural light, stirring simple soups into so small a house,” states Sadre-Orfai in one of the beginning poems, “Field Test” (10). Here, not only does the writer display her powerful emotional pathos towards the reader through convincing them their perspective, but also exposing the deeper intricacies of her desires. While we as readers subconsciously fill in the things we are looking for, Sadre-Orfai directly challenges the views at hand, showing her wants to the audience without any hesitation: a complete family that is colored in by the small details and testaments to tenderness. 

What makes this collection special are the ties it has to not just Sadre-Orsai’s personal experience, but links to the Latinx Indigneous community being impacted as a whole. In “Locals,” Sadre-Orsai touches on the larger ignorance of community issues: “the lifeguards don’t say a thing. We aren’t worth the trouble” (29). And in “Decoys”: “Our mother makes us write down what we wear every day—a chart on the front door in case we’re abducted” (16). Both these examples compare in their external foundations: nothing that the children did warranted ignorance and abduction, but due to the pressures of the system, they are forcibly left overlooked and vulnerable.

The motifs of systematic failures and its impacts also connect to earlier mentions. In “In Case of Abduction,” the list format utilized, showing the clothing items of children until their vests disappear: 

6/1 : flags tank camouflage pants 

      blaze orange vest striped shirt 

      stars leggings blaze orange vest. (64)

This highlights not just the realness of this clothing chart in relation to abducted children but also the erasure of community members and identity in real-time, further complicating the reader within Sadre-Orsai’s narrative.

Sadre-Orsai also writes of moments of triumph against these institutional erasures through collective legacy and lineage. In “A Field, A Flood,” she writes, “we walk out here with our knees high. It’s how everyone knows our parents chose water for us. We walk the packed land like walking against a cresting tide. They call it a march.” (43) Here, the writer shows a powerful moment of collective action; even a small act such as walking can become a signal for change.

Sadre-Orsai does not hold back with her use of imagery, battering the repeating themes of community and identity line after line to the reader. She furthers explores the themes of parenthood and inherited traits in “Levels of Force,” where she writes: 

“At night, the shadow is our mother’s waist and hips and skirt … One of us stays in the house while the other pours water…with drenched shoes that belonged to our mother…louder! Louder! Make it like we were born here! And then we rake through our braids and our armpits for salt and sand.” (46)

The commanding voice which Sadre-Orsai utilizes furthers the idea of “Force” from the title, but also evokes a sense of motherly authority, furthering the emotional connections from page to page. 

The last poem of the collection, “Send a Revival,” cements this sense of motherhood in conversation with life through its challenging ideas of birth and death. In “Send a Revival,” Sadre-Orsai writes, “here’s the rip that sweeps our bodies under… This is where we were born. This is where we became orphans, where we stayed on top of the water” (69). With this ending, the author lets go of the things that have held her back from her true being: a part of both the land and sea, nature itself. Through the collection, Sadre-Orsai brings the reader to a spot of contemplation and empathy for the world around ourselves. If you are a lover of nature and what makes us human, check this book out!

Order your copy of Dear Outsiders here!

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