By Donna Glee Williams© July 20, 2023, Arcadia Publishing
File Size: 2.6 MB
372 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1529422719
Pyn-Poi didn’t want to learn women’s things. Instead, she followed her father, a tree healer, learning to touch her Other self to that of the trees, the sister plants, and all the rest of the Real around her. When the Stink comes, the Real begins to die. Babies die in the womb. Tree fruits shrivel on the branches of the trees. Feather-friends and fang-foes and eaters die or go away, and leaves on the home trees turn brown. Pyn-Poi, trained in the ways of survival, is the only one who can go Up, up the face of the cliff to the Land of the Ancestors, and stop the Stink. But the end of the climb is only the beginning of Pyn-Poi’s journey. Somehow, she must navigate the horrors of the world above, and defeat what she finds there.
The Night Field is a beautiful, evocative story of contrasts: between the green, lush world of the Real where everything is connected, and the dry, barren world of the Up, with its farms and its abominations, and its Stink, and where the connections have gone so wrong; between the culture and worldview of the People, who see and literally feel those connections and live to strengthen and feed them, and the disconnected, shortsighted worldview of those in the Up, who live only to survive, and to serve themselves and their masters; between a world of plenty and a world of life-and-death struggle. Author Donna Glee Williams weaves the layers of this tale between the two extremes with a deft hand, pulling the reader further in with each page until it’s impossible to put down.
The story is told in simple language, using an easy-to-read style. But this is no simple fable. Instead, it’s multilayered, complex, and thought-provoking. At its heart, this is a tale of shocking environmental change. It shows us what we could have, then demonstrates with stark realism how our actions in our own Real World are affecting that paradise. It was heartbreaking to see effects of the Stink on Pyn-Poi’s world, and to know it’s also happening in my own. The Night Field is a wake-up call to us, a poetic plea to open our eyes to at least one aspect of unforeseen consequences of human actions on the larger world. And the solution it offers is beautiful, evocative, moving, and oh-so simple.
Vivid descriptions of place and scene brought the story alive, as did the depth of each character. The story is told from multiple points of view, although Pyn-Poi is the main voice we hear. Each individual scene is told from a first-person POV, as though we are seeing through each character’s eyes and can even more clearly see the contrasts in understandings, how two people can look at the same thing and see very different views. Each scene is “titled” with the POV character’s name, so we know who’s speaking. There’s no confusion. In fact, it enriched the tale, gave it even greater depth, and served the overall message of the story better than it would have from a single perspective. Brilliantly done.
Beautifully told and deeply evocative, The Night Field’s message will linger with me for a long time. I cannot recommend it enough.