Reaching the Senses

While reading “Cairo Tunnel” I felt as though each word had meaning and value.  After reading this piece I understood the power of a single word.  Fields was able to create a place that moved beyond the black ink. Her words lifted and became alive, unfolding in front of me.  

What I appreciated most was that Fields touched the senses.  She is able to convey emotion and feeling by addressing each: touch, smell, sight, taste, and hear.  She allows us to touch by writing, “We are like books on a shelf, supporting each other’s weight.” I feel that weight. She doesn’t just write “I felt the weight.” She is able to create the feeling of touch and heaviness.  

I am even able to smell. She writes, “Still, I can smell her sour breath, and she can probably smell mine.”  Notice, she doesn’t just say I smell her breath, but she allows us to smell it too.  By using adjectives like adverbs like “sour” we are able to take part in her experience.  The word “sour” also allows us to taste the breath.  She grabs the reader by hitting them with two senses in a single word. 

For sight, we are given beautiful lines.  Fields says, “As we pass, a Sudanese girl gets spun in a circle as easily as a rack of clothes, her braids flying.” She also writes, “Her makeup is minimal, like mine. She wears a pantsuit, and oversized purse against her hip.” To help us hear she writes, “And all the while, women are laughing. I am laughing.”  

She does a brilliant job of tying all the senses into her story.  There is no awkward sentences, it is liquid, flowing with perfect ease.  If only I could implement her techniques into my own writing.  

- Angela Payaban