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The Mourning Fields
"Rich in its contemporary setting, mythic parallel, and characters walking between the two, The Mourning Fields by David Beaumier stirs empathy and delivers catharsis." – Chanticleer Book Reviews
"The Mourning Fields is real and raw and achingly relevant. A stunning debut and a gift to all willing to see they have a bit of dirt on their shoes." – HamLit Literary Journal
When we romanticize unrequited love, what lessons do we teach?
In these tragic retellings, David Beaumier unravels the meaning of Greek myths in a contemporary setting. Zeus slowly turns to plastic as he breaks faith with Hera, Echo stalks Narcissus from a nearby balcony, and Dionysus runs a college frat house. Fresh and intimate, The Mourning Fields delves into the obsession, hope, and rage of humanity in the face of trauma, survival, and desire.
"The Mourning Fields is real and raw and achingly relevant. A stunning debut and a gift to all willing to see they have a bit of dirt on their shoes." – HamLit Literary Journal
When we romanticize unrequited love, what lessons do we teach?
In these tragic retellings, David Beaumier unravels the meaning of Greek myths in a contemporary setting. Zeus slowly turns to plastic as he breaks faith with Hera, Echo stalks Narcissus from a nearby balcony, and Dionysus runs a college frat house. Fresh and intimate, The Mourning Fields delves into the obsession, hope, and rage of humanity in the face of trauma, survival, and desire.
218 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 23, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 23, 2025
In David Beaumier’s debut collection The Mourning Fields (2025, Dark Forest Press), fifteen shorts chart us on a course of divine and deft illumination. Starting in a state of loss–immediately present in “Charon’s Crossing” through the final phrase of “Orpheus”–we are then offered “Last Wish” as a bridge to transport us from deficit to discovery about what we may or may not want for ourselves and from others (“The Mourning Fields”, “Just Say Yes”). Finally, Beaumier’s collection arrives with true identity emergence, for better (“Kalanchoe”, “Siren”) and for worse (“The College Experience”, “Hera”). Shorts like “Theseus, Asterius”, “The White Pine”, and “Juliet on His Balcony” (best title ever?!) offer a centralized Fun & Games component that ensures this accomplished work is held as a whole, reminding the reader that these Greek god inspired tales are–in their bones–one complex map of the flawed but bright human condition.
With myth as a vivid backdrop, Beaumier captures the light and dark of vital personhood by revealing how we mortals actually think, behave, harm, and heal. The journey through these stories reiterates again and again that we are all made up of stars and earth. In its moon-like fullness, The Mourning Fields is real and raw and achingly relevant. A stunning debut and a gift to all willing to see they have a bit of dirt on their shoes.
David Beaumier (he/they) is a 2024 Village Books Literary Citizenship Award Recipient, helms the Writers Corner Anthologies, and has been published in Inroads, Suffix, Psaltry & Lyre, Whatcom Writes, and HamLit, www.HamLit.org
With myth as a vivid backdrop, Beaumier captures the light and dark of vital personhood by revealing how we mortals actually think, behave, harm, and heal. The journey through these stories reiterates again and again that we are all made up of stars and earth. In its moon-like fullness, The Mourning Fields is real and raw and achingly relevant. A stunning debut and a gift to all willing to see they have a bit of dirt on their shoes.
David Beaumier (he/they) is a 2024 Village Books Literary Citizenship Award Recipient, helms the Writers Corner Anthologies, and has been published in Inroads, Suffix, Psaltry & Lyre, Whatcom Writes, and HamLit, www.HamLit.org
October 22, 2025
A critic wrote that "the work of Heraclitus and other classical philosophers is not yet done," and the same can be said for the myths of antiquity, which are reinterpreted so often and still seem relevant to our lives today (for example in Jean Cocteau's "Orpheus," the film "Black Orpheus," Jean Anoulh's "Antigone," and so on). In this collection David Beaumier gives us a series of tales based mostly on Greek myths which are at once local, familiar, unsettling, and in some cases alarming.
While examining general themes such as violence towards women ("Charon's Crossing", "The White Pine," "The College Experience"), Alzheimer's disease and diminished capacities as one ages (a novel approach to "Orpheus", also a key theme in "Last Wish"), and other topics, this author also has the talent to make the specific jarring observation or remark, such as one character's observation that "so many of our authors... forgot that what brought them to writing was a love of reading" (in "The Mourning Fields"); or similarly, a stray memory of the dead birds one character's grandfather kept in the freezer (yikes, in "The White Pine").
In Beaumier's world, violence towards women--or really, anyone--can erupt without warning, which calls to mind Heraclitus's warning to "expect the unexpected." Or to put it another way: fail to expect the unexpected at your peril. In "Charon's Crossing," a woman flees an abusive partner only to be caught in random violence at a truck stop. In "The White Pine," a woman is wary of her old boyfriend, who suddenly turns violent--but she is "rescued" by an entirely surprising intervention.
The author is a keen observer of sexual unease and ambiguity. In "The Mourning Fields," a man is excited to enter into a kind of "open" relationship, but quickly wrecks the relationship by jealous behavior (how unrealistic--no men ever do this, right?). In "Just Say Yes," one person seduces or perhaps assaults (what do you think) another, but the emotional posture of the targeted party is unclear--perhaps also to the character.
In the middle of all these scenarios, Beaumier manages also to convey the local atmosphere of the (U.S.) Pacific Northwest, as in "Siren," where the narrator comments on the difficulty of finding any decent housing in "this college town." I don't want to leave before making a few other remarks about this tale, one of the best entrees in this collection. Beaumier gives us a siren with a heart; she actually tries to keep "sailors" away from the dangerous shores. She identifies three categories of the beguiled: those who merely sit in admiration as she sings in a local brewery (in this case, a place which produces mead), those who press forward and are her devoted fans, and those who aspire to be something more. This siren actually gives pursuers several chances to disengage. But she must sing; "that is who we are." (No spoilers here!)
Some of these tales are mystifying (as in "which myth is this again?"), others are unsettling, but none of them fail to entertain.
Enjoy.
While examining general themes such as violence towards women ("Charon's Crossing", "The White Pine," "The College Experience"), Alzheimer's disease and diminished capacities as one ages (a novel approach to "Orpheus", also a key theme in "Last Wish"), and other topics, this author also has the talent to make the specific jarring observation or remark, such as one character's observation that "so many of our authors... forgot that what brought them to writing was a love of reading" (in "The Mourning Fields"); or similarly, a stray memory of the dead birds one character's grandfather kept in the freezer (yikes, in "The White Pine").
In Beaumier's world, violence towards women--or really, anyone--can erupt without warning, which calls to mind Heraclitus's warning to "expect the unexpected." Or to put it another way: fail to expect the unexpected at your peril. In "Charon's Crossing," a woman flees an abusive partner only to be caught in random violence at a truck stop. In "The White Pine," a woman is wary of her old boyfriend, who suddenly turns violent--but she is "rescued" by an entirely surprising intervention.
The author is a keen observer of sexual unease and ambiguity. In "The Mourning Fields," a man is excited to enter into a kind of "open" relationship, but quickly wrecks the relationship by jealous behavior (how unrealistic--no men ever do this, right?). In "Just Say Yes," one person seduces or perhaps assaults (what do you think) another, but the emotional posture of the targeted party is unclear--perhaps also to the character.
In the middle of all these scenarios, Beaumier manages also to convey the local atmosphere of the (U.S.) Pacific Northwest, as in "Siren," where the narrator comments on the difficulty of finding any decent housing in "this college town." I don't want to leave before making a few other remarks about this tale, one of the best entrees in this collection. Beaumier gives us a siren with a heart; she actually tries to keep "sailors" away from the dangerous shores. She identifies three categories of the beguiled: those who merely sit in admiration as she sings in a local brewery (in this case, a place which produces mead), those who press forward and are her devoted fans, and those who aspire to be something more. This siren actually gives pursuers several chances to disengage. But she must sing; "that is who we are." (No spoilers here!)
Some of these tales are mystifying (as in "which myth is this again?"), others are unsettling, but none of them fail to entertain.
Enjoy.
October 4, 2025
As reader, the paths these stories took as a reset to old myths set me to reading some unfamiliar ones to find the root.Takes talent for an author to challenge the reader to pursue the sources spring and even if so not inclined,, to weave these folk songs into modern settings as to how the world will always need explanations to how it contains wonder and dread.
Playful, wrenching, slow wind humour and pathos all in expert prose. Treat yourself to something you didn't know you wanted . Turn on your space heater,fluff a pillow,curl up with your best couch blanket and take a ride through these worlds.
Playful, wrenching, slow wind humour and pathos all in expert prose. Treat yourself to something you didn't know you wanted . Turn on your space heater,fluff a pillow,curl up with your best couch blanket and take a ride through these worlds.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews