FictionThatMatters.org

Heaven on a Panel

To me it was heaven: Mark Kurlansky, whose book Cod inspired me to believe in reading again; Raja Shehadeh, an accomplished Palestinian author and jurist who helped litigate ‘The Wall’ case before the International Court of Justice; and Matt Weiland, author and editor of a book about soccer. There was also a joke about women, but it was tasteful and drew chuckles from both sexes. All I needed was a chaise longue and a bowl of grapes.

Something Else Entirely on Earth

Except this was not a discussion about paradise. It touched upon the loss of places and peoples, and not the finding of them. Kurlansky’s book ‘The Last Fish Tale’ drew upon his decades of exploring the fishing communities of Europe and the New World, and the tragedies that technological innovation have wrought upon global fish stocks. Raja Shehadeh, in his book a “Palestinian Walks” (Profile, 2008), utilized the tradition of sarha’s – or walking aimlessly in the hills – to highlight the environmental degradation of Palestine. There was shared frustration in the ecological impact of our actions upon these distant parts of the planet.

Reading Again

I’ll admit I was thrilled about Kurlansky in particular. His book Cod (Jonathan Cape, 1998) made me excited to simply read again when I was wallowing in the post-college blues. The work seamlessly traced the influence of this fish upon everything from rum factories in Boston to the slave trade to international border disputes. It was a work of history yet full of moving stories. The book instructed and moved me, and defied easy categorization. His writing style was so clear and wise that that I had always imagined that if I ever met Kurlansky it would be at a bar. I’d be watching a game on TV (soccer) and he would sidle up in a friendly way and begin spinning yarns about fishing life. In truth, he is a large physical presence who speaks from the back of his mouth and there was a shyness to his presentation. If we’d met in that bar, we probably wouldn’t have talked. He might have asked to watch the Red Sox game.

To Kurlansky, the conference theme of ‘Revolution/Evolution’ was clear. Fishing technology had advanced too quickly for fishing communities such as Gloucester to evolve with them. Trawlers dragging their enormous nets across the sea decimated everything in their wake. The Gloucester Times had sounded warnings against trawling as early as the 1920s. Eighty years later, the stocks of the Grand Banks and Cape Anne have dwindled to the extent that there are only 500 fishermen in Gloucester.

Writing and Activism

Raja Shehadeh is an accomplished, soft spoken Palestinian lawyer. He is capable of citing international treaties with ease, and spoke fervently against the ecological impact of the Israeli settlements outside Ramallah. These settlements require enormous resources to grow and sometimes feature grass lawns that require sprinkler systems – something totally anathema to the arid region. The famed Jaffa oranges are little natural fruit containers of water, sent abroad. The Jordan river has been shrunk to a mere trickle. Palestinians accustomed to walking around Ramallah cannot even go into ‘Area C’ without a permit from the Israeli military, which is now regularly denied. Shehadeh left the impression of a fervent advocate.

Yet Shehadeh’s writing was flecked with subtlety. He read from a passage of his new book, ‘Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape’ (Scribner, 2008), a delightful story in which he and his Palestinian companion encounter a group of young Israelis training for the army. The passion of his legal invectives were oddly tempered in his storytelling.

“Where you study and walk and observe in the land,” Shehadeh explained, “it is one land. It has always been a mixture, and people were able to find ways to live together.’

Links in Time and Space

Moderator Matt Weiland had the difficult task of trying to bridge these very different works of writing. One work was set in Palestine, and the other largely in Gloucester, Massachusetts in the U.S. But thematic linkages occurred: a concern for ecology, for cultural survival, and for the little details that make life worth living.

The authors are clearly consummate storytellers. Both passages revealed delight in other people and reverence for the landscape they inhabit. Kurlansky mourned the loss of ecosystems and sociodiversity, while Shehadeh lamented the arrival of dangerous sink holes and the degradation of the hills around the Ramallah of his childhood.

The Solution?

The two authors offered different economic solutions. Both placed a responsibility on the consumer. To combat the spread of illegal Israeli settlements: stop buying products produced there. To revitalize our fish stocks: demand the source of the fish from your local fish shop or supermarket.

How to Write a Book of this Kind

Reading a book by Kurlansky or Shehadeh is enjoyable. As a reviewer, I often felt a desire to ‘categorize’ them. Is it history? Memoir? Travel writing? The works manage to transcend these classifications, yet they still work. How do they do it?

“For this kind of book,” Kurlansky explained, “you have to love the place you’re writing about.”