The Monk of Mokha

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I wish someone had asked me to blurb The Monk of Mokhaso I could have said, ‘I couldn’t put it down,’ because I couldn’t put it down.” —Ann Patchett, Parnassas Bookstore blog A true account of a scrappy underdog, told in a lively, accessible style… Absolutely as gripping and cinematically dramatic as any fictional cliffhanger.

The Monk of Mokha’ Is a Little Too Carefully Dave Eggers’ ‘The Monk of Mokha’ Is a Little Too Carefully

Mokhtar spent three years traveling in Yemen, surveying more than 30 coffee growing regions. Some farms were so remote, they were accessible only by a 3-day hike through the mountains. He met with farmers and took notes. He heard stories of his ancestors, measured rainfall, slept on mountains, and observed farming practices. He had a simple vision: If he could persuade farmers to elevate the quality of their beans, they would get paid a higher price than khat, and would embrace growing coffee again. Q: Mokhtar, you still operate your company, Port of Mokha coffee, which continues to import coffee beans from war-torn Yemen. How much more difficult has the work become, and how are your workers and farmers faring amid the chaos? Still, there’s much to admire about Eggers’ approach. He is a writer/activist whose nonfiction work (such as 2009’s Zeitoun) has gone far from the insistent “I” so prevalent in the memoirs of his contemporaries. His 2006 novel, What Is the What fictionalized the like of a Sudanese “ Lost Boy“, and the end result was equal parts problematic and interesting. Look at the growth of Eggers’ 826 Valencia literacy project from its original location in San Francisco to chapters around the country, and the oral history initiative Voices of Witness continues to give voice to the marginalized and unheard.You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side.

Monk of Mokha - Dave Eggers

This is meant to be themoment in the book: climactic, epiphanic, cathartic. And yet, oddly enough, because the MSC Lucianais sailing in earlier than anticipated, the only person available to enjoy the sight with Mokhtar is “the guy writing a book about all this.” And so, just this once in the book, author, subject, and commodity come together, and in a manner far more revealing than it’s intended to be: The door buzzed. The writer was there, and we stood there, panting, laughing at this, the fact that this was really happening. But there was no nonalcoholic champagne or cider. There were no close friends, no family. It was just the two of us, and the ship was so close. Q: Mokhtar, you’ve done a fair amount of public speaking, and you’d given presentations many times to various audience before meeting Dave. How was that kind of storytelling different than what you did with Dave for the book? Eggers gives his hero a lot of thematic baggage to carry, but it is hard to resist the derring-do of the Horatio Alger of Yemenite coffee.There was no room in the apartment for bookshelves, but on a shelf in the tiny kitchen pantry, below the canned goods and above the shelf that held the pasta and Sazón Goya seasoning, Mokhtar had carved out a home for the books he’d found. The world of coffee connoisseurs and that big budget high culture society is nicely illustrated throughout The Monk of Mokha. The words “toasty” and “fruity” are rampant, and Mokhtar needs to become part of that culture. Certainly the story Eggers wants to tell here involves the heroic journey Mokhtar takes from being an aimless 20-something Yemeni immigrant to an empire king who brings the beans to the United States from Yemen at the risk of his own life. The deeper story is political, and Eggers makes that clear: