December 2022 MBR The International Studies Shelf

The International Studies Shelf

Ships In The Desert
Jeff Fearnside
Santa Fe Writer's Project
https://www.sfwp.com
9781951631154, $14.95, PB, 136pp

https://www.amazon.com/Ships-Desert-SFWP-Literary-Awards/dp/1951631153

Synopsis: "Ships In The Desert" is a linked essay collection, with which author Jeff Fearnside analyzes his four years as an educator on the Great Silk Road, primarily in Kazakhstan.

Peeling back the layers of culture, environment, and history that define the country and its people, Fearnside creates a compelling narrative about this faraway land and soon realizes how the local, personal stories are, in fact, global stories.

Fearnside sees firsthand the unnatural disaster of the Aral Sea -- an under-reported, man-made environmental crisis that has devastated the region and impacts the entire world.

Fearnside also examines the sometimes controversial ethics of Western missionaries, and reflects on personal and social change once he returns to the States.
 
"Ships in the Desert" deftly explores the universal issues of religious bigotry, cultural intolerance, environmental degradation, and how a battle over water rights led to a catastrophe that is now being repeated around the world.

Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, the extraordinary essays that comprise "Ships In The Desert" creates a memorable and thought-provoking read from cover to cover. A welcome and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, and academic library collections, "Ships In The Desert" is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $1.49) for the personal reading lists of readers with an interest in India, environmental issues, travelogs, and the art of the essay.

Editorial Note: Jeff Fearnside (https://www.jeff-fearnside.com) is the author of the short-story collection Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air and the chapbook A Husband and Wife Are One Satan, winner of the Orison Chapbook Prize. Other awards for his writing include a Grand Prize in the Santa Fe Writers Projects Literary Awards Program, the Mary Mackey Short Story Prize, and an Individual Artist Fellowship award from the Oregon Arts Commission. His work has appeared in literary journals and anthologies such as The Paris Review, Los Angeles Review, Story, and many others.

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