The Monk of Mokha

Fasten your seatbelt because once you start reading Dave Eggers’ book titled, The Monk of Mokha, you will not want to stop. Eggers introduces us to Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a young Yemeni American whose journey through life changes dramatically after he finds passion about coffee from Yemen. Mokhtar knew nothing about coffee from Yemen when he drifted into this passion, and once he learned all he could, he hustled and bargained and found every way possible to bring the fine coffee from Yemen to the coffee lovers of the world. Along the way, he finds himself in Yemen when Saudi bombs are falling on the country, and he uses every means possible to get out of the country with a hundred pounds of beans to process and present to tasters at a conference in Seattle. Eggers clearly got hooked by Mokhtar’s passion, and uses his finely written prose to tell us all an inspirational story.

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

As a coffee roaster, this book kept me reading straight from cover to cover. There's a fair amount of background of the main character which precedes his coffee interest, but helps you later understand the unusual skill/experience set which helped him succeed in a complicated & dangerous environment. I jumped into the book not knowing if it was fact or fiction; and half way thru had to read the back cover for confirmation that this was biographical.

I struggled to make my way through this audiobook, but the reader's aggravating breathless awestruck delivery of every sentence thwarted my attempts. It's a mundane non-fiction report about coffee history and commodity pricing, at least at the beginning, so why the jaw-dropping amazement at every line? The author suggests that any decent human being should "step up" and pay eight dollars for a cup of arabica coffee - its "real price" - so than Yemeni farmers can get paid fairly for growing coffee instead of khat. Maybe I'm morally bereft, but I'm quite happy with my daily two cups of Taster's Choice instant for 15 cents a cup or whatever it costs. No, I don't care about the fate of Yemeni farmers; if they prefer to grow khat, that's fine with me. This is the same reader for this author's earlier book The Circle and I couldn't make it through that one for the same reason.

What brought my attention to this book in the first place was, I heard the interview of Mokhtar Alkhanshali on NPR's Fresh Air. I have read Dave Egger's, "What is the What" and found that fascinating, and listening to this interview really peaked my interest in reading about this young man he writes about in :The Monk of Mokha". Eggers did not disappoint. His writing is suburb in conveying the life of Alkhanshali and his pursuit. I'm not a huge reader, I read somewhere between 15 to 20 books a year, and this is the best I've read so far this year. It will definitely go into my ten best books I've ever read list and will always be a suggested read if someone says they need a good book to read.

This was a book about coffee. It was an excellent read. I found his story interesting. I don’t think I would ever spend sixteen dollars on a cup of coffee, wine maybe. I’m actually a tea drinker.

Monk of Mokha exceeded my expectations. This unique story weaves together coffee, war torn Yemen, and Northern California in an eventful, exciting, educating, and entertaining story. If you are looking for something different to read, I would definitely recommend Monk of Mokha. If you’re from the Bay Area how could you not!

The topic looked intriguing, so I hopped aboard. The first few pages promised to set up a page-turning saga. But then came page 17, and my journey turned into a train wreck. I know what you're thinking: "How can you review a book after reading just 17 pages?!" And normally I would agree. But let me tell you about page 17.

The prose on this particular page is not especially dramatic. It’s just a simple description of a man-made island in the San Francisco Bay, where our Yemini-American protagonist Mokhtar attended middle school. But, having grown up in the Bay Area, my jaw dropped in disbelief as I read Eggers’ invented history of Treasure Island. According to Eggers, the island was built as a U.S. Navy base in 1936, the base was decommissioned after World War II, and then the “powers that be” renamed it Treasure Island in order to advance commercial real estate ventures.

But every single fact in that description is wrong. The island was actually built for the 1939 World’s Fair, and only later became a U.S. Navy base. The base was operational from 1941 to 1997, not just during World War II. And, contrary to Eggers' outlandish assertion that the island was renamed "after a book about murderous pirates" to make it more alluring to potential purchasers, it has been called Treasure Island since the base was established 76 years ago.

I cannot fathom how Eggers got such a well-known and easily verifiable bit of history so dramatically wrong, especially since he now makes his home in the Bay Area. But as I read and re-read the paragraph (and looked up Treasure Island just to be sure I hadn't missed some little-known history lesson), I flashed back to the past controversies about Dave Eggers’ books (such as Zeitoun and The Circle, both of which I enjoyed immensely).

In reading fiction, one must be able to suspend disbelief. For non-fiction, it’s just the opposite. One must be able to trust that the author is being honest and truthful, and accurately reporting the facts. If that trust proves misplaced, a book – along with its author – is ruined. A voice in the back of one's mind will second-guess everything: "Is that true?" "Did that really happen?" "How do I know you are not getting this wrong, too?"

I have enjoyed Eggers’ writing, controversies notwithstanding, but this off-base paragraph was a deal-breaker. Carelessness with the facts at such an elemental level made me hit the brakes.

The topic looked intriguing, so I hopped aboard. The first few pages promised to set up a page-turning saga. But then came page 17, and my journey turned into a train wreck. I know what you're thinking: "How can you review a book after reading just 17 pages?!" And normally I would agree. But let me tell you about page 17.

The prose on this particular page is not especially dramatic. It’s just a simple description of a man-made island in the San Francisco Bay, where our Yemini-American protagonist Mokhtar attended middle school. But, having grown up in the Bay Area, my jaw dropped in disbelief as I read Eggers’ invented history of Treasure Island. According to Eggers, the island was built as a U.S. Navy base in 1936, the base was decommissioned after World War II, and then the “powers that be” renamed it Treasure Island in order to advance commercial real estate ventures.

But every single fact in that description is wrong. The island was actually built for the 1939 World’s Fair, and only later became a U.S. Navy base. The base was operational from 1941 to 1997, not just during World War II. And, contrary to Eggers' outlandish assertion that the island was renamed "after a book about murderous pirates" to make it more alluring to potential purchasers, it has been called Treasure Island since the base was established 76 years ago.

I cannot fathom how Eggers got such a well-known and easily verifiable bit of history so dramatically wrong, especially since he now makes his home in the Bay Area. But as I read and re-read the paragraph (and looked up Treasure Island just to be sure I hadn't missed some little-known history lesson), I flashed back to the past controversies about Dave Eggers’ books (such as Zeitoun and The Circle, both of which I enjoyed immensely).

In reading fiction, one must be able to suspend disbelief. For non-fiction, it’s just the opposite. One must be able to trust that the author is being honest and truthful, and accurately reporting the facts. If that trust proves misplaced, a book – along with its author – is ruined. A voice in the back of one's mind will second-guess everything: "Is that true?" "Did that really happen?" "How do I know you are not getting this wrong, too?"

I have enjoyed Eggers’ writing, controversies notwithstanding, but this off-base paragraph was a deal-breaker. Carelessness with the facts at such an elemental level made me hit the brakes.

Being an avid coffee drinker, I really enjoyed this book, which covered many subjects. History, immigration, travel, war, suspense, hope, and disadvantaged kid makes good! A fine read, give it a whirl, you might learn something...I did.

There is absolutely nothing exciting about a man always seeking success, always encountering trouble but failing to achieve it without using other people and their money. Love Eggers, but I hated the book, read it because I was researching coffee. Eggers could have spent his time writing about more worthy people and their endeavors.