Storytelling
is an important aspect in any form of writing because it takes hold of
the reader and transports them into another world. Jeff Talarigo takes
storytelling one-step further with the use of animal speakers and the
importance of endurance in his work, In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees. Talarigo is the author of In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees (Etruscan Press, 2018), The Ginseng Hunter, (Anchor, 2008), and The Pearl Diver (Anchor, 2004).
Jeff Talarigo’s experiences gave him a new understanding of the world
around him. “I was working as an intern for the MacNeil Lehrer News hour
back in 1988 and I started to read about the Palestinian uprising, the
intifada, and I didn’t feel that the whole story was there. I spent a
couple of years reading as much as I could on the Israeli occupation,
and then, after working as a journalist for about a year and a half, I
bought a backpack, an airplane ticket, and with $900 in my pocket I
went, for three months by land to the West Bank, Gaza, Egypt and Sudan
and back. That first trip I went with the mindset of a journalist, but
then, three years later I returned for an extended stay in Gaza and
lived with a Palestinian family in Jabaliya Refugee Camp, the setting
for In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees. It was on this second
trip that I saw two boys playing with a bird on a string and this is
what started me on the road to becoming a novelist and write this book
as fiction. I felt, and still do, that a novel has more truth in it than
a piece of non-fiction,” Talarigo says.
“I didn’t consciously decide to have animals talking in the book, but
one day, after six years working on the novel, I sat down and began
writing a story ('The Night Guardian of the Goat'), and I wrote
nearly 4,000 words and in the story I had a goat that could talk.
Much of In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees was written in a fabulous
bookstore, the Coop at Harvard Square, and as I walked home that day I
was wondering where the hell that story and the talking goat came
from. I had a friend read the story, and she liked it, and
eventually it was published in the Boston-based literary journal, AGNI.
For the most part, it was this talking goat that propelled me to write
about the Gaza Zoo and the tunnels using, at times, animals as
narrators,” says Talarigo.
“As part of my research for all of my books, I read a lot of fiction,
poetry and folklore from the country that I am going to be writing about
and this helps to get me into the mindset of the people, their
traditions, culture and way of life,” Talarigo says.
Creating stories and folklore have an enormous impact on both the author
and the reader because it evokes the feeling of magic and mystery. “For
me, the magic moments in writing, like the talking goat story, which
sort of wrote itself, come not from a preconceived symbol, such as I
want this goat to represent such and such, but from those sudden bursts
of writing. I feel that if I had had the idea that I wanted the goat to
represent a certain thing, then, for me, it would have felt forced,
unnatural. My best writing, and I believe this is true for a lot of
writers, are those magic moments when a story takes over the writer,
those are truly spiritual moments. Thus, you get a book where goats and
sheep and gazelles and birds can talk. An example of this is, when
I was in Gaza, numerous times I saw goats standing on their hind legs,
their front legs braced against a wall as they reached for some leaves
to eat. That image was in my mind for years before I wrote the story
'The Night Guardian of the Goat',” Talarigo says.
One of the unique features in Jeff Talarigo’s work is the different stories and storytellers throughout it. “In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees,
I believe, is more of a novel, although not traditional, than a short
story collection. The Gaza Zoo, Shafiq the veterinarian, the American,
and the theme of homelessness are the threads that I have used to
loosely hold and pull it all together. I ended up putting them in
somewhat of a chronological order, certainly the first story set in 1948
and the final story set in about 2011 are the anchors,” says Talarigo.
“I love telling stories in nontraditional ways, nonlinear, written in
short scenes. Back in my early days of writing fiction, I read Michael
Ondaatje’s In the Skin of the Lion and the writing, both the
prose and the structure just blew me away. That book freed me from
the shackles of having to tell a plot driven story, a linear story; it
gave me a huge amount of confidence to write books that are language
driven, using short scenes and images to engage the reader. I was not a
prolific reader growing up; in fact, I did not read any literature
until the age of 25. After going through some deep personal problems, a
one room library in Ohio became my reprieve and I immersed myself in
literature. Many of the writers that I admire write books similar to
this: Ondaatje, Colum McCann, J.M. Coetzee, Mercè Rodoreda, John
Edgar Wideman, to name a few. These writers have been my mentors, for I
have never taken a creative writing class in my life and much of my
learning about the craft has come through reading and writing everyday,”
Talarigo says.
A heavily emphasized theme throughout In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees
is endurance. Talarigo says, “Next year will be the 70th year of the
Palestinian diaspora and a majority of them have been living in refugee
camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon the entire time. I
do not think there is, or has been, a story such as this in the
world. For me, the Palestinian story is a story of endurance and
steadfastness. I think all lives are a test of
endurance. Some of us, however, have a much heavier burden to
carry. The stories that I am most interested in are these people
and their strength to go on under such an enormous burden. We love to
label people, and I hope that we come to the realization that living
one’s life hauling around a label is a heavy burden to carry,” says
Talarigo.
“I love to witness history. With all my books, not only this one, I am
inspired by the people whose stories I am telling. I am truly blessed
for I have met some of the great people in the world, the true heroes in
our lives – the leprosy patients in Japan, the North Korean refugees,
and the Palestinians in Gaza – and they have opened up their lives to me
and I have had the honor of writing about them. My books take a long
time to research and write – In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees
took over eight years - and if I am not passionate about what I am
writing I could never have the endurance to carry through till the end,”
says Talarigo.
“The Palestinians in Gaza changed me as a person; they have made me a
much more compassionate and open-minded observer and empathetic
person. I find it sadly ironic that these people, strangled with
the label of terrorists, have taught me so much about being a better
person, about humanity, about the important things in life. I am deeply
indebted to the people of Gaza, both as a person and as a writer,”
Talarigo says.
One of the most important parts of writing is remembering the origin of
the story. Any aspiring writer interested in writing a story similar to
In the Cemetery of the Orange Trees should follow this advice. “Steep
yourself in the people’s culture and their literature, have an enormous
amount of passion for whatever you are writing about, and see with your
own eyes,” says Talarigo.
Ashlee Harry is pursuing her B.A. in English: Professional Writing
from Penn State Berks and served as an intern with Etruscan Press.
She currently resides in Edwardsville, Pennsylvania.
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