Wizardness

This book, The Message, is something of a personal journey for Coates. Like Between the World and Me is written as a letter. This time to a writing class rather than his son. However, it does make the reader feel more intimately connected to what Coates is discussing than if he hadn’t used that style. I think the connection is important, given how complicated the series of topics he discusses in this book.

The first section is just generally discussing how he feels about writing and his own fears as a teacher and student. It’s somewhat humbling to read a man as well regarded as Coates is wrapped up in his own self-doubts and uncertainties. I guess we’re all human and this humanizes this great writer.

Next section is about a trip to Dakar and the Gate of No Return. It is full of self reflection and melancholy. His sense of loss and grief were particularly strongly felt in this section. He seemed almost wistful as he described memories of his own childhood and how that impacted him each time he went down to the ocean.

The last section was one of the main reasons why I picked up this book. As someone that has long felt Israel is an apartheid, I was curious as to how someone so well read and experienced as a journalist was so ignorant of Israel and Palestine. His contemplation of what he had seen reflected what my own trips to Israel and Palestine had shown me.

I did not have the same tour guides as him and in fact, I was generally offered only the perspective of the Israeli, as I was there for work and I was working at an Israeli company.

Coates comments regarding the betrayal of his fellow journalists highlights why he was ignorant. It highlights why most Americans cannot and do not believe there is an apartheid in Israel. Coates notes, towards the end of the book, how the two peoples are discussed in media. Palestinian voices are shut down and all discussions of Palestine are written by non-Palestinian voices.

Overall, I thought this book was fantastically written. I learned quite a lot about Palestine and Israel. Including the fact that the City of David was an Iron Age village some 200 years after David ruled Israel. This wasn’t the only myth creating efforts Coates describes nor that I saw personally.

It was refreshing to be provide a point of view that aligned with my own view. It was refreshing to see a man go through the painful process of learning something he believed to be true was not true. That he owed people for causing them harm, through his own ignorance. It was refreshing to see such a bold stand taken in a book like this.

If you are unaware, Coates had to deal with significant pushback during his press tour and racism during that tour. This was a risk for him to publish, even more than some of his books, which are often relegated to less mainstream sections of book stores. The message by its topic and writing style should be closer to mainstream sections in book stores.

I recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand the ongoing genocide in Gaza. I recommend this book to anyone that believes we should continue arming Israel. I recommend this book to anyone that is voting. It’s a well written book and it is one that will challenge you.