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Magnificent Obsessions
A writer's view of war, food, and honor
by Kate Bernhardt
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 I caught up with Bob Shacochis at the Hemingway Centennial Conference at Boston's JFK Library in April 1999. Bob's a big, bearded, burly, avid outdoorsman -- just like Hemingway. Also like Hemingway, he's created a writing career that combines journalism, fiction, and commentary in an unmistakable, original voice.
Bob's most recent book, The Immaculate Invasion, is a first-person account of the U.S. incursion into Haiti -- a war he reluctantly covered when his wife suggested that accepting the assignment would be "good for his career." (He'd been hoping she'd say he was too precious to her for him to get into such a dangerous situation.) In 1985, Bob won the American Book Award for his short-story collection, Easy in the Islands, which drew upon his Peace Corps experience as an agricultural journalist on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean. His passion for the tropics was also tapped in his novel, Swimming in the Volcano. He's had a long-time relationship with Harper's magazine, and he's just back from a trip to Kosovo and Albania to research a piece on the trend of using military force in humanitarian operations.
A serious Hemingway/Shacochis comparison falls apart, however, when you consider some of his other works: he's author of Domesticity, A Gastronomic Interpretation of Love (Booklist described it as Dave Barry meets Calvin Trillin meets MFK Fisher) and editor of Drinking, Smoking, and Screwing: Great Writers on Good Times. Bob's also a contributing editor for Outside magazine and has a food column in GQ. And, of course, Hemingway was always surrounded by cats, and Bob's a dog person.
Still, you have to wonder what a meeting between Hemingway and Shacochis would be like. Since Bob insists on sole domain of the kitchen, he'd cook, no question. Hemingway would bring the booze. And the conversation -- well, it would have to be about drinking, smoking, and screwing, wouldn't it?
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Meet world traveler, award-winning fiction writer and journalist, Bob Shacochis, in this video clip.
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Bob Shacochis
;)
