Authors of memoirs are, of necessity, self-absorbed to an extent. Those who write travel memoirs have the added duty of artfully blending self-preoccupation with revelations of foreign lands, the effects of the exotic on the mundanity and epiphanies of the author's soul-searching. It is the "otherness" of the context that makes a travel memoir a travel memoir. Even a trip to the Miramar landfill could be an exquisite trek, if so written.
Such is the challenge for debut author and San Diego resident Leeana Tankersley in "Found Art: Discovering Beauty in Foreign Places," written about her year in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Tankersley follows in the path of some formidable contemporary trailblazers ---- Paul Theroux ("The Great Railway Bazaar," Houghton, 1975), Frances Mayes ("Under the Tuscan Sun," Chronicle Books, 1996), Elizabeth Gilbert ("Eat, Pray, Love," Viking 2006) and others. These seasoned authors have spilled their guts in places they made readers yearn to see, although Gilbert was criticized for an excess of navel contemplation. Yet she dished up her lint with abundant, rich flavors of Italy, rural India, lush and lewd Bali. You could smell them, taste them, roll in their essences, albeit while wallowing through Gilbert's droning complaints about the discomfort of prolonged meditation. But still, she had the reader there with her.
Tankersley takes a different approach that will satisfy some and leave others wishing for more.
In 2003, the Iraq War under way, Tankersley married a Navy SEAL and accompanied him on the second half of a two-year deployment to Bahrain. The author shows us glimpses of a culture that has come to haunt the United States, hints of a Muslim world that once delighted us with "Tales of One Thousand and One Nights" and that, since 2001, has become the focal point of the world's collective fear of terrorism. And Bahrain, even with its relatively progressive elected legislature and women's suffrage, has much to reveal to the West about the lands of Islam, the social mores and tribes, the wearing of the abaya.
In Tankersley's book, readers catch whiffs of the Bahraini curry, the teeming odors of the market, the mystery beneath the abaya, but they don't get to partake as frequently or as fully as a greedy reader would like. Tankersley does not reveal a panoramic view of Bahrain in its many cultural colors. Instead, she shares a handful of location vignettes ---- some of them beautifully written ---- that lend meaning to her spiritual journey. It is a voyage rife with fear and angst that hold her focus inward, in search of healing.
This restricted view is sure to frustrate the reader expecting a true travel memoir. But "Found Art" is really something else: It is the story of one woman's search for self and faith as she battles doubts of her own worth, her relationship with her god and her marriage to a military man. It just happens that the battle is fought in Bahrain ---- and in San Diego, upon her husband's redeployment. About this battle, Tankersley is alternately eloquent, droll and dreary in her description of her sense of loss and quest for inner peace.
For readers seeking a Christian story of spiritual growth, the book is likely to be far more satisfying ---- as it might be for military spouses who know Tankersley's struggle to accommodate the unknown of her husband's frequent absences and life-threatening career. She bravely reveals the darkest depths of her fears and her efforts to resolve them ---- and she even includes in the book a list of discussion prompts that display some wisdom.
Yet there are moments in which Tankersley leaves the reader wondering if she is truly so naive or if her understanding of the Middle East is simply superficial. She writes of the Iraq War with the conviction of a true believer in weapons of mass destruction as its motivation, despite what is known today. She shares the joy of a down-to-earth shawarma wrapped in warm pita, yet writes of the cloaked Bahraini women who "didn't seem real to me most of the time." She describes the freedom she experiences donning an abaya to visit the Grand Mosque in Juffair, with barely a nod to the polemic icon the cover represents. Juxtaposed with recounting the birth and martyrdom of Jesus Christ, she describes a wrong turn that lands her in the middle of a Shi'a martyr commemoration ---- a solemn day she blithely refers to as a "celebration," oblivious to, or perhaps uninterested in, the ripe opportunity for cultural comparison. Instead, she focuses again on her fear, allowing the reader only a cursory peek at this important ritual.
Ultimately, however, this most significant weakness in "Found Art" might be the fault of the publisher ---- for mislabeling the book's genre: "spiritual memoir" would have been more accurate.
There are also a few technical issues with "Found Art": erroneous shifts in tense and cliched metaphors among them, but they more likely reflect the lack of competent editing than the competence of the author.
Despite any weaknesses, Tankersley's foray into publishing is the courageous act of a fearful woman ---- and a blossoming writer and person. As a spiritual tale, "Found Art" will speak to many; as a travel memoir, it is a whisper.
Kit-Bacon Gressitt is a writer and host of Fallbrook's free, monthly Writers Read, with featured authors and open-mike readings of poetry and prose. She can be reached at kbgressitt@aol.com.
"Found Art: Discovering Beauty in Foreign Places"
** (out of four)
Author: Leeana Tankersley
Website: www.gypsyink.com
Publisher: Zondervan 2009
Binding: Hardcover and e-book
Pages: 224
Price: $16.99 hardcover; e-books vary
