Hunger for hope

The release of Bret Lott’s new memoir Gather the Olives: On Food and Hope and the Holy Land (Slant Books) has curious timing. Not long after he finished the manuscript for this irenic book about life in Jerusalem, Hamas launched its attack on Israel, precipitating the current war. Some readers might feel Gather the Olives had an unfortunate release date. Others will see it as an urgent reminder of what we must recover.

Lott is a bestselling author of both fiction and nonfiction, and his novel Jewel was an Oprah Book Club selection. He’s also unapologetically Christian, and it’s through the lens of evangelical Christianity that Lott views the Holy Land.

Gather the Olives begins in the restaurant of a guesthouse in which Lott stayed during one of his trips to Israel. He’s tired from an all-night flight to Israel, but he finds rest and peace as he considers the bountiful breakfast before him—a buffet overflowing with fruits, vegetables, breads, and cheeses.

Lott has a keen eye for detail, allowing readers to feel they’re reliving his experience, and his prose contains the sensibilities of literary fiction. There’s an immediacy to his words, and he often relies on sentence fragments to speed us along this leisurely journey through various meals and jaunts in the Holy Land. There’s a subtlety that provides space for readers to ponder. Why does he tell us about his breakfast at the guesthouse? Are we meant to be reminded of the feast in God’s kingdom that likewise offers rest and peace? Doesn’t Jerusalem mean “City of Peace”?

Throughout the book, Lott marvels that he’s living in the same land described in the Bible. The topography is littered with constant reminders of the mighty deeds of King David, the prophets, and Jesus. It’s also littered with relics of the Israeli state’s embattled reality.

Using Lott’s eyes, we see both beautiful diversity and troubling tensions that wrestle with each other in the Holy Land. He introduces us to Jewish and Muslim women who work hand in hand. We’re invited to a traditional Sabbath dinner that conveys joy through ceremony. We follow Lott’s family on an ill-advised trip to Palestinian Bethlehem where they experience grace in the midst of danger. We even go on a quest to surreptitiously buy pork.

Lott’s enthusiasm for Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside betrays a certain naïveté, but it’s a self-aware naïveté. Though he spends months living in Israel, he never loses a tourist’s sense of awe. Gather the Olives examines that awe and Lott’s hope that one day Jerusalem will truly become the city of peace it’s destined to be.