Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island
By: Earl Swift / Narrated By: Tom Parks
Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
Jeepers! Almost 13 hrs of wanting to throttle people…!
I read one review of Chesapeake Requiem that said it was all Trump Bashing…
I disagree. Earl Swift goes to great lengths not to step on the toes of the people of Tangier Island; he obviously feels great respect and fondness for them, and he tiptoes around so carefully, it’s plain that he’s writing so as not to offend them when they read his work.
I mean, it’s exasperating when you listen to almost 13 hours of people who have zippo self-awareness, and he doesn’t try to enlighten them in any way, shape or form. They, to a single man (there was only ONE holdout) voted for Trump, the individual who claims climate change is a hoax, - climate change: the reason they’re losing their island. And when they say they stand behind him and he tells them not to worry, that Tangier Island has been around for 200 years, it’ll be around for 200 more—they’re totally okay with that. He said it; that means God said it.
Rage. I hate to admit it, but when the book didn’t have me bored to tears (crabs, crabs living, crabs dying, crabs served in stew, crabs mating, crabs of all shapes and sizes… 12+ hours on CRABS), I felt rage. We all have to change and adapt in our lives; what makes the people of Tangier Island feel that they are the only ones who have a right not to? To them, it’s all about the most limiting, least-tolerant, image of God.
They condemn in the name of God. They isolate and alienate in the name of God. They trash each other’s churches in the name of God. And well, they voted in the name of God, so I guess they’re going to get what they voted for… in the name of God…
Okay, so I’ll get off my political soapbox, but seriously. The audiobook? Well-narrated, but not lively enough to get past the tedium of crabs and more crabs. And so full of piety and hatred, it obviously had my teeth on edge.
There are some good eggs on the island, but they’re mostly women. And on Tangier Island, women are second-class citizens, subservient to their husbands and to men in general (though they clearly pull more than their own weight. At least they know how to go to the Post Office to send a letter…)
I really expected Chesapeake Requiem to be about good-hearted and hardworking people, striving to save their island and hopefully, part of their way of life. I thought they’d be driven and dedicated, striving for a future for their children.
Alas, they just want America to take care of them, changing not an iota, bending not an inch.
Well, God and Trump help them, ‘cause after I’d finished listening to them whining about how mistreated they are, I certainly felt done.
Listen if you want exasperation up to your eyeballs…
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.