Not your usual fish wrap

The local literary world is beginning to adapt to a genre uncommon in Israel: journalist literature. Two prominent publishers, Am Oved and Kibbutz Hameuhad, apparently believe that Israeli readership is now open to non-fiction that focuses on subjects like society, economics, and culture - utterly civilian subjects which are unrelated to wars, spy scandals, or Iran's nuclear program.

Kibbutz Hameuhad has launched a new series of books entitled "Ka'et" ("Now"), edited by Orna Coussin and dedicated to original and translated journalist literature.

The first book in the series was recently published, a Hebrew translation of "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" by American journalist Eric Schlosser. Soon to appear in the series are a translation of Hillary Clinton's biography, a book by Haaretz music critic Noam Ben Ze'ev about the music of Jews and Palestinians in Israel, a translation of New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert's book about global warming, and "Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change" and "Umat Haritalin" ("Ritalin Nation") by Haaretz writer Dea Hadar.

Kazin will publish two books of her own: "Hummus, Chips, Salat, Veschnitzel" about the typical Israeli meal, and "Masa El Hanohut" ("Journey to Comfort"), which considers comfort as a value while examining products like Crocs footwear and IKEA furnishings (this book will be published by Babel Publishing House).

Concurrently, Am Oved is planning to publish two original works edited by Shguy Green in its journalist Mitziut series: A book by Shay Lahav about Israel Army Radio's Galgalatz station and a book by Poriya Gal about formerly religious Jews. To date, published books in the series (edited by Hanoch Marmari) have included "Neshikha Tzarfatit" ("French Bite" - a pun based on the similarity of the Hebrew words for bite and kiss, neshikha and neshika) by Haaretz writer Daniel Ben-Simon, about French Jewry in the shadow of anti-Semitism, and "Hamahala Hahee" ("That Disease") by Rahel Tal-Shir, about coping with cancer.

This series is the third of its type published by Am Oved, devoted to society and culture - the first two were "972" edited by Nir Baram and "Teuda" ("Document") edited by Ilana Hammerman. Several original titles have been released in recent years in conjunction with these series: "Police! Open Up! Migrant Workers in Israel," by Nurit Wurgaft; Ilana Hammerman's "In Foreign Parts: The Trafficking of Women in Israel"; a collection of articles entitled, "Adonei Hatarbut" ("Masters of Culture"), about creators of Israeli culture, and Haaretz Books Supplement Editor Dror Mishani's "Bekhol Hainyan Hamizrahi Yesh Aizeh Mashehu Absurd" ("There's Something Absurd in the Whole Issue of Mizrahi Jews").

Hebrew translations of several books which made waves in Israel also appeared on local shelves: "No Logo," by Naomi Klein, "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America," by Barbara Ehrenreich, "The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women," by Naomi Wolf, and "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century," by Thomas Friedman.

Journalist literature, which is fundamentally an American genre, is defined as writing that employs classic genres of journalism: interview, reportage, and profiles. "This is writing that includes fact-checking and validation of data," Kazin says. "It provides a view of society - a view that is very precise and also very legible - and it has to be written like a well-written book."

But with the exception of "No Logo," books of this type have failed to become major commercial successes in Israel. They don't even merit a separate shelf in most Israeli bookstores. "No Logo" is haphazardly filed on shelves with financial books, and "Fast Food Nation" may sometimes find itself on a shelf with nutritional guides. Kazin hopes this will change. "I met with representatives of Steimatzky and they promised to check the possibility of devoting a shelf to literature of this type."

Publishing house editors also confess they cannot pay journalists a reasonable salary over time to underwrite the writing of a book. "A journalist has to take an unpaid leave of absence to write a book of this type, and most journalists cannot afford that," Kazin says.

"At our publishing house, we can pay an advance of about two months' salary, but you need a year to work on a book like this. I met the journalist who wrote the biography of the inventor of the atomic bomb. He received an advance of $500,000 and worked on it for five years. Many journalists in the world turn to writing books because they are compensated for more words there than they are in the printed press. It appears that journalism, at its finest, did not disappear, but to a great extent turned toward writing books."

"We discuss this genre from time to time," says Dov Alphon, chief editor of Kinneret Publishing. "And we always come to the conclusion that the Israeli public likes to read its journalism in the newspaper, and its literature in books. Books about security, religion and state, and books by popular columnists stand a chance in Israel. 'No Logo' succeeded because it is a polemic book - it suggests a hypothesis. Books with journalistic theses might succeed, but not investigative books."