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25th out of 34 books
—
21 voters
Oil & Water
by
Steve Duin,
Shannon Wheeler (Goodreads Author), Bill McKibben
When ten Oregonians travel to the Gulf Coast in August 2010 to plumb the devastation wrought by the Deepwater Horizon spill, they discover that “Oil and Water” is just the first of the insoluble contradictions. Between the tarred sands of Grand Isle and the fouled waters of the Louisiana bayou, they come to find out that Gulf Coast residents are economically dependent upon...more
Hardcover, 120 pages
Published
December 5th 2011
by Fantagraphics
(first published October 31st 2011)
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This book is coming out in September, hence I am considering it a birthday gift to ME!
Because, you might not know this but Shannon Wheeler and I are pretty much best friends, as evidenced by this one time when I said to him, "congratulations on your nomination."* to which he replied, "thanks". And I wont even get into that crazy time we had together when I ordered something from him and then he sent it to me.
And now this book is coming out during my birthday month. I think it's pretty obvious wh...more
Because, you might not know this but Shannon Wheeler and I are pretty much best friends, as evidenced by this one time when I said to him, "congratulations on your nomination."* to which he replied, "thanks". And I wont even get into that crazy time we had together when I ordered something from him and then he sent it to me.
And now this book is coming out during my birthday month. I think it's pretty obvious wh...more
After hearing the creators speak at WonderCon 2011, I was excited for the release of this book but sadly, I was pretty disappointed with it. While its aim is ambitious and admirable, I felt like it only just barely skimmed the surface of the experiences of those who were most affected by the BP oil spill and emphasized the experiences of the Oregon group who traveled to New Orleans. And while it's valuable to write about the experiences of folks and their learning process, it felt a bit more lik...more
Um grupo de eco-turistas visita o golfo do méxico para conhecer as sequelas a médio prazo da catástrofe na plataforma Deepwater Horizon. Segue-se uma litania de comunidades piscatórias com fortíssimas diminuições dos stocks de pescas, praias contaminadas, aves a ser salvas do petróleo entranhado nas penas e uma leve reflexão sobre o entrosamento entre o petróleo e a economia da zona. Leveza é a palavra chave deste livro, que olha para um assunto complexo e polémico de forma tão discreta que mal...more
I think that maybe the writer heavily focused the plot on the group of travelling Oregonians who narrate this story as a way of saying something like: this is just one of many accounts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (at some point they mention that their purpose is "to bear witness"). But the Oregonians are not terribly interesting or effective as narrators (they are rather clueless throughout the narrative), and their moments of reflection as they witness the disaster just end up seeming a...more
Important environmental story being told here about Oregonians from KEEN who traveled to help and give advice to folks in the Gulf after BP created the oil tragedy. Told in pieces, episodically, which feels interesting in theory, as it is a story of many people, fragmented in many ways... but it doesn't connect emotionally for me as I wish it would... given the importance of the topic...Beautifully done, and the anecdotes feel real and not sentimentalized, surprising in places such as delving in...more
Largely letdown by this one. There's nothing bad per se in this book. The art is good, it's well-written and there's great potential for a compelling story. Trouble is there are too many layers to the real story here. We're seeing everything filtered through a journalist and all of that is filtered through the viewpoints of a group of activists. So we unfortunately see and hear very little about the people fully hit by the BP oil spill. There are a small handful of moments towards the end where...more
This book is a good read, pulling you into a better understanding of the horrible Deep Water Horizon spill and its effects on the people, economy and ecology of the Gulf Coast. It's also a great example of how a graphic novel* approach can be so much more powerful that prose. It also shows how including the journalists in the narrative can be more effective than the traditional pretense of an omniscient and invisible reporter.[return][return]Wheeler's illustrations are excellent. At Steven Duin'...more
Its cast of characters and narrative doesn't really take you anywhere, but it does drive home the ramifications of the oil spill. It makes you discouraged. All that greed, all that indifference. Sometimes, no matter how much is being done, it's a fool's errand. But... it's the human spirit that demands some kind of remonstrative action be made, even if it is not being done by the people responsible for it.
It's like oil and water...
It's like oil and water...
Bits and pieces of the BP oil spill's aftermath are captured in this graphic novel. The most powerful pages are not the illustrated ones, however, but the intermittent pages of text which cover facts about the spill, oil and the environment in more detail. A quick read, but as stirring as I'd anticipated.
Finally sat down tonight and read this graphic novel about the 2010 BP oil spill. Steve Duin is a local columnist here in Oregon and I enjoy his column. I missed him at Powell's when he promoted this book and I am bummed because I get the sense that there is much more to this story. Much of it is lost in this form though and the best parts of the book are the pages that list/summarize facts about the area since the oil spill.
Starts off strong, but then gets slightly cliche and peters out.
Powerful but too disjointed and episodic.
Apr 22, 2013
Aaron
marked it as to-read
Mar 20, 2013
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