Lives Less Valuable

by Derrick Jensen

Putting corporate disregard for ecology on trial, this novel follows Vexcorp, a wealthy corporation that, at a safe distance, counts both the lives of others and the health of the environment as expenses on a balance sheet—but that distance is about to collapse. Malia is an activist who has lost faith in systemic reform, and Dujuan is a street thug torn by grief at his younger sister’s death. When Dujuan mugs Malia, she compares him to Vexcorp, triggering a storm inside him. That storm only clears when he identifies the real agent of his pain: Larry Gordon, Vexcorp’s CEO. Injury requires justice, so Dujuan kidnaps Gordon and presents him to Malia for judgment. As bystanders become involved and time runs out, Malia is forced to make grueling moral decisions between survival and loyalty, safety and courage, and agency and despair.

Genres: Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Derrick Jensen is an American author and environmental activist living in Crescent City, California. He has published several books questioning and critiquing contemporary society and its values, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame. He holds a B.S. in Mineral Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University. He has also taught creative writing at Pelican Bay State Prison and Eastern Washington University.

Reviews

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think The Wire meets The Monkeywrench Gang .

[Suzanne Sibole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a slow burn of a book. It takes some getting used to the format of back and forth between two different times, but it tells an amazing story. I can't say much without spoilers, but if you're on the fence, read it. It's a quick read and extremely thought-provoking.

[Juanita · Rating 5 out of 5]

How does one act when placed between the rock of human dignity and the hard place of corporate capitalism?

[Carol Kuniholm · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up off the bookshelf of a young, radical friend, and found it a gripping story. As a novel, it draws the reader along, with unexpected plot twists and a diverse mix of characters. Malia, an environmental activist, joins forces with Duujan, a young man off the street who is grieving the loss of his young sister to environmental cancer. They look for ways to hold corporate polluters responsible for the lives they're costing. Intriguing? Definitely. Believable? Not so much. Moral? That's the question Derrick Jensen asks us to wrestle with. His own revolutionary opinion is seems a little too clear. I'm not sure violence is the answer to corporate malfeasance, but it's an interesting view into a particular perspective.