Garrett's Reviews > Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America

Amity and Prosperity by Eliza Griswold
Rate this book
Clear rating

by
1721246
's review

it was ok

As a naturalist, scientist, environmentalist, and dyed-in-the-wool Leftist, this book should have been right up my alley. But given not only that it's a Pulitzer-winner, but also that the author spent 5 years in the region with her main subject - a nurse - and an abundance of scientists, the frequent inaccuracies, even if small, regarding both environmental and medical science are inexcusable for a prize-winning book. Whether by ignorance or by intellectual dishonesty, I don't know which one would be worse. Rather than provide a compelling argument or narrative, the author goes for cheap, eye-rolling sentimentality in this environmental science case study.

Not only is this bad investigative reporting, not only is it bad science journalism, but it's also bad in the same way that local interest stories written by nubile news anchors are bad. To boot, she arguably picked the wrong story to tell: the husband and wife legal team who actually took on Goliath is only obliquely referenced. Facing long odds, potential ruin of their reputation, personal danger, and at incredible financial risk - working pro-bono for many side cases, including on an actual contract with an entire municipality - this husband and wife team took the powerful natural gas lobby all the way to the Supreme Court, and won! That's not interesting enough to be the main story of a book? Instead, it's the continuous suffering of a local rural family who, for whatever reason, are painted as an anomaly in their own town?

So many questions are raised by how this story is told: if fracking is so bad, and its poisoning is so prevalent, then why is it that the children are the only ones who seem to be sick at school? Why can't the mother's co-workers relate? Why do they seem to be so isolated in their experience?
There is a surely a good reason - I happen to know why fracking is bad because of my own ties to family in Oklahoma - but Griswold never clarifies that. For that matter, I have no idea if Griswold bothered interviewing other town members other than the neighbors.

Perhaps the trials and tribulations of a wealthy, local, lawyer power couple wasn't good enough for a literary audience so removed from reality that they'll happily give out awards for fetishizing white poverty. Taking on fracking and corporate energy interests is noble, and fracking is awful for the environment, but important work is different than a well-executed work. The irony is Griswold proves the opposing, local argument regarding outsiders: they don't understand the issues involved, and they don't understand what is valuable to their communities.

Rural America is worth protecting, and because fracking is awful, and because these topics are indeed important, these topics deserved better than a bad understanding of science nested within an exploitative melodrama.

I would have given this two stars, but it won a Pulitzer prize, and compared against its peers, it falls to one.
5 likes · flag

Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read Amity and Prosperity.
Sign In »

Reading Progress

March 1, 2020 – Shelved
March 1, 2020 – Shelved as: to-read
April 8, 2020 – Started Reading
April 8, 2020 –
20.0% "I'm surprised that this book was nominated for any kind of award in science and technology. The science is simplistic, and her reporting of medical illness is sometimes incorrectly characterized. To me, it's clear the author understands only a little about science, technology, and medicine - just enough, apparently, to win a major award."
April 15, 2020 –
25.0% ""
June 6, 2020 – Finished Reading

Comments Showing 1-1 of 1 (1 new)

dateDown arrow    newest »

Austin If possible could you go into detail on the inaccuracies? I cannot seem to find anyone who took the time to address any claims made in the book or analyze if this story was told in a truthful way.


back to top