Title: No Impact Man
Author: Colin Beavan
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September 2009
This book surprised me. I have read a LOT of the “My Year Of…” category of books, and I arrived at this one from a not-particularly positive commentary on the New York Times. I found myself with book in hand only a day or two after the library obtained it, in the unusual position of NOT having heard much about it.
I loved this book. I was not expecting much; it had been portrayed (I think unjustly) as an eco-stunt that detracted from people engaging with political processes to make things better. What I found instead was an author who was struggling with many of the same issues that haunt me, even though he is living a significantly different life from my own. I see at the beginning of this book a fellow human being seeking a way to make an immediate change in his own life to make up for feeling disengaged. (I don’t think I’m misrepresenting him here – you could read the book and find out!) I have tried to engage politically and have burned out repeatedly. This book has helped me reconnect, re-engage, and has rekindled my interest in the political actions necessary to support my own activities.
In a very simplistic review, I give it 5 stars! I have also started reading his blog and several that I found from his comments section.
Go, Colin!