Book Review: Oil And Water...And Other Things That Don’t Mix
by Nicky Wheeler Brown and Zetta Brown
Publication Date: Dec 15, 2010
List Price: $14.99
Format: Paperback, 246 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781905091850
Imprint: LL-Publications
Publisher: LL-Publications
Parent Company: LL-Publications
Read a Description of Oil And Water...And Other Things That Don’t Mix
Book Reviewed by Robert Fleming
If you take a trip to the once-scenic Gulf Coast, you will see there is
more to be done in the restoration and rejuvenation of the area. The mammoth
oil spill, resulting from the deadly Deepwater Horizon explosion on April
20, 2010, not only devastated the families of the workers on that oil rig
but wreaked havoc on the lives of the citizens and wildlife along the Gulf.
This anthology, Oil and Water and Other Things That Don’t Mix,
is an honorable endeavor, piloted by editors Zetta Brown and Nicky
Wheeler-Nicholson Brown, to raise funds for
The Bay Area Food Bank and
MOBILE Baykeeper, two fine agencies sustaining the communities near the
oil-tainted water. The editors gathered up a stunning group of poets,
bloggists, journalists, and authors, new and old, to entertain readers for a
good cause.
Supported by an effective foreword by Mary W. Rowe of the
New Orleans Institute for
Resilience and Innovation and an engaging preface by the editors, one of
the collection’s greatest strengths are its essays, highly personal,
reflective and environmentally aware. Hear the power and determination in
the essays of Lissa Brown’s "Recipe for Disaster," Molly Cox Bryan’s
"Renegade Vegetarian," Amy Wise's "Sewer" Candy Store, and Nicky
Wheeler-Nicholson Brown’s "Lost Bay."
Take note of Karen Pickell’s candid essay, "An Ordinary Difference" when she
confesses she’s not an environmentalist or suited to wash oil off pelicans
with dish soap. Like most Americans, she’s just one of the "ordinary people
who love our cars." Very honest, indeed.
The poems, by such talents as Patricia Anne McGoldrick, Maureen E. Doeallas,
Carl Palmer, Tynia Thomassie, and L.B. Gschwandtner, permit the reader to
catch a breath between the dynamic essays and stories. Every line in these
works conveys the terrible human toll placed by an insensitive corporation
on the Gulf’s residents. But nowhere is the collective heartbeat of this
community felt in this anthology than its short stories and a sampler from
an autobiography, with its daring practitioners: Mary Larkin, Kelly
Martineau, Cherie Reich, Shonell Bacon, Jarvis Slacks, John Klawitter, Linda
Lou, Ginger McKnight-Chavers, and Zetta Brown.
There have been several collections and commentary about the oil spill
disaster, but this is a truly enthralling one. Edited by the Browns (no
relation), this poignant anthology on the brave people and that majestic
place by the Gulf is guaranteed to make you share in the beauty and sadness
of this tragic situation. Please buy it and do a very good thing.