In this collection of 50 short essays on a wide variety of topics, the writer and thinker now living in Indianapolis reflects on everything from the banal like Diet Dr. Pepper, teddy bears, and Monopoly, to the profound like the Internet, CNN, smallpox vaccination, and viral meningitis.
All of the diverse topics are rated on a 1-5-star scale in this rambling, very relaxing discourse. His observations of the relationship of modern human beings to each other and to the rest of nature (hence the title) are delivered by the author, in the audiobook edition I listened to, in flowing, lilting sentences with clear enunciation and no accent that I could identify. Hundreds of diverse bits of often obscure background information from history, science, literature, philosophy and many other fields are interspersed with numerous anecdotes from his personal troubled past, including as a bookseller and as a trainee chaplain in a children’s hospital. These expose his own eccentricity, intelligence, brilliance- and vulnerability. His description of the absolute despair and sense of worthlessness during an episode of severe depression, delivered with gravitas in a rich baritone monotone is vivid and heart-wrenching. There is a vague introspective negativity to many of these musings that may turn some readers off, but also a lot of undeniable truth and positive reasons to celebrate the only life any of us have.
There are so many wonderful quotes:
“No bright line between imagination and memory”
“Most promises featuring the word always are false.”
“I am the Vice President of anxiety and the President is missing.”
“Disease only treats people equally where our social systems treat people equally.”
Unlike many writers conveying such vast amounts of information and unique perverse perspectives who can seem arrogant and condescending to their readers, Green comes across as humble and even genuinely self-depreciating, and insecure.
This book was Goodreads pick as the best nonfiction book of 2021. The audiobook edition narrated by the author, including a recording of the call of the now extinct Hawaiian Kawaii bird, is probably the best way to experience this sprawling discourse. The Goodreads choice is richly deserved in my opinion. Highly recommended. To mimic his ending of each essay, I give The Anthropocene five stars.
The Passionate Reader 