The Anthropocene Reviewed
The Anthropocene Reviewed ~ John Green
A memoir in the form of a collection of essays where the author reviews various aspects of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale, exploring topics both mundane and grand. He reviews hot dogs in Iceland, the QWERT keyboard, Diet Dr. Pepper, orbital sunsets, the plague, Monopoly, the movie Harvey, on and on. In each essay we learn more about the author, about his struggles with anxiety, his family, his hopes and fears. Among other things, he discusses climate change, the pandemic, history, and science. I really enjoyed a lot of these essays, and found them engrossing and moving, but mostly memoir and essay is not my thing, and I ended up returning it to the library. Which is weird because I really did enjoy the 3/4 of it that I listened to. I kind of felt like it was never going to end, and I wanted it to. Recommended anyway.
13 Comments
Jenny
Ha, well that’s a lukewarm review! It does sound interesting, but not like the thing I would usually read. I could picture getting this book and reading some selected essays, rather than the whole thing.
J
I know, what even the heck Julie, you were enjoying it and then DONE, right? That’s how it was though. Maybe I’ll get it out of the library again at some point and finish it, we’ll see.
PocoBrat
Wow, you read a lot of wonderful books! I too find essays difficult to plow through all at once though!
J
Thanks Maya, that makes me feel a little better. Maybe if I had a physical copy and were interspersing it with something else? I listened to the audiobook.
Margaret
I’ve heard great things about this author’s novels. Like you, I struggle with memoirs.
J
I’ve heard some of his novels are pretty weird, I don’t think I’ve read any of them though.
Lisa's Yarns
I really enjoyed this but I listened to it on audio and that seemed to help. I was told I absolutely needed to listen to it rather than read it. I’ll make an exception and do that about once/year! There were parts that dragged but overall it was really enjoyable for me!
J
Yes, I listened to it as well. I think that was probably better than reading, but also if I had a physical copy it would be easier to not consume so much in big chunks.
Nicole MacPherson
Memoir and essay IS my type of thing, and this sounds interesting, but you know how I feel about male authors. Wait, is this the guy who wrote Turtles All The Way Down? Because I did enjoy that.
J
Nicole, yes, same guy! I haven’t read any of his other stuff. I think I picked this based on Sarah’s rec.
NGS
I’m reading his new one on tuberculosis and I’m learning SO MUCH. But I keep thinking that it could be a much more interesting book from a different author. Why am I such a John Green hater? Why do I get annoyed when he mentions his OCD for the five hundredth time? What is wrong with me? (It is actually a good book and I’m happily reading it instead of my book club book.)
J
LOL, yeah, I’m not convinced he’s the writer for me. And again, I really enjoyed a LOT of these essays, so I don’t know why I say that.
Ernie
Interesting premise. I do like memoir, but not sure I would like it in this format – although it sounds like an interesting angle. When Mini got sick in Italy and sleep was eluding me, I started thinking about how I could tell stories (some unfortuntate like Mini getting so sick while we were visiting) and through the story explain a bit about my life. Not sure if that makes sense, because I feel like it was sort of a fever dream of an idea (although, thankfully I was not having a fever). I even named the book idea in my very tired brain – Happy Accidents. Then I woke up and was like, Wait, what even was going on in my head?