Product Description

When Diane Wilson, fourth-generation shrimp-boat captain and mother of five, learns that she lives in the most polluted county in the United States, she decides to fight back. She launches a campaign against a multibillion-dollar corporation that has been covering up spills, silencing workers, flouting the EPA, and dumping lethal ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride into the bays along her beloved Texas Gulf Coast. In an epic tale of bravery, Wilson takes her fight to the courts, to the gates of the chemical plant, and to the halls of power in Austin. Along the way she meets with scorn, bribery, character assassination, and death threats. Finally Wilson realizes that she must break the law to win justice: She resorts to nonviolent disobedience, direct action, and hunger strikes. Wilson's vivid South Texas dialogue resides somewhere between Alice Walker and William Faulkner, and her dazzling prose brings to mind the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, replete with dreams and prophecies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214085 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 392 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781933392271
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
With the discovery that her "piddlin' little county on the Gulf Coast" led the nation in toxic emissions, shrimper Wilson, a mother of five, found herself embarking on a voyage of discovery and activism that would strain her marriage and stretch her horizons. A David up against big-time chemical Goliaths, Wilson is a gifted storyteller, rendering dialogue and pacing plot turns as a novelist might. Anonymous informants, uncomfortable whistleblowers, unanticipated opposition from civic powers and seductive offers of cash bribes pepper this first-person account of Wilson's attempts to save her hometown. Although there are moments when the trail of meetings, memos and petitions seems drawn out, the tell-everything approach reveals how a woman awed to discover "they can lie on TV news! And it is all right!" can learn to master the media. Wilson's hunger-striking, boat-sinking and pole-climbing—combined with the help of a pro bono lawyer and a Greenpeace activist—ultimately wring a "zero tolerance" agreement out of Formosa Plastics and Dow/Union Carbide. Wilson's book is longer than it needs to be, but her Texas twang is catchy, and often spellbinding, as she goes about her mission, sometimes with a child "by one hand and a handful of documents in the other." (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In the battle to halt the monstrous pollution destroying Texas' Lavaca Bay, it seemed impossible that one little lady could take on a multibillion-dollar international chemical company and win--but win Wilson did. A minimally educated shrimp-boat captain and mother of five, Wilson suffered great personal tragedy, including death threats and divorce, in her frustrating and demoralizing crusade against Formosa Plastic's proposed $1.3 billion expansion of its PVC manufacturing facility in Calhoun County, Texas, already deemed the most toxic district in the country. Armed with nothing more than her deep-seated love for the bay outside her door and an unwavering sense of justice, Wilson almost single-handedly set out to reveal the environmental destruction, worker intimidation, legal machinations, and political manipulation that epitomized Formosa's ruthless business practices. With unbridled passion, Wilson renders her "Diane-versus-Goliath" confrontation in honest and unadorned prose, liberally and gracefully lacing it with passages of heartbreaking lyricism and provocative wisdom that reveal the depth of her commitment. Few people in this world deserve to be called heroes; Wilson assuredly is one of them. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"....This remarkable woman has written a durable and empowering book. May we all draw strength from her victory." -- DOUG PEACOCK, author of Walking it Off

"An Unreasonable Woman will stand as one of this nation’s greatest works of nonfiction..." -- RICK BASS, award-winning author of The Hermit’s Story and Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had

"I don’t often gush, but this book had me fascinated from the first page and whomper-jawed half the time..." -- MOLLY IVINS, nationally syndicated columnist

"Texas is famous for our tall tales, but they pale in comparison to the TRUE tale of Diane Wilson..." -- JIM HIGHTOWER, national radio commentator, columnist, author, and public speaker

"This is a book with arms so strong it reaches out, grabs you, and won't let go..." -- JANISSE RAY, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood and Pinhook

Customer Reviews

Suprising Gem of a Book
I opened ths book unenthusiastically, expecting an excess of legal details, numbers, dates, and names which would confuse me. While what I had heard about Diane Wilson certainly sounded like a great story- that of a small-town woman who turns into a national activism- I was doubtful that the book would really draw me in.

Boy was I mistaken! Wilson's writing is colloquial, almost chit-chatty. While sometimes this tone can produce poor writing, in Wilson's case it simply draws us into her personality, sharing details completely relavant to her transformation from a shrimp-farmer to an anti-corporation environmental activist.

This book inspires interest not only in Wilson's personal story, but in the broader context of industrial pollution, corporate whistle-blowers, and how activism can really make a difference.

Wilson had me rooting for her side from page one of this book, and her writing had me enthralled by the end. I highly recommend this book to anyone, even if you are not interested at first glance.

Remarkably great new writer!
I started reading this book anticipating that I would have a hard time staying interested. I have to say that I was more than pleasantly surprised by the way the pages flew by and how easy it was to become engrossed in every single page, in fact it went by too quick and I was very disappointed to finish it so quickly. I am an avid reader and have never read anything like Wilson's book before, it was extremely funny and caught myself laughing out loud more than once or twice!

Diane has an uncanny talent as a storyteller. This is so much more than what I expected, I would highly encourage anyone to read it, it's engrossing, incredibly written and one of the best books I've read this year.

A Page Turner!!
I must admitt, I expected this true story to be a little over my head with all the talk of permits, politics and pollutants, but Diane Wilson can really pull you in. The book immidiatly caught my attention and wouldn't let my put it down. Living on the Gulf Coast, I did not realize the stronghold that one company can have over a community. Diane has really brought to life the here strugle for clean bays in Texas. A must read for all, especially if you are in a community with chemical plants and refineries.