A review by jar7709
Oil Notes by Rick Bass

5.0

I can't even with how much I loved this book. It was like reading my own brain. This could have been my life, if I had taken that potential job offer out of St. Louis. And had graduate 20 years earlier. And was a man. But other than that, if you want to know what my brain is like, read this one...a series of vignettes, notes, journal entries, that seem disconnected but if you map out the scraps, you can find the oil deposit (or the contaminated zone, in my case). The oil is oil, yes, but it's also so much else about life and meaning, buried deep under the surface. I devoured this book in one great gulp, not slowing to savor, but I've already started to re-read to really put that complete map together. Six, eight, ten stars if I could.