A review by sde
The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast by Kirk Wallace Johnson
5.0
It usually takes me forever to read non-fiction, but I finished this book over the course of two days. The author did a great job of writing short chapters and ending them with cliffhangers, and I fell for it. I kept saying to myself "one more chapter," and turned the page.
I was young when most of what is depicted in this book took place, but I am surprised that I didn't hear about any of this before beyond the fact that I knew that many Vietnamese settled and fished along the Gulf Coast. I only knew that because my brother lives in Louisiana and married a New Orleans native, and many of her friends are Vietnamese.
The shocking thing to me in this book was not the fact that the Klan existed, but that people were extremely open about belonging as recently as the 1980s. I didn't know anything about the backlash/growth of the Klan after the Vietnam War. I also was not shocked with the extreme disregard for the environment and the population that the chemical plants had, but I was surprised that even when the EPA investigated, the plants rarely got cited.
The author did a good job at portraying even Klan members as complicated people who had both positive and negative sides. Although much of what these people did was horrendous, the author helped the reader understand better why they did it.
At the end of the book, the author writes that the book is going to be turned into a movie. I hope Diane Wilson is a central character in the book and they do an accurate job portraying her. I am fascinated by her and how she had the strength to do all she did despite hardly ever leaving her small town. She had the courage to speak out and do unusual things even though she knew they would likely make her an outcast. I did not know about the horrible environmental conditions in Taiwan until I read about Diane's visit there, and I wish there was more about her visit in the book.
I was young when most of what is depicted in this book took place, but I am surprised that I didn't hear about any of this before beyond the fact that I knew that many Vietnamese settled and fished along the Gulf Coast. I only knew that because my brother lives in Louisiana and married a New Orleans native, and many of her friends are Vietnamese.
The shocking thing to me in this book was not the fact that the Klan existed, but that people were extremely open about belonging as recently as the 1980s. I didn't know anything about the backlash/growth of the Klan after the Vietnam War. I also was not shocked with the extreme disregard for the environment and the population that the chemical plants had, but I was surprised that even when the EPA investigated, the plants rarely got cited.
The author did a good job at portraying even Klan members as complicated people who had both positive and negative sides. Although much of what these people did was horrendous, the author helped the reader understand better why they did it.
At the end of the book, the author writes that the book is going to be turned into a movie. I hope Diane Wilson is a central character in the book and they do an accurate job portraying her. I am fascinated by her and how she had the strength to do all she did despite hardly ever leaving her small town. She had the courage to speak out and do unusual things even though she knew they would likely make her an outcast. I did not know about the horrible environmental conditions in Taiwan until I read about Diane's visit there, and I wish there was more about her visit in the book.