Environmentalists, peace and justice advocates will have to engage the entire population to achieve their goals by writing poetry, songs, short stories, novels, television commercials, plays and movies. Contests with at least nominal prize money will bring forth talented work. To the extent possible, web sites should post all the good articles. The badly written Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a spark to the abolitionist movement. John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath awakened Americans’ social consciousness about the plight of the Oakies and poor farmers during the Great Depression. People today can write stories that will inspire others to design greener products, contact their Congressman, participate in recycling programs and march for peace.

The novel Prairie Fire by Dan Armstrong, editor of the Mud City Press, caught my attention. It has the potential to be an updated Grapes of Wrath. William H. Kötke described the book like this, “Gripping, compelling, this is the populist novel of the 21st century, and this author is the new Upton Sinclair. With the excitement of a James Bond thriller, this novel takes the reader from the wheat fields of Kansas to the bedrooms of those who own the international banking system, meanwhile involving the world’s stock exchanges, the commodities market, the massive world drug trade, the intelligence community, and a presidential campaign. While this novel is as fresh as the morning paper, you will not find it there. This is a well informed, deep background set against the objective fact of rapidly diminishing world grain reserves, climate change and peak oil.”

I seldom read fiction, much less a novel that is 485 pages long. It is interesting from the beginning and starts picking up momentum from about page 160 on. I counsel patience. It took me about 500 pages of Herman Woak’s Winds of War to start seeing momentum. Sometimes it takes a while to start seeing the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fit together.

The story takes place in 2016. The central figure, Nate Cromwell, and other farmers are increasing frustrated by manipulation of the world’s grain markets by a hand full of corporations. Feeling that they have nothing to lose, they start a strike and start controlled burns of wheat fields to show they mean business. One is reminded of Lee Kyung Hae, president of the South Korea Farmers Federation, who committed suicide as part of a political protest at the World Trade Organization meeting at Cancun in 2004.

As the drama unfolds, the reader gets lessons in soil depletion, monoculture, and the excess dependence of chemical herbicides and pesticides. One sees corporate power corrupting everything it touches. Literature majors will see symbolism and allegory that is over my head. Those who write Cliff Notes on this novel will have to be familiar with globalization, world trade, global warming and the environment. I am reminded of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, which seemed like a children’s fantasy was in fact a criticism of British politics of the 19th century. Prairie Fire’s symbolism is less nuanced.

The novel ends with some hope. Since there is much unsettled, I see material for a sequel.

Ed O’Rourke is an environmental accountant in Houston. He contributes articles to Dan Armstrong’s Mud City Press.

713-664-4343
eorourke@pdq.net