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Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures In The World's Most Polluted Places (2012)

by Andrew Blackwell(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1605294454 (ISBN13: 9781605294452)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Rodale Books

review 1: More a collection of travel essays than an actual non-fiction book. The chapters in no particular order included the eponymous Chernobyl, the Amazon/Brazil, China, India/Yamuna River, Port Arthur Texas/Spindletop, and others. I expected the book to be a bit of a rant, but what I found instead was more of a humorous travelogue, along with wry observations on how basically every location in this day and age passes for a "managed environment". It gave me a new appreciation for seeing the positive even in those landscapes we humans have dramatically altered, so kudos to Blackwell for making such potentially depressing fare instead so entertaining, and in a strange way, uplifting.
review 2: A bit like the 'Dark Tourist' by Dom Joly the author here goes to various... more places that you would not expect to go on holiday. So always good to read about it and not have to do it yourself. I found the first two chapters on Chernobyl and the Oil Sands in Canada fascinating and really enjoyed the authors sense of humour. The next couple of chapters (oil refineries in Texas and the garbage patch in the Pacific) were good and then the last few were just about interesting (Amazon, China and India). I am not sure why but maybe going to all these places the author lost his sharpness for humour after seeing some of these places. As the book went on, to me, it lost some it's zip. Still anything that educates the reader is always a good thing. less

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