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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.… (more)
A fourth generation shrimper in Texas decides to do something about the pollution from Union Carbide, and a new huge plastics plant being constructed. She struggles not only with the officials of the plastics plant but also county, state and Federal governments and the EPA. Because of the huge amounts of money at stake powerful forces move against her.
An incredible story of perseverance and love for the bay she grew up on. Her shrimp boat is sabotaged, most of her friends and family abandon her, helicopters in the night shoot at her house and dogs. This is a first book for Diane Wilson and what a book. Her voice and descriptions are not like anything I've read before. I was astounded. It reads like a novel and has the visual imagery of a movie. I hope that this book is made into a movie. I think it would be as good or better than Erin Brockovich. ( )
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.
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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.
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