Book Review: Radio Free Vermont by Bill McKibben

Radio Free Vermont by Bill McKibben

Hardcover, 224 pages

Published November 7th 2017 by Blue Rider Press

It will be really easy for me to talk myself out of this book. I enjoyed it enough when I was reading it. Read it very quickly over two days of commuting to work, but the more I think about it something has be giving me pause. Look I respect author Bill McKibbean who is one of the most important global climate change activists on the planet. He has for decades written with passion and knowledge about environmental issues in non-fiction. He is very good at that.

In his first novel McKibben reacted to the election of Donald Trump by resisting in the form of fiction. I love the idea, enough that when I saw it on the shelf at the library I wanted to get it. I had heard the author promoting the book on the Geek's guide to the Galaxy podcast and of course was very interested. Environmental resistance has a long history with books like Free The Animals and Edward Abbey's Monkeywrench Gang being the most famous. In genre circles we have classic like Skipp and Spector's The Bridge and John Brunner's The Sheep Look Up.

Radio Free Vermont is a story told mostly through the words of Vern Barclay, a long time local radio talk show host in Vermont. He does everything from news to high school Hockey scores. He is not the only character several other Vermonters play a role, a computer whiz named Perry, a former Olympic athlete and my personal favorite Barlclay's mother in her 90's. Fed up with the way things are Barclay uses a pirate signal to release podcasts promoting the idea of a Vermont separate from the United States. Once the signal goes out it inspires acts of resistance around the state.

Barclay and Perry carefully lay their ideas while remaining hidden. They call for a town-hall meetings around the state to vote on the idea of staying apart of the country. While this doesn't make members of the government happy, the FBI and local sheriffs try to find them. I found it odd that a huge story-line in the novel is these activists being painted as terrorists and wanted fugitives. They really are just suggesting meetings, and a vote.

One of the blurbs from Naomi Klein says it is James Bond meets Prairie Home Companion. Which is the opposite of selling the book to me. It also has me wondering if Klein has ever seen a Bond movie? Because there is nothing remotely James Bond here, and the story has got to be the most vanilla revolution ever. I don't remember the James Bond movie where he organized town hall meetings. The stakes are low, the tension as light while nothing seems that dangerous. It is promoted as a fable and it reads like a hippie's daydream for change. It is hard for me to take it too seriously. Bill McKidden is an important voice but I personally think I would prefer to read his non-fiction.