The Anthropocene Reviewed

The last John Green novel that I remember reading must have been “Looking For Alaska”. I was recommended to read it by a friend of mine who had found it engaging. I enjoyed the book, but it did eventually fade into history for me. I can’t remember what called me to pick this book up. It must have been seeing it on someone else’s website. Or perhaps the novelty of seeing an author I associate with fictional works sit down and write a non-fictional recount of all the wonders and horrors of our modern lives.

This book ends up being quite formulaic in the best way. Each chapter sees John examining some seemingly random thing that you might never have thought too deeply about, if at all. The topics ranging from things like Dr. Pepper all the way to grass. And each chapter begins with some sort of anecdote of John’s connection to the subject topic. You then explore its historical significance. Before you know it, he is spouting about the larger connections that the topic somehow has with the human experience itself. Through some magic of wordplay and sensitivity, John Green manages to have this beautiful tone that is educative and melancholic all at one. Each return to the larger connection that our modern wonders share with our very human realities is profound.

Perhaps it is to be expected from the same person who is credited with some of the most heart wrenching reads of this decade, and a host of the literature/artistic side of Crash Course. The Anthropocene Reviewed somehow manages to start of with a chapter titled “Piggly Wiggly” and leave you with a tear; contemplating the larger things in life.