Book Review: "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution -- And How It Can Renew America" by Thomas L. Friedman

Wow -- this book was a figurative and literal  B E A T I N G .

I know he's a three-time Pulitzer Prizer winner... perhaps that's why I expected better.

Sure, he knows his stuff, but the book is circular, redundant, dry, and only momentarily compelling.  Given his obvious zealotry about the important subject matter, it's unfortunate he becomes his own worst enemy. 

Friedman makes his point SO WELL, AND SO MANY TIMES that I wonder how GREAT the book might have been were it only half the overwhelming 438 pages.

In time, it will prove to be a classic... ahead of its time... brilliant... and will be heralded as "the book that encapsulated it all."  His sources, data, statistics, and stories are second-to-none... but then become second, third, and fourth-only-to-himself after perhaps 200 pages or so.  His hypotheses and recommendations are dynamite, but hardly pithy.  I feel guilty for perceiving the book to become tiresome about something that is so profoundly critical to us all. 

But today, it is simply overkill, and too wonk-ish to attract the millions upon millions who need to read it if we are to truly democratize and integrate what has hitherto been known as 'the green movement.'

Thanks, Tom, for writing it.  I only hope that enough of us are up to reading and implementing it.  In time, perhaps an abridged version or summary will follow that can be distributed and implemented by the majority.