Big MiracleBig Miracle by Tom Rose
My rating: 1.5 of 5 stars
Big Miracle is the book that inspired the movie of the same name. I haven't seen the movie yet and couldn't find a release date for the DVD. However, from what I could gather from reading about the movie online, it differs markedly from the book. It would have to - there is no way that Drew Barrymore would star in a movie that was as cynical about environmentalism and animal welfare as author Tom Rose's book is.
This book is a non-fiction account of the 1988 rescue attempt of three California Gray whales who were trapped in the ice near Barrow, Alaska. The author was one of several reporters in Barrow covering the rescue process. What could have been a very nice story about people of all different backgrounds coming together to save the whales was ruined by the author's cynicism and the opinions he inserted as facts that didn't have much to do with the actual story.
When this book was originally published in 1989, the title was Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World's Greatest Non-Event. Had I known that when this book was pitched to me, I would not have reviewed it. The cover of the new, movie tie-in edition reads, "Inspired by the Incredible True Story That United the World." The author did not feel that this story was incredible - at least not in a good way. He repeats often that the whales didn't need to be saved and that the amount of media coverage they received was ridiculous.
He also uses every opportunity to assert that we should be drilling for oil in Alaska and that the environmentalists have it all wrong. He offers up his opinions as facts with no footnotes or citations to back them up. In a non-fiction book, I expect to see research if opinions are inserted. For example, "Increased wealth leads to increased spending. That applies as much to environmental protection as to anything else...The same process that drives economic growth and wealth creation results in less pollution, not more." First of all, where is the research that backs that up and secondly, what does that have to do with rescuing the whales?
He also takes repeated jabs at Cindy Lowry from Greenpeace - "[Carroll's] reaction to the word 'Soviet' was as instinctively visceral as Cindy's reaction to the word 'military.' The only difference was that Carroll's animus was justified while Cindy's was not." Says who? Why does that second sentence need to be there?
Those are just a couple of many, many examples. I found it ironic that the working title of this edition (which was printed on the cover of my ARC) was Everybody Loves Whales because Tom Rose doesn't seem to love them all that much.
I did appreciate learning more about life in rural Alaska but I don't know if slogging through the rest of the book made it worth it.
(All quotes are taken from the Advance Uncorrected Proof - the final copy may differ.)
