Union Atlantic by Adam Haslett (2008)

Pulitzer Prize finalist Adam Haslett on his prescient novel he finished the week Lehman Brothers collapsed in the 2008 crash:

It’s a book not about the actual crash but the culture that lead to it. I spent 5 years wondering if anybody would think it mattered what banks did, but unfortunately history solved that problem.

The novel started out turning international financial scandals into entertaining satirical fiction then hit me with some of the darkest, most emotionally invasive gay sex scenes out of nowhere 😂

After reading a few of his novels, I really appreciate this trope he uses of a doomed revolutionary minded character who is chronically misunderstood.

Here are excerpts of each of the three main characters read with video elements:

Recycling is not the solution to plastic pollution – Brute (2021)

Plastics industries like fossil fuel companies and Coke + Pepsi need to be held accountable. Our individual decisions on reducing plastic use are good but will never be enough to address the problem to scale.

”If your tub was overflowing, you wouldn’t go get a bucket and mop. You’d turn off the tap.”