Darker Shade of Green Paperback – April 28, 2011

If you like inventiveness--with a message--you'll like Mickey Z.'s novel A Darker Shade of Green. The title is apt, because this book is about a darker side of the green movement, as told through interviews, lists, film scripts, book excerpts and e-posts. The hero, Alphonse "Allie" Romano, is a homeless man, a chess player, a book collector, and an environmental activist. His weapons are the spray can and, possibly, the Internet. Allie's story is told by a runaway teenage boy, JT, who becomes his apprentice. The theme here is man's inhumanity to nature (and to his fellow man), and many statistics are given to support that view. Personally, I don't need to be convinced, but I nodded in agreement when I read that many newspapers have a Business section but no Labor section, and many have a weekly Automobile section but no Bicycle section. And what about all those birds that die by crashing into plateglass windows? Here's the bottom line, as stated by Allie: "We're all doomed, my friend, unless we fight back. They'll poison us or imprison us or run us down with their machines if we don't fight." This is a call to action, and while we might intellectually agree, maybe it's time for more of us to get up and do something.