Book Review: Grand Traverse

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Grand Traverse     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Michael Beres
Class/Genre:   Fiction   Science Fiction   Futuristic   Apocalyptic Fiction
Medallion, Sep 2005, $24.95

The earth is heading toward pandemic environmental disaster. However, Paul Carter and his family do not worry about the orb as the crisis to them is local. Ducain Chemical contaminated Easthaven. He sues and wins, but his victory is hollow as his beloved wife Judy suffers from breast cancer. Ironically they met during an environmental protest back when Reagan was President.

Three decades later Paul’s daughter Jamie believes the toxic chemical spill is the pivotal point of her life though she was only two at the time. She successfully becomes a political activist, a soldier, “Chemical Jamie”, in the war to save the embattled planet.

Heather West seeks vengeance from the family that successfully won a lawsuit against her father that ruined him and destroyed her heritage. When she makes it big time on television, it furthers her life’s goal to destroy the internationally popular daughter of the man who devastated her dad. The two daughters are on a collision course that has global impact neither of their fathers could have remotely envisioned.

Michael Beres paints a bleak ashen future on a planet devastated by environmental disasters. The story line focuses on how the two women react to the key identical incident in their respective lives. One uses this to become a crusader while the other uses it to spread culpability on others for what she and her family lost. There is no question on what side of the environment argument Mr. Beres is on as his twenty-first century looks as if mankind is one step away from extinction yet a thousand points of light still shine with hope to save the world.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner