A tentative thumbs-up for a website and related book that have disappointed me. I first heard about Doug Fine through a>, and the fact that I don’t always agree with Kevin Kelly’s media suggestions should’ve been a heads-up. Instead, I eagerly placed Farewell, My Subaru on hold at the library and waited impatiently for my turn to come around. Bit of a letdown, really; Fine’s writing is overearnest, wit-free, and generally quite shallow. A shame, ’cause his project – going green on a smallholding ranch – is very much up my alley, right down to the goats. While he does occasionally describe some jealousy-inducing, one-with-nature moments, he manages for the most part to make the whole process sound quite dull and lacking in incident. Even worse, the blog entries on which the book is based are all of the above, as well as repetitive.
The thumb-up review, though, is entirely earned. After all, Fine’s the one sitting in New Mexico, eating homegrown produce with a goat in his lap, and I’m reading underwhelming blog-lit in snowy Toronto.