Book Log 2013 #17: Visit Sunny Chernobyl by Andrew Blackwell

In the vein of Assassination Vacation and similar offbeat travel books, Blackwell visits the sites of various environmental disasters in this book, ranging from the radioactive wasteland of Chernobyl to the refinery-laden town of Port Arthur, Texas to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's a pretty interesting read, as the author enters each trip with the expectation of a hellish deathscape, but then has to confront the complexities of each disaster, mostly when dealing with the locals, who are often trying to balance living in or near an ecological nightmare with making a living off of same. And for all of the damage caused, there's a lot about these locations that are banal, from the bland corporatism of the mining company pulling oil sands out of Alberta to the somewhat pointless study voyages out to the garbage patch.

We also get a sort of B-plot of the author's relationship with his girlfriend/fiancee, the ebb and flow of which tends to mirror the time and distance the author spends traveling. It's not overbearing, and helps to break up the travel.

It's been a while since I've read this, and I do remember thinking at times that in some cases the author may have been trying a little too hard to be balanced in some areas, but I'll be damned if I can remember a specific instance. So it may just be me. Anyway, certainly worth a look.