Our Way or the Highway: Inside the Minnehaha Free State

There's a lot of hilarity in this book ("Mommy,why is she wearing that eye-dropper in her ear?"). The grief for the loss of the four trees sneaks up on you between the lines. I agree with a reviewer in Earth First! Journal who found Losure's attitude toward the protesters somewhat dismissive: she seems surprised to discover (near the end of the narrative) that, after all, they might have important point to make. However, I think that this rhetorical structure works in this case in the favor of the trees, if not the protesters themselves: Losure brings the skeptical reader along with her. Like Eliot's Middlemarch, this book is both social satire and ethical touchstone. Ultimately, it has a Dickensian, panoramic quality that really transcends the genre of eco-journalism: while no one social group in the narrative has a monopoly on truth, Losure finds a real beauty in the sometimes clumsy, sometimes ugly Highway 55 conflict.