Even if it wasn’t the name of the mountain range in which the story takes place, it would be a great name for the people in this book. It’s a good story and thanks to a good storyteller, it makes a great book. That’s not, as we know, always the case so we’re lucky the right person sunk her teeth into this.
Investigative prowess doesn’t always transfer from article to book but it does inThe Crazies. Amy Gamerman’s real-life talents as a reporter and writer for the Wall Street Journal helped her gather this information and transform it into a modern, western saga about trying to control the uncontrollable forces of nature with power and money.
It serves us well as she weaves the stories, the real life sagas, of the past and present dramas of the people involved in one of the largest, craziest lawsuits in recent days. Oil tycoons, cattle farmers, ancient pioneers, regular struggling laymen, Hollywood celebrities, poachers … who isn’t involved? Everyone’s case holds some weight.
If it’s my land, why the hell can’t I do what I want with it? Rick Jarrett wants to harvest the ‘million dollar wind’ that blows through Big Timber, Montana with 500 ft. turbines on his small parcel of land. “The wind that blew alike on the rich and poor had the power to make Rick Jarrett a wealthy man.”
His tycoon neighbors don’t want to look at these eyesore turbines. The hell with the townies and their right to make money off of their own land.
Just because you have 80 bazillion dollars and don’t want to be staring at something ugly, why do you get to say no to it? “I like people … I just don’t want to be around them,” said Russell Gordy, the owner of 155,000 acres of land he spent $96 million amassing.
Many Hollywood celebrities, who have made Big Timber—the nearby town—their hideaway home, feel similarly. Much is at stake for the big-monied hermits, who have no interest in the locals and their poverty.
Additionally The Crazies are held sacred by The Crow, whose ancestors are, perhaps, the original indigenous people in North America. The first burial ground dating back between 12,707 and 12,556 years was found on a cliff west of The Crazies’ Walsall Peak. The remains of a child found with a stunning array of tools and objects were found in 1968. The DNA links the boy to a human, who lived 40,000 years ago near Beijing. He is the most ancient American ever discovered. The Crazies aren’t ill-named.
Nothing about this lawsuit and its participants is cut-and-dried and that’s what makes it a good story.
There is nothing new about the basic human desire for control—and money is rarely outvoted.
About the author: Jen Petty Hilger grew up in New York and London, England, but finds herself happily quiet living by the water in Old Lyme. She and her husband have six children between them and a myriad of rescued animals.