LAND MARKS

An environmentally minded professor revisits her activist past in Lesert’s novel.

When university professor Rebecca Walton happens to recognize former student Sonya’s image as it flashes across the screen during a nighttime news report, she recalls the events of the previous two years when she, Sonya, and three other students took part in an anti-fracking environmental movement. The four students were among the few who signed up for her new Eco-Literature class in 2012; the newly designed course was shaped by their interests, which eventually led them to take their research into the field and engage in activism. Walton was formerly known as activist “Elizabeth Stone, a rescue climber and writer inside of actions.” This secret was kept from her students for their protection, but when Walton returns to her old activist ways due to her concern for Sonya, the truth becomes known to them when another secret rooted in Rebecca’s past is eventually uncovered. As the narrative alternates between the present day and various periods in the past, the order in which some information is presented or omitted (such as who the “Four Branches” were, why Walton went by “Elizabeth Stone,” and the depth of her relationship with David, a fellow activist) will disorient readers. The blow-by-blow account of the group’s activism could use some tailoring to focus on key moments that would move the story in a dynamic way. For those unfamiliar with fracking, the author doesn’t provide enough background information to bring them up to speed, instead jumping right into using insider terminology in passages describing the process and many more detailing the harm it causes. But the writing shines when Lesert writes about the environment using poetic imagery that’s reverential of the land, “inextricably intertwined with the wildlife and the people who roamed it.”

An impassioned story of anti-fracking activism.