... a thought-provoking and heady mix of memoir, journalism and philosophy ... Wells seeks out a variety of people whose radical responses to the climate crisis challenge and defy the norm. The characters she profiles are varied and fascinating, and their stories may resonate with older readers who remember their own idealism during the 1960s counterculture movement ... While Wells is adept at communicating her own coming-of-age story and life journey, Believers is most compelling when the author allows the fascinating people she meets to speak for themselves, providing a rich mosaic of perspectives on life in the 21st century. Believers is a reckoning with climate change and a testimony about how to live on our threatened planet that will engage thoughtful citizens everywhere.
Three-quarters of the way through her book, Wells gives up on her series of immersive jaunts with 'believers' and steps back to draw on the thoughts and writings of others. We miss the outrageous forays, the wrong turns and the tangled ways her rootlessness drives her. Somewhere she loses her thread and fails to fully break through. Her own 'promised land' is always elsewhere ... Wells’s final request, that we learn to work cooperatively and live in the loving embrace of true communities, tells only part of the story. Nature is the embrace, and if Wells digs in deeply enough wherever she is standing, she will find that nature’s long arms have always been twined through and around her.
Wells shows us the faces of an evolving movement dedicated to saving the planet from the ravages of human exploitation. Their stories are often heart-wrenching, with personal tragedies fueling their desire to create environmental change ... As foreshadowed by the title, there is a spiritual element braided into this book that may interest some readers and put off others ... even most people who care deeply about the environment can’t really imagine divorcing themselves from the power grid or making other drastic lifestyle modifications. These people will sense Wells’ disdain. To her, feckless do-gooders are like climate-change Muggles: semi-blind, ignorant by choice, impossible to teach. But the truth hurts, and real change often happens only after a struggle. Maybe we need the kind of jolt that Believers gives us if we’re ever going to become, finally, active caretakers of our planet.
Believers is digressive and its scope broad, the book’s many threads tied by Wells’ appraisal of environmental damage and repair. She’s largely successful in this intertwining, although some storylines are better executed than others. A chapter that fluctuates between a reconciliation ceremony in Taos, New Mexico, and a mental breakdown on a trip to Philadelphia feels off-kilter. (Sometimes, the language itself feels circular; while reading, I underlined a sentence that struck me. When the same sentence appeared 10 pages later, its repetition felt more accidental than intentional.) Still, Wells’ prose, rooted in her poetry, gives her a unique advantage when writing about living through this unstable moment in history ... Some of Believers' best moments involve Wells digging into the cultural delusions of the frontier ... There are times when Wells appears uncomfortable as a memoirist—reticent about some difficult portions of her life—but, like the subjects she profiles, her memories ground Believers' big questions in personal stakes.
In this effective blend of reportage and memoir, poet and writer Wells introduces readers to various individuals with their own ideas about how to save the natural world ... Referencing the works of Derrick Jensen and writing sympathetically about the Earth Liberation Front, which has been responsible for crimes of ecotage, Wells stakes an outlier position. The resulting chronicle of environmental crises and the often radical actions some are taking to combat them is freshly informative and thought-provoking.
Wells offers no pat prescriptions for nurturing 'lived relationships with water and plants and soil'—only an ardent hope that humans will persist in 'fighting and reconciling and reaching across the divide of mutual misapprehension' to save their world. An urgent message gently conveyed.
... [a] dense and eclectic survey ... Wells describes [a California wildfire] in shocking and vivid detail ... The people profiled come across as optimistic and resilient, and so too does the author. Her descriptions of climate change captures the harsh reality of devastation, and her musings often lean poetic ... Still, her curiosity keeps things moving ... Climate-minded readers should take note of this roving account of perseverance.
