A telling book of fiction based on fact!
Thank you Varda Burstyn for taking the time and using your gifted talents to help awaken people to our water crisis via the genre of fiction.
Or, shall I say "faction," for much of your information is based on water statistics and facts that define today's water reality.
Water, Inc. is a page-turning book that weaves a scenario that with little doubt reflects today's water challenges. A reality whereby our governments have become transparent pawns of the ever-growing and powerful transnational corporations. Corporations who often pay homage to the alter of short-term gain regardless of the long-term deadly consequence to our beleaguered world of life.
I have researched and written about water for over thirty years - and am impressed by how Water, Inc. provides accurate and sometimes frightening information, while at the same giving the reader a sense of today's culture. From the homes and board rooms of the rich and powerful, to the soul-searching choices as to what is important in one's Earthly passage - Burstyn provides us with insights that touch all walks of life.
In my mind, Water, Inc. is a true reflection of the current water crisis - and is a book that reinforces and educates us as to how water is the mysterious by yet common denominator that connects all people of all walks of life and beliefs.
"Canada has water! Let's get it!"
This threat to a continental resource has been eyed by the United States for many years. The NAFTA arrangement opened every resource to outside control through its Chapter 11 terms. If interested parties could once gain permission to extract the resource, then the demand and profit would be the only limitations. And demand for water in the USA is rising beyond calculation. In this racing novel of finance, chicanery, corruption and political power, Varda Burstyn demonstrates how the right connections and influence manipulate people for profit. She posits a viable threat to Canada's most precious natural resource.
Bill Greele is a financier well versed in Canada's water resources. He also has no illusions about his country's increasing demand for this rapidly diminishing resource. Water has been drained from the watercourses of the United States. What water remains in streams is highly polluted. The underground aquifer is being pumped dry for irrigation, industry and - golf courses? This demand is exceeding supply and Greele wants to provide for the market. He also wants to pocket the profits providing new water can bring. With sheer force of will, Greele assembles a consortium of investors to create an extraction and pipeline project. His field agents have decided Quebec, with its "nationalist" aspirations is highly vulnerable to Greele's ambitious plan. All he needs is an agreement in principle to begin operations.
In thrillers, seemingly minor events may have unexpected impact, bringing together unlikely people and leading to barely feasible results. In this book, a former Air Force officer sees his proposal for a fuel-efficient aircraft summarily dumped, diverting the funds to the water plan. Although not well versed in Canadian issues, Malcolm Macpherson's environmentally aware - the proposed aircraft would have been both cost-effective and less polluting of the atmosphere. When he learns of the Quebec pipeline project, Malcolm wants to scupper it. He's clearly out of his depth. Bill Greele has a long reach and will use whatever means necessary to achieve his goals.
Macpherson encounters environmentalist Claire Davidowicz. She's not the granny-glasses shirtwaist dress sort of activist. Claire's a hard-bitten businesswoman with good contacts and knowledge of the paths of power. Macpherson has inadvertantly selected well, but neither are prepared to face the challenges arising before them. Greele's long reach extends into many places. He doesn't influence politicians, he owns them. They are able to do his bidding and in the current US administration with its "cochon" of a President, more than willing. Out of their ken, pressure, great pressure is applied to the Quebec Separatiste government to approve the proposal quickly. Greele and his cohorts have no qualms about using whatever is needed to complete the project. Murder isn't beyond their ethics.
Privatising water has been in the works here for some time. Once the hydro system was "off-loaded" from government control, little stood in the way of other proposals. One, a super pipeline from the North was forwarded, but it was costly. Costly, too, in terms of envronmental conditions. The oil pipeline remains an enduring example of the kind of impact such a construction can have. Greele is aware of these things, couching his scheme in terms of limited withdrawal. Others, knowing how climate change has already affected Canada's water supplies, are sceptical. Snow cover has dropped, and water supplies with it. The Great Lakes are at reduced levels and the major river systems suffering accordingly. Aware of these trends, Canadian environmentalists are suspicious of water highjacking proposals. Although the rest of Canada appears uninterested in what is transpiring in "La Belle Province", Quebec environmentalists are quick and vocal in their response to the proposal. For Greele, things are getting out of hand and he must move quickly and forcefully himself. Popular opinion translates into votes and a change in government would gain him little or nothing.
Burstyn writes well in the best thriller tradition. She engages a large cast to implement her story of intrigue, deception and manipulation. Her characters develop well for a first-time novelist. Burstyn maintains good control over them. If they represent some extremes of type, that is only to be expected in such a narrative. Even the minor characters are portrayed well. None are extraneous to the story, with each individual depicted and placed expertly. Except for the pace of events, there's little false or hollow here as the persona struggle for success and, sometimes, survival. With events moving so rapidly, there's little cause for the reader to feel bogged down in technicalities. She understands the "business ethic". We are given enough information to see why she's concerned over a resource grab in Canada. Her long career in environmental issues has served her well in that regard. She builds the plot effectively, without meaningless side events to distract the reader. It's a highly readable adventure, with a strong, serious message to take away from the account. Water is precious. Burstyn wants you to be aware of that and be prepared to take your own steps to keep it available. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
a relevant thriller
With her latest novel Water, Inc, Varda Burstyn attempts both to entertain and illuminate the reader, by examining a hypothetical scenario involving a vital North American resource (water); powerful profiteers and politicians whose principal aim is to control and abuse the resources; and a handful of dutiful protectorates and concerned citizens who become embroiled in a case of geo-political ecological and economic intrigue - quite a mouthful, i agree, but that is the virtue of this book; its ability to demonstrate how fully integrated are lives really are, and by tackling issues so oft overlooked, resists dilution to mollify the quick fix, or simplify the broader context.
Though weighty matters abound, Water, Inc, is highly plot driven (indeed, it is a page turner with substance); filled with characters whose decisions and actions force questions of life and death, personal security and selflessness; exacting ethical and moral judgements about their personal/ political contracts and what such values really entail.
After reading Burstyn's book, perhaps (like me) your summer, if not weather in general, might be viewed or experienced very differently in the future. Such is the effect of this compelling read; and proof too, that intelligent and interesting alternative perspectives can exist, thrive and contribute to the round table discussion of our modern plight.
I commend the author's bravery.
A real page turner!
What a fabulous book! Such a great read- a real page turner, couldn't put it down. Great characters, terrific plot, suspense, overwhelming information. It has it all!!
Great summer read
Like millions of women in North America, I am never happier than when I'm reading a book with amazing women characters at the heart of the action. For me a good women's read has to be a great read, with well drawn characters who I can identify with. Varda Burstun's Water Inc is this kind of really inteligent, aborbing thriller that I just wanted to read and read. For the first fifty pages I was delighted with the political intrigue, then once the plot thickened I literally couldn't put the book down becuase I wanted to know how my favourite characters were doing-- which is always the point for me of reading a novel in the first place. And the writing was great throughout -- clean, funny, smart. I loved the understanding of Quebec and the detailed environmental and scientific research, all intergraded into a fast paced novel that meets my requirements for vacation reading because it was so pleasurable!"
