02 AUGUST 2002: WORLD
ON FIRE

from Open
City:

“Hard to put down, stopping
no place for very long yet honed in on one . . . cathartic theme: how
to defeat social and political indifference when fear and self-loathing
are the engines of the economy itself. This is one of the most
eloquent recent poetic works to cover the downsides of ‘progress’ and to
cry out for a counterpunch against the manipulations of empire.” – (Starred
Review) Publishers Weekly

“Michael Brownstein’s text
(combination Jeremiah, Milton, Blake, and sci-fi horror movie) is either
the last possible book˜or else a blueprint for the first real revolution
since the Neolithic.” – Hakim Bey, author of  T.A.Z.: The Temporary
Autonomous Zone

“Outrageous and outraged,
this book challenges the fear and greed that are destroying our world.
Read it and respond.” – Joan Halifax, author of Shamanic Voices

“An epic, visionary, kaleidoscopic
treatise/poem that, amazingly, attempts to make sense of and show a way
through the rich madness of our time . . . Partly wail of pain, partly
ode to nature and human spirit, partly a last-ditch effort to consciously
click back to a sustainable pathway, this book will leave the reader simultaneously
exhausted, enlightened, depressed, and exhilarated.” -Jerry Mander, author
of In the Absence of the Sacred, and President, International Forum on
Globalization

 If Thoreau’s Walden,
Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, and Ginsberg’s Howl share one thing, it is that
these revolutionary works of American literature arose, in part, to address
disillusionment with a dehumanized, materialistic, and rapidly industrializing
society.

Today, as we experience ceaseless
change in an increasingly fragile world, a powerful new American voice
is heard. Michael Brownstein’s World on Fire (Open City Books, May 22,
2002) is impossible to ignore.

An impassioned, prophetic
examination of transnational capitalism’s consequences, World on Fire moves
back and forth between the present and a vividly realized post-apocalyptic
future.

Brownstein asks about the
mindset that informs our culture, about unrestrained ego and ruinous competition.
He shows how self-aggrandizement has led to disturbing developments in
biotechnology and genetic engineering.

He dissects an addiction
to petroleum and petrochemicals that is poisoning the planet.

He examines the global financial
speculation that has become delinked from human values.

But the book carries a message
of hope, as well, asking us to reconnect to our humanity. It looks to tribal
models of community in order to understand the folly of defining ourselves
in terms of power relations.

World on Fire is a personal
book. It portrays the author’s own history of avoidance and drug use. His
father’s death from Alzheimer’s becomes a potent symbol for a society unable
to face its crimes or reckon with its history.

Combining narrative, poetry,
and social analysis into a new nonfiction form, World on Fire draws on
the work of many contemporary writers including Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano,
and Vandana Shiva.

Manifesto and call to arms,
Michael Brownstein’s World on Fire offers a new perspective, encouraging
us to move past ego’s limited agendas and create a new life.

Michael Brownstein is the
author of three novels, Country Cousins, Self-Reliance, and The Touch,
as well as several collections of stories and poetry. His fiction has appeared
in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and other magazines. He taught at
the University of Colorado, Naropa Institute, and Columbia University.
In recent years, he has become involved in the worldwide anti-globalization
movement, traveling to Ecuador where he observed first-hand the petroleum
industry’s destruction of the environment and indigenous cultures. He lives
in New York City.