“Two dudes, one fry-oil-powered car, and a cross-country search for a greener future.” Greasy Rider (the book) by Greg Melville has a lot in common with Greasy Rider (the film): two guys, a Greasecar-converted SVO Mercedes, and interviews with locals across the country. But it’s different guys, a different car, and different interviews, so don’t be confused. The film is pure SVO stories while the book uses the vegoil roadtrip as a vehicle to cover a number of green energy topics.
It’s not a technical book. The vegoil stories focus mostly on the driver’s personal difficulties finding and processing vegoil during the trip. As for the rest of the book, the chapters alternate between general roadtrip tidbits – geographical and personal – and renewable energy focused side-trips. The first side-trip was to Greasecar, and it paints a good picture of the scene there. Later side-trips cover green building, wind power, and a “green” Wal*Mart versus a “green” Google.
The author of Greasy Rider (the book) is a magazine travel-writer, and it shows. The writing is light – great for an airplane read – but a little too light for my tastes. If you’re a huge fan of travel-writing or a vegetable-oil-fuel freak you’ll probably enjoy it.
Veg On!
Tags: book, greasecar, Greasy Rider, Greg Melville, SVO, Vegoil, WVO
