Your Heart is a Muscle The Size of A Fist

I need a step back to really appreciate this book. Now, a few weeks past finishing it, I realize what an incredible story it told.

This book surrounds the WTO riots in Seattle in 1999. What started as a protest quickly deteriorated into vandalism and violence. Police used tear gas, protesters broke windows. It may sound a little familiar now, but this was the protest that defined Seattle and much of the unrest often expressed in the Pacific Northwest.

This book tells the story of the riots from several perspectives. From police officers, from protesters, from a diplomat who came to the WTO to hopefully be taken seriously after years of trying. They all converged in a small part of the city on that day and no one came away unscathed.

I just read a review that said the subject got away from the author and that the novel ended up being a "trainwreck." I, however, think that it explores riots and protests the way we should all approach them: by understanding the people and the stories behind the action.