Overload by Arthur Hailey (published in 1978), challenges of power generation, politics, and tradeoff between needs and environment

Arthur Hailey, a best selling author was born in Lutton, Bedfordshire, England. He emigrated to Canada after actively serving in the Royalk Airforce as a pilot in the World War II. He started his literary career with Flight Into Danger and later came up with amazing titles like Hotel, Wheels, Final Diagnosis tec. He moved to the Bahamas with his writer wife Sheila, and continued to churn out best sellers. He died in November, 2004.
Overload is about the dynamics of power generation. It tells the readers about the difficulty in serving a state like California and how a simple outage can cripple the lives and economy of a nation. Nimrod or Nim Goldman is the Vice President of Golden State Power and Light, who predicts that there is a great possibility a blackout in the future. He feels the need of developing 2 or 3 electricity generating units to combat the electric famine looming alarmingly near. His company has identified sites for developing two power projects and Nim is supporting it through various channels. But critics consider these as ravings of a power hungry, greedy capitalist. Green activists and NGS's are up in arms agtainst his company and accuse them of pillaging the environment and natural resources. Apart from this the upcoming power projects are opposed by rivals and regulatory bodies.



This book has great significance even today because the hunger for power has not diminished. With lot of other Asian countries developing at a faster rate the need for power has reached its pinnacle. Hailey also takes up the case of power theft by the people. In Overload there is a special drive by the company to catch the culprits which also involves detective agencies. Hailey also refers to the problems various life saving agencies like hospitals face when there is an outage because majority of their equipmentrs like ventilators, X rays etc rely on power. Handicapped people and small businesses thrive on power. These messages are totally put across to the reader along with enviromental concerns.
Ultimately a series of controlled explosions shuts the power and California is plunged into darkness. How the citizens and the company cope with the crisis forms the bulwark of the story. Nim Goldman's personal life is woven into the story and I feel is an unnecessary distraction. Nim, a modern Don Juan, beds many women or falls in and out of love. He even has an affair with a quadriplegic woman who is totally dependent on the electric power his company generates. His womanizing attitude continues throughout the book in spite of his wife being diagnosed with cancer.
But Hailey ultimately lifts this book with good research about electric theft, shortage, environmental concerns and the effects of a power outage. Even though it was written in the late 70's the technology and concerns sound even true to this day. Overload gives us a pointer to the future as we are completely dependent on electricity for our needs. Hailey is a visionary indeed !!!