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4.42 AVERAGE
4.42 AVERAGE
From one of the accounts in the book: "Show me a fantasy novel about Chernobyl--there isn't one! Because reality is more fantastic."
Those two sentences best sum up this astounding collection. There is so much that is topsy-turvy grotesque, almost Rabelaisian, in the accounts, the memories. Ultimately, it is the details of the earth, the shoveling, and the root vegetables that soften the terror enough to make this readable. Thank goodness.
Those two sentences best sum up this astounding collection. There is so much that is topsy-turvy grotesque, almost Rabelaisian, in the accounts, the memories. Ultimately, it is the details of the earth, the shoveling, and the root vegetables that soften the terror enough to make this readable. Thank goodness.
Informative, beautiful, and downright haunting, "Voices from Chernobyl," by Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich is a collection of interviews, taken over the course of some ten years, concerning the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Speaking with a multiplicity of people ranging from liquidators to mothers to doctors, Alexievrich's interviews capture the personal traumas of a national emergency, as survivors try to find footing in a new world, one where nuclear power is no longer as innocent as it may have seemed previously.
It's hard to review a book such as this, where the writing is so moving and subject so somber that it feels more like I dreamed it than read it. That the book can produce such a feeling in the reader is owed mostly to Alexievich's masterful eye for detail, and ability to weave otherwise-disjointed interviews into a more cohesive narrative. The end result is a book that reads less like a collection of interviews than it does a memoir. It was in this structuring that the book's greatest strengths lie.
Though throughout, Voices of Chernobyl proved a glowing masterpiece, I at times couldn't help but wonder whether Alexievrich's flare for drama and narrative at times obscured the true reality of things from the reader. This wasn't the first I'd read about Chernobyl, and while indeed it was a tragedy, the scope of its devastation here seemed to be far overstated in parts. Nonetheless, one of the essential texts for anyone interested in the Chernobyl disaster--just make sure you read more rigorous texts and articles alongside it.
It's hard to review a book such as this, where the writing is so moving and subject so somber that it feels more like I dreamed it than read it. That the book can produce such a feeling in the reader is owed mostly to Alexievich's masterful eye for detail, and ability to weave otherwise-disjointed interviews into a more cohesive narrative. The end result is a book that reads less like a collection of interviews than it does a memoir. It was in this structuring that the book's greatest strengths lie.
Though throughout, Voices of Chernobyl proved a glowing masterpiece, I at times couldn't help but wonder whether Alexievrich's flare for drama and narrative at times obscured the true reality of things from the reader. This wasn't the first I'd read about Chernobyl, and while indeed it was a tragedy, the scope of its devastation here seemed to be far overstated in parts. Nonetheless, one of the essential texts for anyone interested in the Chernobyl disaster--just make sure you read more rigorous texts and articles alongside it.
Today, April 26th, is the 26th 27th anniversary of Chernobyl catastrophe. In case you're wondering - no, Google did NOT feature it on its home page (same as last year, sadly). But shouldn't humanity remember this disaster?
****
This is one of the most horrifying books I have ever read. It reads like a postapocalyptic story, except for all of it is horrifyingly real.
Svetlana Alexievich, a journalist, provides real but almost surreal in their horror oral accounts of Chernobyl disaster. On April 26, 1986 an explosion of reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station marked the transition from the idea of a "peaceful atom" to the worst nuclear catastrophe in history. This was a disaster largely hushed up by the government; people were lied to, the effects were minimized and brushed off, and there were not enough resources for a proper and safe clean-up. These true stories are heart-wrenching and shocking, honest and resigned, angry and hopeless.
The city of Pripyat, which was home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear station, remains abandoned since that fateful April of 1986.
People were thrown into the areas where machines were unable to function due to radiation - while wearing little more than t-shirts and equipped with shovels. People were on the burning roof of the reactor without any protection. People were dying from acute radiation sickness in the most horrifying ways imaginable. Scientists tried to sound alarm but were silenced. Produce heavily contaminated with radiation was still exported to other parts of the Soviet Union. Contaminated items from looted towns and villages appeared all over the country. People were whisked from their homes on buses and told that they would be gone for only a few days. Pets were shot to contain spread of contamination. Visiting officials came in full radiations suits; their local guide was wearing a sundress and sandals. Radiation meters readings were either ignored or falsified. Officials were bringing people out for May Day parades outside in accordance with orders from "above" and then watched their own family members succumb to the disease. Listless sick children live in surrounding areas and are just waiting to die.
Alexievich lets the eyewitness accounts speak for themselves, with very little editorial voice. Occasionally, she clarifies the emotions or the reactions of the interviewees, but for the most part she lets them speak in their own voice. She does not preach or editorialize, and that makes the book more poignant.
These are stories of people robbed of their present and future, of the disaster that is still claiming lives. Its effects will be felt for decades to come, in the sick children, mutated animals, abandoned cities and villages, and destroyed lives. I cried when I was reading this book. How can you not?
5 stars for the fact that she was courageous enough to listen to the heartbreaking accounts and compile all these stories. I would not have had enough strength to do that.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
****
This is one of the most horrifying books I have ever read. It reads like a postapocalyptic story, except for all of it is horrifyingly real.
Svetlana Alexievich, a journalist, provides real but almost surreal in their horror oral accounts of Chernobyl disaster. On April 26, 1986 an explosion of reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station marked the transition from the idea of a "peaceful atom" to the worst nuclear catastrophe in history. This was a disaster largely hushed up by the government; people were lied to, the effects were minimized and brushed off, and there were not enough resources for a proper and safe clean-up. These true stories are heart-wrenching and shocking, honest and resigned, angry and hopeless.
The city of Pripyat, which was home to the workers of the Chernobyl nuclear station, remains abandoned since that fateful April of 1986.
People were thrown into the areas where machines were unable to function due to radiation - while wearing little more than t-shirts and equipped with shovels. People were on the burning roof of the reactor without any protection. People were dying from acute radiation sickness in the most horrifying ways imaginable. Scientists tried to sound alarm but were silenced. Produce heavily contaminated with radiation was still exported to other parts of the Soviet Union. Contaminated items from looted towns and villages appeared all over the country. People were whisked from their homes on buses and told that they would be gone for only a few days. Pets were shot to contain spread of contamination. Visiting officials came in full radiations suits; their local guide was wearing a sundress and sandals. Radiation meters readings were either ignored or falsified. Officials were bringing people out for May Day parades outside in accordance with orders from "above" and then watched their own family members succumb to the disease. Listless sick children live in surrounding areas and are just waiting to die.
Alexievich lets the eyewitness accounts speak for themselves, with very little editorial voice. Occasionally, she clarifies the emotions or the reactions of the interviewees, but for the most part she lets them speak in their own voice. She does not preach or editorialize, and that makes the book more poignant.
These are stories of people robbed of their present and future, of the disaster that is still claiming lives. Its effects will be felt for decades to come, in the sick children, mutated animals, abandoned cities and villages, and destroyed lives. I cried when I was reading this book. How can you not?
5 stars for the fact that she was courageous enough to listen to the heartbreaking accounts and compile all these stories. I would not have had enough strength to do that.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
sad
(Popsugar Reading Challenge 2022, prompt 30 - A book featuring a man-made disaster)
Viktige stemmer, og noen virkelig vakre og vonde kapitler, men den ble litt repetitiv, og selv om den muntlige monolog-stilen var et interessant grep, savnet jeg litt mer kontekst til historiene.
Viktige stemmer, og noen virkelig vakre og vonde kapitler, men den ble litt repetitiv, og selv om den muntlige monolog-stilen var et interessant grep, savnet jeg litt mer kontekst til historiene.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This book was emotionally devastating to read. It took the tragedy of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which is most often discussed as an example of the consequences of Soviet self aggrandizement, and placed it at the feet of the survivors. It placed it within the homes and minds of regular, normal, every day people. It forced the reader to confront the fact that yes, the world goes on, but that doesn't mean it wasn't irrevocably changed. At least for the people who lived through it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, Medical trauma
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Chronic illness, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Blood, Pregnancy