Scan barcode
three_martini_lunch's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
fast-paced
ferociablejbear's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
pearloz's review against another edition
3.0
Book about a subject I wasn't familiar with, picked it up due to the author alone. Has all the hallmarks of a disaster and company cover up: accident waiting to happen, accident happens, owners/bosses tailor rescue to bottom line only and not the lives of their employees, tragedy ensues. Government assisted cover up and subsequent empty gestures from company to placate the bereaved. It was brief gutpunch of a book that was a little dry and didn't necessarily feel like a Yuri Herrera book. The book feels important and sheds new light on this tragedy.
apoorvasr's review against another edition
5.0
A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire by Yuri Herrera , translated by Lisa Dillman
I came across this book as I was gearing up for the Mexican reading list.
This book is threadbare, sparse and provocative. It is a mere 120 pages but it will get stuck in your throat , every page a lump in your heart.
A mining fire incident taking the lives of 87 men. Their names lost and burnt in the fire as well as their identities.
Herrera's approach is clinical , like a post mortem cutting up the skin to find which organ caused the damage. In this case, the sheer negligence and whitewashing of the facts.
The value of the 87 men who meagerly paid ..And toiled in the worst and dangerous living conditions..
A crime has been committed.. the towering capitalists will now compensate you.. Be beware you must prove your identity to the deceased..
The deceased whose bodies were mangled beyond recognition.. Lucky are those who get their dear ones remains..
And the living ghosts who were locked in the mine in the fear of the fire spreading.. What about them.. Physical health is perfect they say.. But their clouded eyes tell stories..
The managers and the top bosses felt the fire needs to be contained.. what was suffocation and burning of human stench to them? Condolences are passed in the press hearing of course..
A silent fury does something wonderful in the end .. it acknowledges those men who died a nameless death.. Their 87 names written for you ..
They are not forgotten..
Meanwhile , his wife fights for compensation because she does not have anything to prove but memories..
I came across this book as I was gearing up for the Mexican reading list.
This book is threadbare, sparse and provocative. It is a mere 120 pages but it will get stuck in your throat , every page a lump in your heart.
A mining fire incident taking the lives of 87 men. Their names lost and burnt in the fire as well as their identities.
Herrera's approach is clinical , like a post mortem cutting up the skin to find which organ caused the damage. In this case, the sheer negligence and whitewashing of the facts.
The value of the 87 men who meagerly paid ..And toiled in the worst and dangerous living conditions..
A crime has been committed.. the towering capitalists will now compensate you.. Be beware you must prove your identity to the deceased..
The deceased whose bodies were mangled beyond recognition.. Lucky are those who get their dear ones remains..
And the living ghosts who were locked in the mine in the fear of the fire spreading.. What about them.. Physical health is perfect they say.. But their clouded eyes tell stories..
The managers and the top bosses felt the fire needs to be contained.. what was suffocation and burning of human stench to them? Condolences are passed in the press hearing of course..
A silent fury does something wonderful in the end .. it acknowledges those men who died a nameless death.. Their 87 names written for you ..
They are not forgotten..
Meanwhile , his wife fights for compensation because she does not have anything to prove but memories..
ipb1's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting historical recounting: more journalistic report than novel. The thing it highlights (more even than the predictable worker exploitation and negligent practices) is the silencing of the voices of the survivors, families, and community following the tragedy. But because it adheres fairly rigorously to the documentary mode rather than novelising it ultimately fails finally to give a voice to the silenced, and so ends up a rather underwhelming experience.
ratgrrrl's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
5.0
How do you rate or review a book like this?
It's a passionate, well-written, meticulously researched report on an atrocity that should be remembered.
The callous actions and deceit that flowed from the moment disaster struck, leading to so many more dying, and the way blame was shifted onto the dead themselves, happily corroborated and elaborated on by a willing press that ultimately lead to plaudits and renown for the guilty and no ceremony or human regard for their charred victims' remains, discarded without a thought, just like their lives, should stay with us.
This is capitalism and the authority of the state. Think how much else that is kept from you and you refuse to see.
I am very glad this tale is being told and hope those exploited in life and death are granted some peace. A peace we should never allow those whose hands our necks rest in.
It's a passionate, well-written, meticulously researched report on an atrocity that should be remembered.
The callous actions and deceit that flowed from the moment disaster struck, leading to so many more dying, and the way blame was shifted onto the dead themselves, happily corroborated and elaborated on by a willing press that ultimately lead to plaudits and renown for the guilty and no ceremony or human regard for their charred victims' remains, discarded without a thought, just like their lives, should stay with us.
This is capitalism and the authority of the state. Think how much else that is kept from you and you refuse to see.
I am very glad this tale is being told and hope those exploited in life and death are granted some peace. A peace we should never allow those whose hands our necks rest in.
trillium9's review against another edition
In some ways, this is a book about a specific event in a specific place, comprised mostly of less-than-reliable reports about the event. But the book does a beautiful job of highlighting the holes left in the story, and the story-not-told is always on display. So many places have untold(purposefully unacknowledged) stories of oppression, and I think the themes brought out in this book are very widely applicable.
It was interesting to read this at the same time as I read "In the Dream House" by Carmen Maria Machado, which is also comprised of commonly told stories and motifs about queerness and domestic violence, and which highlights the story of queer domestic violence that is not told. The themes and style of both books are remarkably similar in some ways.
It was interesting to read this at the same time as I read "In the Dream House" by Carmen Maria Machado, which is also comprised of commonly told stories and motifs about queerness and domestic violence, and which highlights the story of queer domestic violence that is not told. The themes and style of both books are remarkably similar in some ways.
scrow1022's review against another edition
5.0
Elegant, moving witness, powerful meditation on who tells history and how it is told.