Scan barcode
andrea_augustinas_metz's review
challenging
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
midici's review against another edition
4.0
A short, compelling novella that explores a dark current of apathy and cruelty that led to the real-life tragedy of the Radium Girls .
In this world, elephants are known to be sapient. They have their own matriarchal societies, their own culture and practices, and they can be spoken to via their own version of sign-language. If you assume this would make people treat them any better than they have been treated historically, you'd be wrong.
There are several consecutive stories taking place in this novella. One is the future, in which a mother is explaining to her calf why they live near a mountain that makes them glow. One is contemporary, where a woman named Kat is trying to convince the elephants that they should allow humans to permanently change their genetic code to make them glow, so they can function as a warning sign to humans that the poisonous radiation in the ground should be left alone. The meat of the novella is the story of Regan, the radium girl, who is working with 'Topsy' the enslaved elephant at the factory. And the last story is an elephant myth, a teaching story of the Furmother-With-Cracked-Tusks who freed the stories stolen by the Bull.
The perspective shifts between the elephants and the humans are distinct. The elephants have their own conception of history and community that is fundamentally at odds with the humans. They have long histories and remember the past between their two species much better than humans do. They consider the humans to be unwise, weak, and prone to bad decision-making, which they attribute to the fact that their societies are mostly run by 'bulls'. The humans don't pretend that they don't know that the elephants are sapient - they simply don't care. They're not people therefore they're not as important.
Regan and Topsy are both being exploited by the radium company. Regan chose the job, but she wasn't aware of the danger until it was far too late, and is now trying to get as much money as possible before she dies in order to help her sisters. Topsy was enslaved after killing a man and has moved from the circus to the factory. She is alone, separated from her fellows, and slowing building to a rage. The two of them are not friends. But they do share an experience of being dehumanized and abused, and recognize themselves in each other.
Topsy eventually does kill again - this time the supervisor who is beating Regan. When Topsy is sentenced to death via electrocution, Regan sneaks into the area to give Topsy a radioactive sample. When they electrocute Topsy, the explosion takes out everyone else as well.
There was a lot of lovely writing in this novella but this terribly sad part was very compelling:
Another human pushes out of the mass—the dead girl, still moving, still somehow on her feet when every part of her stinks of corruption. […] She turns, asking in the language of twisted trunk-paws: Are you well? Can you walk? It’s just a little further. We’ll go together.
And even this much We is enough to drive the fear back into the high grass. Her mind stills. Her legs unstiffen. Together they cross the overwater, men flytrailing behind. Together they go to sing the song of their undoing, the joining, teaching, come-together song.
But even as Kat argues that it was this transformative act that makes the elephants ideal for keeping watch over the poisoned land, we can see that she's lying, to herself and the elephants. Topsy's story is a Disney-fied feel-good story that ends with Topsy Doing Her Part for the Greater Good. Kat's superiors flat out say they'll make token gestures to appease the elephants, but have no real intention of actually providing anything useful for the service they're asking of them.
I actually looked up more information on the Radium Girls after reading this book. The 'Girls' of course, were women. They were hired to paint watches with a self-luminous paint made from radium. While the scientists were fully aware it was dangerous and took precautions, the women were told it was harmless and were instructed to use their lips to 'point' their paint brushes. The women died in pain, often with a necrosis of the jaw. When the women tried to get some accountability, the companies spread rumors that sick employees were loose women who had contracted syphilis. In the end, the five women who sued the company and won had to win eight court cases before the company was finally forced to pay out.
The parts written from the elephants' perspective, Regan and Topsy's combined story of revenge/justice/illumination, and the mythical Furmother story were all very moving and interesting. I was less interested in the contemporary part with Kat, possibly because of how depressing it was to realize that this, too, was already being forgotten and misremembered by humans even as they made the elephants 'solve' a problem created directly by humans in which the elephants were victimized.
In this world, elephants are known to be sapient. They have their own matriarchal societies, their own culture and practices, and they can be spoken to via their own version of sign-language. If you assume this would make people treat them any better than they have been treated historically, you'd be wrong.
There are several consecutive stories taking place in this novella. One is the future, in which a mother is explaining to her calf why they live near a mountain that makes them glow. One is contemporary, where a woman named Kat is trying to convince the elephants that they should allow humans to permanently change their genetic code to make them glow, so they can function as a warning sign to humans that the poisonous radiation in the ground should be left alone. The meat of the novella is the story of Regan, the radium girl, who is working with 'Topsy' the enslaved elephant at the factory. And the last story is an elephant myth, a teaching story of the Furmother-With-Cracked-Tusks who freed the stories stolen by the Bull.
The perspective shifts between the elephants and the humans are distinct. The elephants have their own conception of history and community that is fundamentally at odds with the humans. They have long histories and remember the past between their two species much better than humans do. They consider the humans to be unwise, weak, and prone to bad decision-making, which they attribute to the fact that their societies are mostly run by 'bulls'. The humans don't pretend that they don't know that the elephants are sapient - they simply don't care. They're not people therefore they're not as important.
Regan and Topsy are both being exploited by the radium company. Regan chose the job, but she wasn't aware of the danger until it was far too late, and is now trying to get as much money as possible before she dies in order to help her sisters. Topsy was enslaved after killing a man and has moved from the circus to the factory. She is alone, separated from her fellows, and slowing building to a rage. The two of them are not friends. But they do share an experience of being dehumanized and abused, and recognize themselves in each other.
Topsy eventually does kill again - this time the supervisor who is beating Regan. When Topsy is sentenced to death via electrocution, Regan sneaks into the area to give Topsy a radioactive sample. When they electrocute Topsy, the explosion takes out everyone else as well.
There was a lot of lovely writing in this novella but this terribly sad part was very compelling:
Another human pushes out of the mass—the dead girl, still moving, still somehow on her feet when every part of her stinks of corruption. […] She turns, asking in the language of twisted trunk-paws: Are you well? Can you walk? It’s just a little further. We’ll go together.
And even this much We is enough to drive the fear back into the high grass. Her mind stills. Her legs unstiffen. Together they cross the overwater, men flytrailing behind. Together they go to sing the song of their undoing, the joining, teaching, come-together song.
But even as Kat argues that it was this transformative act that makes the elephants ideal for keeping watch over the poisoned land, we can see that she's lying, to herself and the elephants. Topsy's story is a Disney-fied feel-good story that ends with Topsy Doing Her Part for the Greater Good. Kat's superiors flat out say they'll make token gestures to appease the elephants, but have no real intention of actually providing anything useful for the service they're asking of them.
I actually looked up more information on the Radium Girls after reading this book. The 'Girls' of course, were women. They were hired to paint watches with a self-luminous paint made from radium. While the scientists were fully aware it was dangerous and took precautions, the women were told it was harmless and were instructed to use their lips to 'point' their paint brushes. The women died in pain, often with a necrosis of the jaw. When the women tried to get some accountability, the companies spread rumors that sick employees were loose women who had contracted syphilis. In the end, the five women who sued the company and won had to win eight court cases before the company was finally forced to pay out.
The parts written from the elephants' perspective, Regan and Topsy's combined story of revenge/justice/illumination, and the mythical Furmother story were all very moving and interesting. I was less interested in the contemporary part with Kat, possibly because of how depressing it was to realize that this, too, was already being forgotten and misremembered by humans even as they made the elephants 'solve' a problem created directly by humans in which the elephants were victimized.
adudeandhislife's review
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
idrownflowers's review
dark
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I have several thoughts about this masterpiece of nonfiction fiction so i'll list them in points.
- i really appreciate the way this book is structured. it reads like a tv show with the way the perspective switches from plotline to plotline. not only does this leave you on your toes, but it also allows you to see the grace in how they all eventually unfold and come together to explain each other.
- this is SUCH a creative take on these two mind-boggling historical events. the way the radium holds such an ominous presence in every one of these characters' lives is so creepy but effective. i would never think of it and that's why I'm so glad it exists.
- the more you read the more beautiful the prose gets. but it's a different kind of beautiful. a beautiful that's ugly. you'll simply have to read it to get what i mean.
- i think the part i loved the most was how loudly implicit the parallelism between the humans (every man for himself, dog eat dog world ideology) and the elephants (a collective, no singular, always We. stresses togetherness) was. so much to think about.....
- bolander's word choice is something very special about this book too. the amount of times i circled, underlined and/or drew a little heart around the compound words she invented is countless!!
a forever recommend. i could talk about this book for hours
- i really appreciate the way this book is structured. it reads like a tv show with the way the perspective switches from plotline to plotline. not only does this leave you on your toes, but it also allows you to see the grace in how they all eventually unfold and come together to explain each other.
- this is SUCH a creative take on these two mind-boggling historical events. the way the radium holds such an ominous presence in every one of these characters' lives is so creepy but effective. i would never think of it and that's why I'm so glad it exists.
- the more you read the more beautiful the prose gets. but it's a different kind of beautiful. a beautiful that's ugly. you'll simply have to read it to get what i mean.
- i think the part i loved the most was how loudly implicit the parallelism between the humans (every man for himself, dog eat dog world ideology) and the elephants (a collective, no singular, always We. stresses togetherness) was. so much to think about.....
- bolander's word choice is something very special about this book too. the amount of times i circled, underlined and/or drew a little heart around the compound words she invented is countless!!
a forever recommend. i could talk about this book for hours
kate_pf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
apleiades17's review against another edition
3.0
“Please do not misunderstand me. We aren’t protecting your secrets. We are guarding the truth. They will see how we shine, and they will know the truth.”
khuizenga's review against another edition
4.0
I wish I knew more about Topsy and the Radium Girls. This book made me ache and mad but also want to know about what actually happened. It did a lot in 100 pages, but I kind of wish it were longer; I still had a lot of unanswered questions. I also really enjoyed the creation of elephant culture and language and the author’s imagining of how the matriarchal structure of elephants would play out.
hieronymusbotched's review against another edition
4.0
4.arbitrary
A thunderclap of a novella and surprisingly complex given its small frame. Three timelines and arguably four protagonists. And all the while the language here sings. It's exceptionally difficult to maintain the level of poetry present on display past a few pages without watering down the content (or turning up the snooze), but it seems effortless on the page and elevates the action into a kind of Aesopian chorus.
5 pages longer, even 5 paragraphs, and it could have been a five. But maybe that's just me.
In any case, expect the book to end with you shivering.
A thunderclap of a novella and surprisingly complex given its small frame. Three timelines and arguably four protagonists. And all the while the language here sings. It's exceptionally difficult to maintain the level of poetry present on display past a few pages without watering down the content (or turning up the snooze), but it seems effortless on the page and elevates the action into a kind of Aesopian chorus.
5 pages longer, even 5 paragraphs, and it could have been a five. But maybe that's just me.
In any case, expect the book to end with you shivering.
audioandereadergrrly's review against another edition
5.0
This is a lyrically astounding novella. An alternative history combining two tragic topics, there are three stories being told simultaneously. My favorite parts were the sections from the elephants’ perspectives. The language of the elephants was absolutely beautiful. This book is definitely a new favorite of mine.