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Voices From Chernobyl The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster Svetlana Alexievich Keith Gessen 9781564784018 Books

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Voices From Chernobyl The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster Svetlana Alexievich Keith Gessen 9781564784018 Books

-- I'll get down on my knees to beg you--please, find our Anna Sushko. She lived in our village. In Kozhushki. Her name is Anna Sushko. I'll tell you how she looked, and you'll type it up. She has a hump, and she was mute from birth. She lived by herself. She was sixty. During the time of the transfer they put her in an ambulance and drove her off somewhere. She never learned to read, so we never got any letters from her. The lonely and the sick were put in special places. They hid them. But no one knows where…. The whole village took care of her, like she was a little girl.

Unlike most recent Nobel Prize winners, Svetlana Alexievich writes simply and directly, without any tricks of style, and the emotion she distills is heartbreaking. For these words are not her own, but those of survivors of the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, faithfully transcribed by her down to the silences, tears, and hesitations, and lucidly translated by Keith Gessen. Start at the beginning, or open to any page, and you will find yourself drawn into these poor people's lives: townspeople who go out on their balconies to watch the unusual colors of the reactor fire, farmers forced to leave their crops and cattle, soldiers and firemen drafted in with inadequate protection to clean up the mess. It is very easy to read, and unbearably human. Or starkly human and eventually unbearable to read, because the stories of stolen lives are told in their raw form and never let up.

The book is framed by two longish sections headed "A Solitary Human Voice," the accounts of widows, newlyweds and very much in love, seeing their husbands come back and basically rot before their eyes. It continues with monologues, dialogues, choruses, the voices of soldiers, resettlers, children, all meticulously attributed with their real names. There is tragedy, of course, and even more pathos. One returning soldier burns all his clothing except for his army cap which is coveted by his little boy; two years later, the child is dead of a brain tumor. One woman smuggles out her radioactive cat in a suitcase. Another goes to see her doctor:

-- "Sweety," I say, "my legs don't move. The joints hurt." "You need to give up your cow, grandma. The milk's poisoned." "Oh, no," I say, "my legs hurt, my knees hurt, but I won't give up the cow. She feeds me."

There is rumor and superstition here, but much genuine faith; ignorance and a strange kind of poetry. Bewilderment is only the other side of the coin to a previous belief in the stability of the simple life; sorrow is the obverse of love. The light of the disaster illuminates the lives of ordinary people; I could well believe that this is a better portrait of the Russian soul than any number of novels. There are even touches of characteristic black humor:

-- There was a Ukrainian woman at the market selling big red apples. "Come get your apples! Chernobyl apples!" Someone told her not to advertise that, no one will buy them. "Don't worry," she says. "They buy them anyway. Some need them for their mother-in-law, some for their boss."

One man tried to write about his experiences. "I sent the story to a journal. They wrote back saying that this wasn't a work of literature, but the description of a nightmare." Which makes me ask the question of Alexievich herself: a nighmare certainly, but is this literature as we know it? It felt more like the raw materials waiting to be made into literature by someone else. Being a theatrical person myself, I kept on wondering how I might select from those monologues and choruses to put them on the stage, set them to music perhaps, at any rate do something to give them shape and overall meaning. The author divides her book into three major sections: The Land of the Dead, The Land of the Living, and Amazed by Sadness. But the texture of the narratives is much the same in each; there is no obvious structural arc, no particular reason why you should continue to subject yourself to such a succession of tales of woe. But perhaps I would be wrong to try to force these stories into a shape that has some meaning. They HAVE no meaning, no larger redemptive purpose. And that is her point.

Keith Gessen, the translator, opens with an introduction giving some of the facts and dates of the disaster. But with the exception of a brief preface, Alexievich herself does not. In her equally brief closing section, In Place of an Epilogue, she explains why, and also why she feels the subject is so urgent: because living in a country with 350 atomic bombs, the threat of nuclear holocaust is all too real. Let me end my review, therefore, with her own voice after reading so many others:

-- I often thought that the simple fact, the mechanical fact, is no closer to the truth than a vague feeling, rumor, vision. Why repeat the facts--they cover up our feelings. The development of these feelings, the spilling of these feelings past the facts, is what fascinated me. I try to find them, collect them, protect them. These people had already seen what for everyone else is still unknown. I felt like I was recording the future.


Tags : Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster [Svetlana Alexievich, Keith Gessen] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature</b> <b>Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award</b> A journalist by trade,Svetlana Alexievich, Keith Gessen,Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster,Dalkey Archive Press,1564784010,World,Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobyl, Ukraine, 1986,Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobyl, Ukraine, 1986 - Environmental aspects - Belarus,Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobyl, Ukraine, 1986 - Social aspects - Belarus,Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobyl§, Ukraine, 1986;Environmental aspects;Belarus.,Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobyl§, Ukraine, 1986;Personal narratives, Belarusian.,Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobyl§, Ukraine, 1986;Social aspects;Belarus.,Belarus,Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobyl§, Ukraine, 1986,Environmental aspects,Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union,European history,Former European Soviet States,GENERAL,General Adult,HISTORY Modern 20th Century,HISTORY Russia & the Former Soviet Union,HISTORY World,History,History - General History,HistoryModern - 20th Century,HistoryWorld,History: World,Modern - 20th Century,Nobel Prize;winner;Ukraine;interviews,Non-Fiction,Personal narratives, Belarusian,Politics & government,Social aspects,Ukraine,United States

Voices From Chernobyl The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster Svetlana Alexievich Keith Gessen 9781564784018 Books Reviews

I found this book to be one of those that is hard to put down, and at the end you want more pages to read. Finished in hours, one sitting. The subject matter is dark but if you have a morbid fascination then this is for you. The first hand accounts really bring this real-life tragedy to life and are quite sobering. Not a feel-good book, but it is a historical account that shouldn't be passed on so that those who haven't experienced it can gain some insight into this and other like situations. Excellent read! It gives the reader much to think about and digest. You will end up with questions that you wouldn't have even known to ask before reading this.
To most Americans, the nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl in 1986 is a remote news item. This collection of first person accounts elegantly assembled by Svetlana Alexievich introduces the reader not only to those who lived in the nearby village, but other victims from soldiers, "liquidators", up until the recreation of Chernobyl as a refugee resettlement for former Soviet citizens who've been ousted from former member states. This is a difficult book. The reader can barely believe the inhumanity, cruelty, and outcomes of being exposed to radiation. Nor is the obedience to leadership, the self-sacrifice, and love of land easy to grasp.
In these times of uncertainty, the question of political power, intent, and puppetry are asked over and over again by the storytellers.
Alexievich was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature. I was compelled to read one of her texts. I settled on the Voices of Chernobyl. This book is a collection of Chernobyl survivors's interviews. This ongoing tragedy is momentous. The first story is almost too painful to read because we empathize with this young and naive wife who slowly watches her husband die over 14 days, and the last story is also about a young wife who watched her husband slowly die over years. All members of society have voices in this collection. While I was reading this book, I thought and wondered about the survivors, and I knew that most, or probably all, are dead. The ramifications of this accident will last for decades, centuries, and probably millennia. This book is not for the faint of heart.
-- I'll get down on my knees to beg you--please, find our Anna Sushko. She lived in our village. In Kozhushki. Her name is Anna Sushko. I'll tell you how she looked, and you'll type it up. She has a hump, and she was mute from birth. She lived by herself. She was sixty. During the time of the transfer they put her in an ambulance and drove her off somewhere. She never learned to read, so we never got any letters from her. The lonely and the sick were put in special places. They hid them. But no one knows where…. The whole village took care of her, like she was a little girl.

Unlike most recent Nobel Prize winners, Svetlana Alexievich writes simply and directly, without any tricks of style, and the emotion she distills is heartbreaking. For these words are not her own, but those of survivors of the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, faithfully transcribed by her down to the silences, tears, and hesitations, and lucidly translated by Keith Gessen. Start at the beginning, or open to any page, and you will find yourself drawn into these poor people's lives townspeople who go out on their balconies to watch the unusual colors of the reactor fire, farmers forced to leave their crops and cattle, soldiers and firemen drafted in with inadequate protection to clean up the mess. It is very easy to read, and unbearably human. Or starkly human and eventually unbearable to read, because the stories of stolen lives are told in their raw form and never let up.

The book is framed by two longish sections headed "A Solitary Human Voice," the accounts of widows, newlyweds and very much in love, seeing their husbands come back and basically rot before their eyes. It continues with monologues, dialogues, choruses, the voices of soldiers, resettlers, children, all meticulously attributed with their real names. There is tragedy, of course, and even more pathos. One returning soldier burns all his clothing except for his army cap which is coveted by his little boy; two years later, the child is dead of a brain tumor. One woman smuggles out her radioactive cat in a suitcase. Another goes to see her doctor

-- "Sweety," I say, "my legs don't move. The joints hurt." "You need to give up your cow, grandma. The milk's poisoned." "Oh, no," I say, "my legs hurt, my knees hurt, but I won't give up the cow. She feeds me."

There is rumor and superstition here, but much genuine faith; ignorance and a strange kind of poetry. Bewilderment is only the other side of the coin to a previous belief in the stability of the simple life; sorrow is the obverse of love. The light of the disaster illuminates the lives of ordinary people; I could well believe that this is a better portrait of the Russian soul than any number of novels. There are even touches of characteristic black humor

-- There was a Ukrainian woman at the market selling big red apples. "Come get your apples! Chernobyl apples!" Someone told her not to advertise that, no one will buy them. "Don't worry," she says. "They buy them anyway. Some need them for their mother-in-law, some for their boss."

One man tried to write about his experiences. "I sent the story to a journal. They wrote back saying that this wasn't a work of literature, but the description of a nightmare." Which makes me ask the question of Alexievich herself a nighmare certainly, but is this literature as we know it? It felt more like the raw materials waiting to be made into literature by someone else. Being a theatrical person myself, I kept on wondering how I might select from those monologues and choruses to put them on the stage, set them to music perhaps, at any rate do something to give them shape and overall meaning. The author divides her book into three major sections The Land of the Dead, The Land of the Living, and Amazed by Sadness. But the texture of the narratives is much the same in each; there is no obvious structural arc, no particular reason why you should continue to subject yourself to such a succession of tales of woe. But perhaps I would be wrong to try to force these stories into a shape that has some meaning. They HAVE no meaning, no larger redemptive purpose. And that is her point.

Keith Gessen, the translator, opens with an introduction giving some of the facts and dates of the disaster. But with the exception of a brief preface, Alexievich herself does not. In her equally brief closing section, In Place of an Epilogue, she explains why, and also why she feels the subject is so urgent because living in a country with 350 atomic bombs, the threat of nuclear holocaust is all too real. Let me end my review, therefore, with her own voice after reading so many others

-- I often thought that the simple fact, the mechanical fact, is no closer to the truth than a vague feeling, rumor, vision. Why repeat the facts--they cover up our feelings. The development of these feelings, the spilling of these feelings past the facts, is what fascinated me. I try to find them, collect them, protect them. These people had already seen what for everyone else is still unknown. I felt like I was recording the future.