A remarkable topic that needs no garish dramatic trimmings… Some approaches to history and storytelling work more favorably than others, it just depends on the reader and audience. Unfortunately The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women tested my optimistic blasé attitude toward different writing styling and I couldn’t help thinking that in place of “If it gets someone reading…” that maybe History sometimes provides its own commentary and little needs added after. Perhaps the facts surrounding the radium dial painters is one of those perfect examples of a topic that needs no garish dramatic trimmings-those brave women’s preserved words, court documents and scientific specifics all tell their own remarkable story. I understand the connection with the stage this author has but the incessant dramatic flamboyance with heavy chapters just didn’t seem appropriate in several passages (ex. the various exhumations and awkwardly timed tangents). There were also the thickly spread expressive conjectures in these pages that had me shaking my head, I can only take so much “perhaps, as though, they were thinking, she must have been thinking, he thought only etc” before those parts have me wishing I picked another title. It saddens me to admit my disappointment with The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women and I do applaud the obvious research in other parts that didn’t seem just tacked on (you could clearly tell the author is fond of her subject) but the heavy chintzy figurative writing almost had me dreading turning another page and in truth I put this title down quite a few times. It was my absolute fascination with the serious subject that kept me coming back between looking up still frames, documentaries (a film entitled "Radium City", I highly recommend to anyone that wants to learn more), newspaper clippings and partial photos of the statue dedicated to the memory of those amazing women. Maybe in the end, this non-fiction work took certain flourishes a bit too far even though it was a relatively easy read in the beginning I still do not fully regret reading for the history and attention to such a serious topic. I just think I will find something more “appropriate” with something else on the available shelves. * I would like to thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the opportunity to read The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women *Also published under the title: The Radium Girls: They paid with their lives. Their final fight was for justice by Kate Moore -EGP/February 2017 Comments are closed.
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