Kelly McMasters

This is an absolutely wonderful book. The author perfectly combines her sweet and sentimental nostalgia for her childhood (which was idyllic in a uniquely American way) with the story of the poisoning occurring every minute in her town, to her friends and neighbors and to her and her family.

Shirley is a town abutting the Brookhaven National Laboratory and for decades toxic wastes were allowed to drain into the groundwater.

This isn't a medical book so she doesn't "prove" that the horrible show more cancers in her town were caused by the toxic waste, but really, I don't see how anyone could reach any other conclusion. The story of Shirley should serve as a warning to us all as to how government and money can trump concern for health; how expediency gets chosen over doing what's right.

I really recommend this book. I loved it. show less

A terrific book. Kelly McMasters weaves the personal and political into an insightful and heart-wrenching tapestry. Great research, as well as a poignant portrait of the author's life, and that that of her hard-scrabble, big-hearted town. At moments disturbing and elegiac, at others uplifting, the book is also a call to action. I love the way McMasters takes the traditional memoir form and broadens it into a political essay. Well done.

I enjoyed reading parts of this book, but other parts were too technical for me. I think the problem lies in the way the book is the book is organized, namely chronological. All it three parts run together: the personal narrative, the town's narrative and the scientific information. It would have worked better if this was divided into separate chapters. That said this is a n important and necessary book about how the government weasels itself out of community concern and is blind to the show more incredible suffering they bring to innocent people in the community. show less

In the early 1980s, my great-grandmother, a first-gen puerto rican who had lived in the shit parts of the Bronx all her life bought a tiny house in Shirley, NY at 10 Lafayette Drive. I remember it well. I fell through the cover to the septic tank and went up to my knee in pure cess. When my mom fished me out and ran me to the bathroom, and my great-grandmother was outside yelling, "I saved the shoe! I saved the shoe!"I saw a reviewlet for this in Oprah and knew I had to pick it up. When I show more told my mother about the Brookhaven superfund situation that backdrops the personal narrative she said, "Oh, that's why all the neighbors' hair turned orange."But I was a little disappointed with the book, to be honest. It was not gripping, despite the fascinating subject matter. Maybe too much gauzy nostalgia, not enough synthesis, I dunno. show less