In the last two months I’ve read three nonfiction books that have entered in their own way into the lexicon of literary nonfiction – each in their own right based in science: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, The Spirit Catches And You Fall Down, and now Radioactive: Pierre and Marie Curie. Each has spent time atop various bestsellers lists.
It makes me question whether this scientific narrative is a trend. Spirit Catches is an older book, from 1996, so it doesn’t fit the bill in terms of being a recent trend. All the same it sparked my curiosity. I searched some bestsellers lists and searched Amazon’s directory for recent books and no trends emerged – that I saw. Still, I wondered about how each book seemed so impactful and popular.
The thread that struck me, was that they all touched on topics of spirituality. It’s a subject matter that because of its immateriality is difficult to pin, or state or define. But I think that Redniss’ Radioactive is especially compelling because of it. Redniss book begins with the very theme:
"Radium is one of these – Nature’s magic, because as yet no one understands its beings, or causes of being, nor its results of being. If radium can bring to our vision those things which we cannot see (as it does the atom), its influence cannot be measured on materialists, ‘I’ll believe when I see.'” – quote from Louie Fuller in preface
Just like Skloot’s Immortal Life deals with the transcendent effects of HeLa over the Lacks family and just as Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches deals with shamanism among the Hmong, Redniss uses a thread of love and otherworldly elements in the lives of the Curies to capture a force that’s implicit in the story. It’s a feat, worth noting I think.
It seems counterintuitive that matters of immaterial and impossible-to-measure qualities are the very elements that propel books about empirical science. If there are any doubts whether, Redniss intended there to be a spiritual thread throughout, it seems worth noting that the beautiful font she designed and used was named Eusapia LR, after Eusapia Pallidino, the spiritualist that the Curies visited.
***
Throughout Act 1, it was difficult to separate the visual art from the prose. It may have been a matter of conditioning but throughout I wanted to just flip the page and push through the prose. Or I wanted to just flip through and look at the art. I’m not sure if it was because the science was a bit heady, and required my full attention or whether it was because – I’m just not used to seeing a story presented this way. Either way, the movement of the Curies’ story in Act 1 felt like it dragged.
I say this, because it’s worth pointing out that in Act II the narrative changed. The story picked up its pace and I didn’t have to think about why or how to flip through pages. It’s possible that I had finally gotten used to the format. But more likely, my perception changed because Redniss began to employ a very effective jump. She began to expand the narrative from following solely the Curies and began to include passages that related to a broader range of radioactive topics. Some examples: Daniel Foss’ cancer treatment in 2001 (pg. 72), Sadae Kasaoka’s account of the A-bomb in Hiroshoma (pg.83) and the account of the Chernobyl meltdown (pg. 113-117).
This structure continued from act II and into Act III. There’s a certain type of gymnastics of the mind that’s rewarding in the structure. For instance consider a sequence beginning on pg. 136 and continuing to pg.146. Paul Langviere and a journalist are about to duel for Marie’s honor. Then on the next page Redniss details the atomic experiments in Nevada. Then over the course of two pages Preston Truman tells his heartbreaking account of living within toxic range of atomic testing in the 1950s and his childhood friends suffering from leukemia. The next two pages show images of the ominous-looking drill bits used to drill for underground atomic experiments in Nevada – symbolically implicating the harm caused by radiation. Then in the next two pages Marie Curie’s lover and a journalist are in a duel! (Only nobody fires.)
That’s a lot of action in 10 pages. And while, there’s no direct connection (that we know of) to radiation poisoning in Utah and drill bits in Nevada, there’s also no direct connection between a duel in 1911 and a atomic experimentation in 1950. This sequence is only linked by Marie Curie’s work with radium and radiation.
And it’s enough. It works. And it’s a bit of thrill.
***
There’s a lack of transition in the prose from topic to topic.
But it doesn’t bother me at all. Somehow the Cyanotype printing and other art managed to provide transition enough.
The art also allowed for a certain economy of the prose. Redniss is able to get away with sheer blocks of quotation for whole pages at a time. It sometimes made me think of a film script. At the same time, when its Redinss’s words we’re reading, it’s a very effective sparing language.
***
My cousin, who’s in film school, picked up my copy of the book from off my coffee table. He said, “whoa!”
I told him, very briefly about the high points: a love story, radioactive condoms and suppositories, Hiroshima, Nevada and a duel.
He said that could be a good movie.
And I think he’s right. But only if the film could capture the feel Redniss’s art. I think.
Maybe?
***
What luck that for Redniss that the Curies were beautiful writers:
Pierre, my Pierre, you are there, calm as a poor wounded man resting in his sleep, hes head bandaged. Your face is sweet as if you dream. Your lips, which I used to call hungry, are livid and colorless…” – Marie Curie pg. 106
Who says scientists can’t write?
***
Has anybody made a movie about the Chernobyl Meltdown?
Her mention of the Zone of Alienation becoming home to wolves and bears and lynx and wild animals, made me think about radioactive wildlife. Bears with three heads, and wolves with scales that breathe nuclear fire rampaging through Russia. It could stand to become an instant Hollywood classic.
Just remember your heard it here first.
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