Conspiracy on Several Levels
I truly enjoyed Radium Halos. More importantly, I commend Shelley Stout for opening the secret of the women who used radioactive paint to create luminous clock and watch dials at the Radium Dial Factory. It was historical fiction with a punchan important story to be told.
Radium Halos is a remarkable fictional account of Helen, a North Carolina sixteen-year-old who worked in the Radium Dial Company in Illinois during the 1920s. Helen at age sixty-five suffers from an undefined mental problem, probably stemming from her proximity to and ingestion of the radioactive paint during her time at the factory.
Stout's use of a colloquial dialect for her naïve, educationally deficient, but observant main character, Helen, is consistent and easily understood. This task is not easily written but masterfully handled here. Helen's voice is distinct and ingenuous as the book alternates between her youth in the 1920s and her recalling of the events of her past with amazing clarity as a sixty-five-year-old woman. I felt Helen sitting right beside me telling her story and I was sympathetic to her losses. Helen's sister, Violet, although dead for most of the novel, looms large in the reader's mind, as a powerful central character. Pearl, the resentful niece, is so well presented this reader constantly worried how she might negatively impact Helen's life. The other characters are all cast uniquely, but Helen's compelling voice will stay with me a long time.
What are the consequences of our actions? The author expertly explores this dilemma by interweaving a dual story. On the one hand, the young factory workers play what they perceive as an innocent prank causing a tragedy which they conspire to keep secret. On the other hand, the factory for which they work willfully exploits their workers, disregarding their well being. The author delicately balances how the factory workers dealt for years with ravaging physical effects caused by the paint, without being able to point fingers at the factory because they have pledged not to implicate themselves by revealing their association with it. My interest was perked concerning the legal ramifications the factory encountered years down the road and I would have liked to read more about that aspect.
I often include a quote I find provocative in my reviews. Helen considers what life has handed her. "But I really don't know which was worse. A lifetime missing a child you almost had, or a lifetime of wishing you could have younguns, but they never come."
Stout's expert descriptive technique makes me wish I could see this book in a movie version. I'd love to read more by this author.
Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont
http://www.hollyweiss.com
I truly enjoyed Radium Halos. More importantly, I commend Shelley Stout for opening the secret of the women who used radioactive paint to create luminous clock and watch dials at the Radium Dial Factory. It was historical fiction with a punchan important story to be told.
Radium Halos is a remarkable fictional account of Helen, a North Carolina sixteen-year-old who worked in the Radium Dial Company in Illinois during the 1920s. Helen at age sixty-five suffers from an undefined mental problem, probably stemming from her proximity to and ingestion of the radioactive paint during her time at the factory.
Stout's use of a colloquial dialect for her naïve, educationally deficient, but observant main character, Helen, is consistent and easily understood. This task is not easily written but masterfully handled here. Helen's voice is distinct and ingenuous as the book alternates between her youth in the 1920s and her recalling of the events of her past with amazing clarity as a sixty-five-year-old woman. I felt Helen sitting right beside me telling her story and I was sympathetic to her losses. Helen's sister, Violet, although dead for most of the novel, looms large in the reader's mind, as a powerful central character. Pearl, the resentful niece, is so well presented this reader constantly worried how she might negatively impact Helen's life. The other characters are all cast uniquely, but Helen's compelling voice will stay with me a long time.
What are the consequences of our actions? The author expertly explores this dilemma by interweaving a dual story. On the one hand, the young factory workers play what they perceive as an innocent prank causing a tragedy which they conspire to keep secret. On the other hand, the factory for which they work willfully exploits their workers, disregarding their well being. The author delicately balances how the factory workers dealt for years with ravaging physical effects caused by the paint, without being able to point fingers at the factory because they have pledged not to implicate themselves by revealing their association with it. My interest was perked concerning the legal ramifications the factory encountered years down the road and I would have liked to read more about that aspect.
I often include a quote I find provocative in my reviews. Helen considers what life has handed her. "But I really don't know which was worse. A lifetime missing a child you almost had, or a lifetime of wishing you could have younguns, but they never come."
Stout's expert descriptive technique makes me wish I could see this book in a movie version. I'd love to read more by this author.
Reviewed by Holly Weiss, author of Crestmont
http://www.hollyweiss.com
