Review: Then Came The Summer Snow by Trisha Pritikin
Today, I'm thrilled to welcome author and activist, Trisha Pritikin, to Ruins & Reading. I'm currently reading her new novel, Then Came The Summer Snow. Trisha's been raising awareness of the dangers of living near nuclear production sites (not just near nuclear plants) for decades, having grown up near one. The subject of her new book makes for interesting reading.
I've now added my review below. Make sure to check it out, as this novel is well worth your time!
Then Came The Summer Snow is currently on blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club. Please find other fascinating posts HERE!
Then Came The Summer Snow
Trisha Pritikin
Review:
It all begins so innocuously. Herb is an engineer at a plant creating plutonium for nuclear weapons – although the official line is that it's a power plant, and the stuff coming out of the chimney stacks is harmless. A hard-working, conscientious employee, Herb would never question his superiors, and he has convinced himself that he has a great set-up at home – a fabulous wife, who looks nice and makes the most delicious dinners; and a clever young son.
Edith is the quintessential 1950s housewife – doing all the household chores, looking after Herbie, going food shopping, whilst still making sure to look fabulous. She enjoys reading women's magazines, and her main task out of the house is a local community group she leads.
But this idyll is shattered when, one day, Herbie plays with their Geiger counter in the kitchen. When Edith places a glass of milk on the table beside it, the machine begins ticking like mad. This is the pivotal moment in Edith and Herb's lives that changes everything.
Whilst Herb half-believes his excuse that there must've been something wrong with the Geiger counter, a tiny hint of a doubt has crept into his head. He writes a letter, with a carbon copy to keep, to hand to his boss, but after a chat with his manager, he is again placated, brushing aside any concerns.
But not so Edith when she finds the carbon paper Herb used, and discovers that there may have been more to the incident than a mere accident. With her resourceful group of fellow local wives and mothers, they arrange for independent testing of the children's milk. And when Herbie is found to have nodules at his thyroid, Edith sees red.
No longer the sweet, passive housewife, Edith turns into superwoman – a force to be reckoned with, and a thorn in the side of Herb's employers at the Hanford plant.
Much to her husband's growing annoyance – she shouldn't rock the boat! – Edith embarks on a campaign of public information and revelation. Risking her marriage, she is no longer prepared to risk her son's life. Her transformation is mind-blowing, and she is shocked by her own determination and ruthlessness once or twice. A mother's love for her child is not to be messed with!
The historical setting is exquisitely researched. Ms Pritikin adds a plethora of detail – from foods and drinks, to 'atomic accident' movies, to daily beauty products for the bored housewives – that show everyday life in late 1950s America. Many of the products meant nothing to me as a European, though quite a few did, and I still thought it was brilliant to include them, as they provided an overall impression of family life. The
author's in-depth knowledge of the subject area adds a gritty sense of realism, and
the characterisation of main and side characters is cleverly done.
Herb is a typical product of his era, too, thinking himself superior to his 'weak' wife, who keeps fainting when stressed, and dissing her 'easy life'. But in a twist of fate, it turns out that Edith is a much stronger character, and Herb must eventually decide what's truly important to him.
Will they manage to raise awareness of the dangers without ending their marriage? And what about young 'Atomic Boy', Herbie, and his thyroid nodules?
Make sure to check out this intriguing tale, told with a wry, yet heart-warming sense of humour, despite the serious nature of the subject area.
A highly recommended read!
Like with Samantha Wilcoxson's brilliant novel, Luminous: The Story of a Radium Girl, Then Came The Summer Snow is a compelling, thought-provoking novel that stays with you long after you've finished reading. Novels like these – based on real, tragic events where corporate and government greed willfully endangers the lives of ordinary citizens – should have a wider impact, as they help raise awareness of issues past and present. (See the recent release of radioactive elements into a Scottish loch, kept under wraps by local and national governments.)
Edith Higgenbothum's fight may be over, but worldwide, the same greed still leads to widespread disease and death. The fight for people's rights isn't over...
I wish Ms Pritikin much success in her continuing drive to raise awareness of atomic fallout, and its deadly consequences.
In 1958, Edith Higgenbothum, a housewife in Richland, Washington, downwind of the massive Hanford nuclear weapons production site, discovers that the milk her young son Herbie drinks contains radioactive iodine from Hanford's secret fallout releases. Radioactive iodine can damage the thyroid, especially in children.
When Herbie is diagnosed with aggressive thyroid cancer, Edith allies with mothers of children with thyroid cancer and leukemia in communities blanketed by fallout from Nevada Test Site A-bomb tests on a true atomic age hero's journey to save the children.
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
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About the Author:
Trisha Pritikin is an internationally known advocate for fallout-exposed populations downwind of nuclear weapons production and testing sites. She is an attorney and former occupational therapist.
Trisha was born and raised in Richland, the government-owned atomic town closest to the Hanford nuclear weapons production facility in southeastern Washington State. Hanford manufactured the plutonium used in the Trinity Test, the world’s first test of an atomic bomb, detonated July 16,1945 at Alamogordo, NM, and for Fat Man, the plutonium bomb that decimated Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.
Beginning in late 1944, and for more than forty years thereafter, Hanford operators secretly released millions of curies of radioactive byproducts into the air and to the waters of the Columbia River, exposing civilians downwind and downriver. Hanford’s airborne radiation spread across eastern Washington, northern Oregon, Idaho, Western Montana, and entered British Columbia.
Trisha suffers from significant thyroid damage, hypoparathyroidism, and other disabling health issues caused by exposure to Hanford’s fallout in utero and during childhood. Infants and children are especially susceptible to the damaging effects of radiation exposure.
Trisha’s first book, The Hanford Plaintiffs: Voices from the Fight for Atomic Justice, published in 2020 by the University Press of Kansas, has won multiple awards, including San Francisco Book Festival, 1st place (history); Nautilus Silver award (journalism and investigative reporting); American Book Fest Book Awards Finalist (US History); Eric Hoffer Awards, Shortlist Grand Prize Finalist; and Chanticleer International Book Awards, 1st Place, (longform journalism). The Hanford Plaintiffs was released in Japanese in 2023 by Akashi Shoten Publishing House, Tokyo.
Connect with Trisha:
Website • Facebook • Twitter / X • Pinterest
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