Review Time
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
The long anticipated fall of
mankind is the subject matter of this first book in the “Road to Nowhere”
series. And like any tragedy waiting to happen, it takes people by surprise.
Before the world realizes what they’re dealing with, it’s already too late and
we’re facing a mass extinction event.
The thing that really makes
an impact with this story is that no one knows why! And that’s a poignantly
powerful statement to make . . . and a humbling one too, because let’s face it;
the majority of humanity doesn’t give two hoots about what we’re doing to the
planet or our environment. Not until it affects them personally, that is. And
in the Unnamed Midwife, it does, with bells on!
All the scant survivors do
know is that whatever the pandemic was, it hit suddenly; it hit hard; and very
few were able to endure. Of those that did, men were in the majority, for the
plague proved especially virulent among pregnant women and newborns. In the
aftermath, pregnancy becomes a death sentence. A dilemma for any female old
enough to bear children in a society that spirals into chaos and hormone-riddled
rape gangs.
Told from the perspective of
a nurse – and one of the few females to survive – the Unnamed Midwife details
her personal journey from successful career woman into an existence fuelled by
isolation and fear of discovery. Part story – part extract from her journal,
its a haunting, gripping indictment of inhuman nature at its bases level, and
sums up what would most likely happen if such a thing ever happened.
Powerful stuff. And a
compelling read.
Chernobyl
This mini-series is lesson in how to present
fictional drama.
I’m sure we’ve all heard of
Chernobyl. The date of April 26th 1986 will be etched on the minds
of many as the day one of the worst man-made catastrophes ever unfurled.
The TV mini-series dramatizes
the story of that event, and is based – for the most part – on the
recollections of those living in Pripyat at the time by Belarusian Nobel
Laureate, Svetlana Alexievich in her book, “Voices from Chernobyl”.
I’ve got to say, I was really
impressed by this series. It’s a powerful, deeply disturbing account of how a
tragic accident rapidly declined from bad to worse. And why? In a nutshell, the
political ethos of the time in the Soviet Union was that the “party line” came
first . . . or else!
That “line” allowed former
shoe factory managers to dictate policy on issues they simply weren’t prepared
or qualified to handle, leading to hundreds of needless deaths. That brutal
reality was portrayed by a strong cast and superb directing where the brooding
menace of the regime almost overshadowed the tragedy as it unfurled: The
refusal to accept the facts; disbelief of those qualified to make
accurate assessments; the negligence involved in sending countless heroes – the
firemen, miners and soldiers tasked to contain the outbreak – to their deaths
as they battled to contain a force they didn’t understand.
Gripping, compelling, and infuriating, to say the least.
And a poignant reminder to us all as to how fragile we are, and how little we
understand the powers we play with.
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