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Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, by Kristen Iversen
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Review
Winner of the 2013 Colorado Book AwardWinner of the Reading the West Book Award in NonfictionA Mother Jones Best Book of 2012A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2012An Atlantic Monthly Best Book about Justice"Full Body Burden is one of the most important stories of the nuclear era--as personal and powerful as "Silkwood," told with the suspense and narrative drive of The Hot Zone. With unflinching honesty, Kristen Iverson has written an intimate and deeply human memoir that shows why we should all be concerned about nuclear safety, and the dangers of ignoring science in the name of national security. Rocky Flats needs to be part of the same nuclear discussion as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. So does Full Body Burden. It's an essential and unforgettable book that should be talked about in schools and book clubs, online and in the White House."—Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks "What a surprise! You don't expect such (unobtrusively) beautiful writing in a book about nuclear weapons, nor such captivating storytelling. Plus the facts are solid and the science told in colloquial but never dumbed-down terms. If I could afford them, I'd want the movie rights. Having read scores of nuclear books, I venture a large claim: Kristin Iversen's Full Body Burden may be a classic of nuclear literature, filling a gap we didn't know existed among Hersey's Hiroshima, Burdick and Wheeler's Fail-Safe and Kohn's Who Killed Karen Silkwood?"—Mark Hertsgaard, author of Nuclear Inc. and HOT"This terrifyingly brilliant book--as perfectly crafted and meticulously assembled as the nuclear bomb triggers that lie at its core--is a savage indictment of the American strategic weapons industry, both haunting in its power, and yet wonderfully, charmingly human as a memoir of growing up in the Atomic Age."—Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman and Atlantic"Why didn't Poe or Hitchcock think of this? Full Body Burden has all the elements of a classic horror tale: the charming nuclear family cruising innocently above the undercurrents of nuclear nightmare. But it's true and all the more chilling. Kristen Iversen has lived this life and is an authority on the culture of secrecy that has prevented the nation from knowing the truth about radioactive contamination. This is a gripping and scary story."—Bobbie Ann Mason, author of Shiloh and Other Stories and In Country "Kristen Iversen has written a hauntingly beautiful memoir that is also a devastating investigation into the human costs of building and living with the atomic bomb. Poignant and gracefully written, Iversen shows us what it meant to come of age next door to Rocky Flats--America’s plutonium bomb factory. The story is at once terrifying and outrageous."—Kai Bird, co-author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer"The fight over Rocky Flats was and is a paradigmatic American battle, of corporate and government power set against the bravery and anger of normal people. This is a powerful and beautiful account, of great use to all of us who will fight the battles that lie ahead."—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and Eaarth"Part memoir, part investigative journalism, Full Body Burden is a tale that will haunt your dreams. It's a story of secrecy, deceit, and betrayal set in the majestic high plains of Colorado. Kristen Iversen takes us behind her family's closed doors and beyond the security fences and the armed guards at Rocky Flats. She's as honest and restrained in her portrait of a family in crisis as she is in documenting the incomprehensible betrayal of citizens by their government, in exposing the harrowing disregard for public safety exhibited by the technocrats in charge of a top-secret nuclear weapons facility. For decades the question asked by residents living downwind of the plant was 'Would my government deliberately put my life and the lives of my children in danger?' The simple and irrefutable answer was 'Yes, it would . . . in a Colorado minute.'"—John Dufresne, author of Louisiana Power & Light and Love Warps the Mind a Little “This is a subject as grippingly immediate as today's headlines: While there is alarm about the small rise in radioactivity in the food chain, one reads in these pages about how a whole region lived in the steady contaminating effects of nuclear radiation. Kristen Iversen's prose is clean and clear and lovely, and her story is deeply involving and full of insight and knowledge; it begins in innocence, and moves through catastrophes; it is unflinching and brave, an expose about ignorance and denial and the cost of government excess, and an intensely personal portrait of a family. It ought to be required reading for every single legislator in this country.”—Richard Bausch, author of Peace and Something Is Out There
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About the Author
KRISTEN IVERSEN grew up in Arvada, Colorado, near the Rocky Flats nuclear weaponry facility. She is director of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Memphis. Visit her website at KristenIversen.com.
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Product details
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Broadway Books; Reprint edition (June 4, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307955656
ISBN-13: 978-0307955654
Product Dimensions:
5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.6 out of 5 stars
342 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#65,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
"Full Body Burden" was a gripping read. I really had trouble putting it down until I'd turned the last page. Its twin narratives - familial and public events - are gracefully written and ring true. Of course, as I don't know the author or anyone in her family, I have no way to judge the accuracy of her family memoir. However, it certainly makes emotional sense and I take it at face value. Nor am I bothered by the fact that she doesn't give us the details (thank you!) of her own marriage, which apparently occurred away from her home town and is probably of peripheral relevance to the scope of this memoir.As to the public events - "public" being used advisedly because of course there was a huge wall of silence and secrecy protecting the facts of Rocky Flats for decades - I was engaged by Iversen's narrative. I've lived in the Denver metro area for decades. Although I've paid attention to the news about Rocky Flats since the late 70's, I hadn't focused a lot of thought on the situation there. "Full Body Burden" was a revelation. Iversen pulls together the events I read about in newspapers over the years, into a cohesive narrative. I admit it: I was not only engaged by the book, I was a bit scared. After I finished the book I looked up the prevailing wind patterns off of the Rocky Flats site.I hope that many people in this area will read this book and think carefully about the Rocky Flats site and its future. Just after I read it, I was describing it to friends at dinner. One of them said, "Well, it's bound to get reviewed in the Denver Post." I doubted it. The festering sore that is Rocky Flats, as exposed by Iversen, is the last thing that the Denver economic establishment would want to talk about. And sure enough, I have been unable to locate any review of this book in the Denver Post. The only reference to it is in a scathing commentary by one of the Post's conservative columnists, taking issue with a statement by Iversen about missing plutonium. It was a pre-publication preemptive strike against the book. And it was Illustrated with a photograph of a worker at a gate of the "Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge," to hammer home subliminally the official line of "don't worry, no problems, we're all safe." (Of course, the "Refuge" is not open to the public, a fact not disclosed in the column or photo caption although the gate sports a big 'No Trespassing' sign.)The good news for me is that, according to the Post today, "Full Body Burden" is number 6 on the Denver area nonfiction book bestseller list. Apparently, Colorado readers want to judge for themselves, and are willing to buy the book at local stores, even in the absence of a review (at least as of June 24) in the establishment's daily paper.I strongly recommend this book. Beautifully written and, to me, credible. No doubt there's room to quibble over the details - such as how many tons of plutonium are unaccounted for - but I believe that "Full Body Burden" is required reading for anyone who wants to have an informed discussion of Rocky Flats.UPDATE on July 1, 2012: Apparently deciding that a book that is now number FOUR on the regional non-fiction best seller list can no longer be ignored, the Denver Post today published a review of Full Body Burden. The review is very positive, but it focuses on matters other than the state of Rocky Flats today. That's within the scope of the reviewer's (and the Post's) choice of what to talk about. Of course, it's only to be expected of the local establishment's mouthpiece. The good news is, that the review shouldn't scare anyone off from picking up the book.
This book is a thrilling, devastating, and haunting look into the demise of one of the most beautiful areas on earth. A profoundly sad read about the greed, deception, and destruction surrounding Cold War era Rocky Flats nuclear production facility near Denver, CO. I’m left with awe and a pit in my stomach of just how disgusting mankind can be. Even though this isn’t my typical genre of choice, I could not put this book down. Impeccably researched and detailed, Ms. Iversen paints a clear picture of how, once again, our government is never to be trusted.
Full Body Burden was recommended to me by a friend who likes to read, and I am SO glad he recommended this book. The story told herein brings you forward on a ride through time from the mid-1950's to present day. It is a story of America's race and struggle to maintain nuclear superiority over all other nations, and the cost that was paid in American civilian lives - and in fact is still being paid - in this quest fraught with dangers despite the debatable value of that goal. It ought to be required reading, for everyone.
Writing as a person who grew up in the shadow of the Rocky Flats plant and as a woman who later worked there, Iversen makes the compelling case that even with the best in building engineering the process of making plutonium pits produces an unmanageable level of radioactive waste byproducts. Her coming of age story keeps the Rocky Flats story from getting too overwhelming and keeps you engaged through the cleanup of the site. All books come to an end, but it is important to understand that the larger story of Rocky Flats has not ended. The DOE continues to manufacture plutonium pits and would like to ramp up manufacture. The DOE also continues to deal with waste produced at Rocky Flats, Los Alamos, and other sites. The Pilot Project for long term storage of this waste is currently offline due to what appears to be a typo in the procedures for packing the waste. If you would like to know more about the nuclear history of the US and the Nevada/Bikini Atoll tests seem too remote, this book is a good entryway into what's happening now.
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