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I received a free copy of this book from the author/publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Radium Girls follows several groups of women who worked in dial-painting companies in the 20th century. These women worked all day, every day with radium paint and while for a few years they were glamorous and the cream of the crop, it wasn't long before the dangerous effects of radium made itself clear. Most of the women died horribly painful death and this book tells their story - not just how they died but who they were and how hard they fought the company that killed them.
This is a deeply personal story and one I instantly connected with. I'm not an avid reader of non fiction so going into this I didn't know how I'd feel. But I absolutely loved it. There's a rawness and a sincerity about this book and about the women whose lives are being told. It's honest and real and it doesn't just focus on their illnesses and their fight against the dial-painting companies but it tells their story from before they fell ill - how some of them liked to dress and treat themselves to bags and hats. How one woman was deeply religious, while another loved to laugh and others liked to dance. I found out about the men who loved them and literally had to watch as they fell to pieces in front of them, the children they left behind and the relatives they inadvertently spread the radiation to in their sleep.
This book made me smile in companionship with the young women living their lives and falling in love and also grit my teeth in anger at the big wigs who refused to accept their responsibility in harming the women. Their fight to stay alive for justice, not just for themselves but for the other girls, as well as how their husbands and siblings looked after them made me want too cry. This book was so touching but held such a great respect and admiration for the women as well. They were fighters, and we owe so much to them today.
The Radium Girls follows several groups of women who worked in dial-painting companies in the 20th century. These women worked all day, every day with radium paint and while for a few years they were glamorous and the cream of the crop, it wasn't long before the dangerous effects of radium made itself clear. Most of the women died horribly painful death and this book tells their story - not just how they died but who they were and how hard they fought the company that killed them.
This is a deeply personal story and one I instantly connected with. I'm not an avid reader of non fiction so going into this I didn't know how I'd feel. But I absolutely loved it. There's a rawness and a sincerity about this book and about the women whose lives are being told. It's honest and real and it doesn't just focus on their illnesses and their fight against the dial-painting companies but it tells their story from before they fell ill - how some of them liked to dress and treat themselves to bags and hats. How one woman was deeply religious, while another loved to laugh and others liked to dance. I found out about the men who loved them and literally had to watch as they fell to pieces in front of them, the children they left behind and the relatives they inadvertently spread the radiation to in their sleep.
This book made me smile in companionship with the young women living their lives and falling in love and also grit my teeth in anger at the big wigs who refused to accept their responsibility in harming the women. Their fight to stay alive for justice, not just for themselves but for the other girls, as well as how their husbands and siblings looked after them made me want too cry. This book was so touching but held such a great respect and admiration for the women as well. They were fighters, and we owe so much to them today.