Customer Reviews

Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was a terrific read. It is a story of 19 men who are trapped in a coal mine in Springhill, Novia Scotia, when a "bump" occurs: a huge force of gas from deep in the earth which pushes the floor of the mine tunnels to the ceiling timbers, crushing equipment like toys and killing over a hundred miners. It is also the story of the families of the miners, segregation in the state of Georgia, the choices made by politicians and their advisors, post-traumatic stress of survivors, and how individual lives are affected by having the spotlight of fame shone of them for a brief period of time. At its heart, "Last Man Out" is a human tale of courage, honor and decency in the face of natural and manmade adversity. I finished the book in two sittings, needing to know if these men would be liberated from their dark prison of coal and how their wives and children would survive.

The book of Melissa Fay Greene is a wonderfully written, thoughtful description and analysis of an extreme situation: a disaster that strikes an entire town. What I love about the book is that it presents very difficult situations in a compassionate, yet totally true and honest way. The book is based on extensive research and interviews, and the author allows the men who were trapped underground in the mine collapse to speak with their own words, making their suffering and lives very distinct and understandable. Yet the voice of the author is also clearly heard in the book and she draws conclusions from these individual stories, conclusions about the nature of heroism, communal reactions to catastrophes, the solitude of dying. These conclusions are never ponderous: Melissa Fay Greene never preaches or behaves like "senior analysts" we are besieged with. Her reasoning is woven into the story, and she is a superb story-teller. She writes with such a talent and taste for language and words, that every page is a delight to read. This is a book that made me cry, laugh, and think. I recommend it to all readers.

This wonderful book tells the story of a Nova Scotia coal mine disaster in 1958 and its rather unique aftermath. Melissa Fay Greene weaves a series of small personal stories into a haunting and evocative narrative: one of the best "disaster" books I have ever read. The resiliency of the survivors, when juxtaposed with the unusual events which followed, including the bizarre intervention of the racist Governor of Georgia, really gives this account a special perspective on history and the human condition.

I found it fascinating that the author, from Georgia, became involved in the saga of the Springhill miners from the back end of the story, as it were. The Georgia connection adds a remarkable coda to the miners' ordeal, but if she had just told that, it would not have resonated as effectively as the book does. She took the time to trace the story to its beginning and to tell it all. For that I am grateful. I learned far more than I had ever known before, and I was drawn in by her skill with narrative and her genuine understanding of/empathy for those involved.

This insightful book is definitely a worthwhile experience.

Last Man Out is an engaging and compelling story about the Springhill mine disaster, in which 75 miners perished. Miraculously, two groups of trapped miners survived underground for almost a week before being rescued. The book reads like a novel - Green skillfully weaves together information from a variety of sources, including detailed interviews conducted by researchers soon after the event and her own interviews with the now elderly survivors or their families. The book provides a multi-dimensional picture behind the seemingly simple events; in her narrative, disaster can pull people away from each other as much as it binds them together. A good read and a fascinating study of the first disaster story handled by the new medium of television. I highly recommend it.

These are the times that try men's souls--and men and women alike look to literature to buoy us up for the dark days that seem to keep coming. Thus, overturned cruise ships and volcanoes abound, but for my money you can do no better than pick up Last Man Out; The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster. Melissa Fay Greene has written more than a gripping hour-by-hour account of how, in 1958, 19 Canadian miners struggled to survive after a "bump" smashed floor and ceiling together, rendering the mine an underground prison. She takes a story that we think we've all seen before---the desparate, waiting women and children, the little town banding together, the media carnival that follows their miraculous rescue--and with nuanced language and a gift
for uncovering human folly, steers us to look beyond the tale
of disaster into its implications in the larger world. With Greene's book, we think not just about terror and bravery but what happens to heroes once the cameras finally turn off. Who is this book for? Well, definitely my book club, and Father's Day,
but now I'm thinking Mother's Day as well. It's that universally appealing, that compelling a read, that good.

This is a great book. Many of these reviewers made an assumption and assertion that the author created the dialogue and thoughts. Those reviewers are wrong. The author interviewed survivors and, more importantly, listened to hours of detailed interviews with the survivors recorded immediately after the rescue and in the following years. From the author: "This book is nonfiction. I did not make up these words, scenes, or stories. They are events I learned from the voices of survivors, and I have tried my best to retell them using the same words."

Ever since I visited the anthracite region of Pennsylvania, I have been looking for a really good book about mining accidents. I wanted to know more about how men survive such an ordeal, and what motivates those who risk their lives to save those who are trapped. So, I was thrilled when I saw in my local bookstore a book on the Springhill Mining Disaster. Even better, it was written by the same author as "Praying for Sheetrock", a book I had read while traveling throughout the east coast of Georgia. I couldn't believe my luck.

When I brought the book home, I was surprised to see that the story took place in Nova Scotia. It's a bit embarrassing to say, but I am Canadian and didn't know anything about this story, except perhaps a vague sense that maybe I'd heard it mentioned before on CBC Radio or something. I was also excited to see that it discussed the history of Jekyll Island, a resort area in Georgia that I had stayed at last year and found very interesting.

I still find it hard to believe that the author could have hit such a bulls-eye for my own reading interests - mining, Southern U.S. history, Canadian Maritime history - and interweave them so beautifully and in such an interesting way. It was a truly fascinating book. In some ways, it reminded me of "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakaueur, particularly in the way the groups handled their situation, and in how they reacted afterward. These are painful stories, with different interpretations of what happened, and people's feelings are bound to be hurt with any media coverage (as happened in both cases). I was also reminded of the fictional characters in "No Great Mischief" by Alistair MacLeod, one of my favourite books of all time - a book set partly in the mines of Northern Ontario.

If I had any complaints at all, it's that the beginning of the book was a bit tough to get into. I found certain sections made far too much use of similes (e.g. "History was measured like time in a whaling village..."). No particular sentence on its own was poorly written, it was just that such a stream of "like this" and "like that" made it hard for me to read. This may be my personal preference - I don't like this style of writing. For those who are like me, my advice is to keep reading, because the story gets really good, and the flowery style is discarded fairly quickly. For those who like this style, well then, you'll have some great reading at the beginning of the book!

This book brought tears to my eyes, and made my heart race with excitement. It's very, very good.

The basic facts of this book's content - the event surrounding the Spring Hill Mine rescue have been covered in other reviews and I will not waste time rehashing them yet again. Instead I would like to focus upon the less obvious gems within this book that in my opinion transend the amzing story of survival.

Melissa Green takes the reader on a journey not just into a coal mine, but into life in this working class town in 1958. The families, the marriages and the race relations all form a familiar image for those who like myself lived in or near the same time frame(in my case as a child) except that this book provided me an understanding of my parent's world. While my father wasn't a miner or ever a manual laborer nevertheless the men of the mine matched up with faces and families of those I grew up with in a world long lost to history. Of solid men who took care of their families, saved, and yet know how to have fun.

Beyond that personal appeal the medium of the story takes us with the trapped men and allows us to expereince their empotions. Somehow inspite of the fact we know it is coming the disaster seems as fresh and unexpected as it was to the men who also knew that some day there would be the "big one" and prayed they wouldn't be inside when it happened.

The aftermath leaves the reader choking on coal dust and shaken by the sight of crushed men whom they have just gotten to know. Unlike some writers the author doesn't pretty it up and the all the horror and mental trauma of the men is ours to share. We also share through the men's thoughts, thoughts of children and the future they now realize they will never see, thoughts of wives whom they will never hold and the constant and never ending question of what will it be like when death comes? Like so many of us who take life's little pleasures for granted, this disaster brings into focus for these trapped and dying men the value of those things and people they took for granted.

Lie in the coal black mine on a bed of broken rock while thirst unlike anything you have ever known treatens to drive you out of your mind. Realize your pants can't stay up because you've lost so much weight and understand that you can't last, can't live much longer. Then return to thoughts of your parched throat that feels as if it is filled with a splintery wooden stake that keeps "being twisted and twisted."

A harrowing and personal experience. Well done! Well done indeed!

When reading Melissa Fay Greenes extraordinary new book, Last Man Out, it is easy to see how this writers earlier two books  Praying for Sheetrock and The Temple Bombing were both honored as finalists for the National Book Award. This one should go as far. At least.

Since the story line of the survivors of the Springhill mine disaster, their rescue and subsequent notoriety, and the recuperation vacation offered by the state of Georgia as a tourist promotion scheme (one that backfired when it was learned that the hero of Springhill was an African-Canadian) have been described by other reviewers, this note will be limited to two other aspects of the book. First is the process by which it was written, including inventive detective work that enabled the author to tell the story in the actual words of an event that took place nearly half a century ago. Among other things she unearthed a treasure trove of tapes/transcripts recorded by Canadian scientists in the hours and days the rescued miners emerged from more than eight days underground and what to most had seemed certain death. This was the era of Cold War bomb shelters and the academics were investigating the survival strategies of those who are forced underground. Nobody had even seen the tapes or transcripts for 31 years. Needless to say that by using the survivors own words, she brings a freshness and authenticity to the story.

Second are Ms. Greenes descriptive powers. Best to show this by example: Of an arch segregationist caught in the politically embarrassing situation of having his photo taken with the heros black family  "Thus it was that Governor Marvin Griffin of Georgia posed with a black toddler in his arms, two other children clinging to his pant legs, flanked by a beaming Negro couple, and producing a face that was nine-tenths discomfiture and only one-tenth cheese for the camera..." Or of the Governors young assistant  He showed up for work at the capitol every day in a white shirt and wide tie, the shirt on the verge of yellowing with constant use and boredom.

When I started Last Man Out I expected it to be a downer. To the contrary, this is one of the most exhilarating books I have come upon in some time. What a read it is. It gets its hooks into you and there is no escape. It is artfully constructed and, as with Ms. Greenes previous two books, presents an original and creative writing form that doesnt fall neatly under the labels of history or journalism or other conventional forms of non-fiction. What is clear, however, is that by the time the reader  at least this reader -- has finished, you realize that youve been exposed to a remarkable story, remarkably told. And to art.

In the year 1958, the Springhill Mine Disaster occurred in Nova Scotia, where men were trapped and plunged into darkness below sea level with little hope of escape or ever seeing their families again.

As you reach further into the book you become distraught and filled with anxiety one time and then hope at another interval.. For from day to day the picture changed and one was never sure how the trapped miners were going to have the strength to persevere.

They were challenged beyond what I thought humankind could endure, and then again it is at those weakest moments when we do find that strength, and do the impossible.......like jumping fences too high for us........cutting off our legs if they hurt too badly, those kind of things.

This book is true story and not to be taken for lightly or for granted. I would give this book five golden stars......and then Ms. Melissa Fay Greene for her wonderful courage in writing this great book.

Heather (SUGAR-CANE)