Radioactive

Having read Lauren Redniss' Century Girl and greatly enjoyed it, I was looking forward to the artist and writer's most recent offering, Radioactive.

Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout narrates the life of two of the greatest scientific figures of the twentieth century, Marie and Pierre Curie. Marie Curie discovered the radioactive properties of the chemical elements Radium and Polonium, a discovery that led to the development of radioactivity as an area of scientific study and has had a significant impact on medical advancement - for instance, in Marie Curie's own life time, she saw the development and use of X-Ray facilities during the First World War.

From an artistic perspective, Radioactive differs from Century Girl, particular as it is mostly composed of Redniss' own illustrations (whereas Century Girl featured a great deal more photographic elements). There is something rather touching and intimate though in the hand-drawn quality of the images; and Redniss' employment of colour is particularly effective, using tone and colour to signify the glowing properties of both chemical elements and of the characters themselves.

Most interesting for me from a reader's perspective was the way in which Redniss starts to juxtapose biographical information about the Curies with historical and scientific facts - information about inventions that wouldn't have been possible without the Curies' work: the development of the A-Bomb (and it's impact on Hirsoshima) and Nuclear power (the Chenobyl nuclear explosion, and its after-effects). This, of course, shows up the double meaning of the book's subtitle: A Tale of Love and Fallout. Initially, you think these are from the same semantic field of relationships, but in fact the 'fallout' has a far darker point of reference. The juxtaposition of the Curies' love, faith, and dedication with the devastation caused by nuclear power was, for me, both thought-provoking and affective.

One last thought: I like to read in bed, and so each night I would devour another chapter of Radioactive before turning off the light for sleep. One night when I was about halfway through the book, I completed this same evening ritual. I placed the book on my bedside table, turned off the lamp and snuggled in. To my surprise and slight horror (given the nature of what I'd been reading), I realised the book itself was actually glowing in the dark!

Century Girl

Over the weekend, I read Lauren Redniss' (2006) Century Girl: 100 Years in the Life of Doris Eaton Travis, Last Living Star of the Ziegfield Follies.

As the title suggests, the book tells the life story of Doris Eaton. Born in 1904 and still alive when Redniss' book was published, Doris lived to the ripe age of 106 and, if Century Girl is to believed, danced right up until the end.

The book isn't a traditional literary biography. It doesn't try to get into the mind of it's central figure and tell the story from her perspective in minute detail. Rather, what it does is give an overview of the exciting and unbelievable life Doris Eaton lived, from Broadway to the movies to unemployment and dance-school teaching, and featuring a host of famous figures from years gone by.

The book was a reaffirming read: Doris Eaton has certainly had a fascinating life. More than this though, Lauren Redniss has brought the book to life too with photographs and artwork, making it not only an amazing story but a beautiful object.

Reading each page becomes an activity you savour, as you take in all the details, the narrative, the documentation; look over the images of Doris, her family, her closest and most famous companions; and you do all this with wonder.

The book enthrals us as much as Doris' life does. In telling Doris' story in this artistic mutlimodal way, Redniss forces her readers to marvel at it all at once.