Boy's
Pond
A Novel
By Warren Stucki, M.D.
Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, NM 2002
ISBN: 0865343284
Fiction
Some Explicit Sex, Language
Reviewed by Carolyn
Howard-Johnson, MyShelf.Com
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a Copy
A Small-Town Doctor's
View on Life and Politics
Sunstone Press Brings
50s Politics
In the Southwest Into Vivid Focus
A toadstool cloud rises
from the Nevada desert sand like an iniquitous Phoenix shaped from flame
and ashes. It imprints radioactive memories in the mind of a young boy
who would become a doctor and later an author.
These recollections are the basis of a new novel from Warren Stucki called
"Boy's Pond." In turn, the story he wrote is a reminder in today's
turmoil that-in spite of what we think we remember-life has not always
been simple.
This novel reminds us that trust can be lamentable rather than laudable.
That faith untempered by reason may very well be improvident.
Set in St. George Utah in the 50s , it is a coming-of-age story that explores
innocence in the literal shadow of a nuclear holocaust of our own making.
A group of boys' youthful imprudence parallels the Machiavellian tactics
of the Atomic Energy Commission as they participate in a cover-up never
since equaled (to our knowledge) by any government agency. While ignorance
and gullibility were their tools of trade, exuberance, shame and hormones-a-plenty
discredit and decimate the young men.
As an M.D. caring for the population in this isolated corner of Utah,
the author has seen the malignant results of politics fueled by fear -26
nuclear devices set off above ground over a period of twelve years. Test
times were carefully selected so that the large populations of Los Angeles,
Las Vegas and Salt Lake City would not be downwind. During that time and
since, the malignant death rate in the tiny red-rock communities that
breathed the easterly winds has doubled. Leukemia, lymphoma, breast, pancreatic,
lung, gastric and thyroid cancers continue to stalk the residents to this
day. The folk living in this tiny red-rock community were, it seems, considered
dispensable.
Sunstone Press specializes in publishing books about the Southwest; they
deserve applause for bringing Warren Stucki's first book to the public."Boy's
Pond" is a book for its time. It examines issues other than 9/11
that we should never forget.
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of "This is the Place"
and "Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered"
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