Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, MyShelf.Com
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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"