Book Review: CHERNOBYL PRAYER by Svetlana Alexievich

Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future by Svetlana Alexievich

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


"This is not a book on Chernobyl, but on the world of Chernobyl... What I'm concerned with is what I would call the "missing history," the invisible imprint of our stay on earth and in time... I am trying to capture the life of the soul... How many times has art rehearsed the apocalypse? Now, though, we can be assured that life is infinitely more fantastical."

The show that impacted me the most this past year was HBO's "Chernobyl," and writer/producer Craig Mazin said of this book that this was where he "always turned to find beauty and sorrow."

I thought nothing could top the horrors depicted in the series. But as it turns out, there ARE more horrible things! Things unfilmable, things unimaginable, that broke my heart as I read the powerful monologues in this unforgettable book by a Nobel laureate.

I couldn't help but imagine how much more powerful this would be if it was staged or read aloud. The author wrote them down in monologue form, and the variety and number of the monologues are striking. From wives of first-responders, to children and mothers and fathers, to farmers and scientists and intellectuals... all striving for meaning, for some sense to come from their incredible suffering.

Then again, I'm not sure I could bear a live reading of these monologues, when reading them bit by bit already made me weep.

Julian Barnes wrote that the book leaves radiation burns on the brain, and it really does. It truly does.

It is not easy reading. But it is very necessary, if only to remember the names of the innocent who died, victims of a heartless government who cared more for its public face than for the fate of its people.

For that is the greater horror of Chernobyl... not the unimaginable scale of the disaster that still threatens all life on earth, and will continue to do so for thousands of years to come... what is more horrible is the human element of Chernobyl. Despite all the heroism, there was the cover-up, the willful neglect... the organized deception. And thousands died because of it.



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