Bravo, Bryant Wieneke! He has written a premier historical/biographical novel. In so doing he has breathed new life into the genre of real-life hero tales, the source material for hope in an age of despair.
More than a half century ago, when the American Empire was pubescent, our national food production began to increase exponentially, not because of new lands being plowed but due to the increased use of chemicals. The most famous was D.D.T., used to kill crop eating insects. The chemicals were cheap to buy and easy to apply. Farmers quickly abandoned older methods of control and forgot them.
Unfortunately, people began to notice that such chemicals also seemed to have other effects. Birds fell from the sky. Creeks and rivers choked with dead fish. Fauna disappeared. More and more Americans were struck down by dreaded cancer and writhed in pain as they slowly rotted away. Families sobbed and wrung hands.
During this same era Rachel Carson, a young woman educated in science and journalism, began to investigate nature and write articles and books. Enthralled with the natural world around her, she wrote down words to express it. This life-long pursuit led to her obra maestra titled Silent Spring. It’s publication was much like witnessing a lightning strike. While Teddy Roosevelt’s efforts at conservation led to a National Park system, Carson’s book was the seed of Earth Day and a movement to reevaluate our relationship with nature. Instead of attempting to subdue it, we began to seek ways to cherish it.
Upon publication, the incredible happened. It was an instant success partially due to a recent interest in health and food. Just three years before the book was in print, President Eisenhower and his wife substituted apple sauce for cranberry jelly at Thanksgiving due to reports that American cranberries had been tainted with chemicals. Since Ms. Carson had written in a journalistic style, my grade school teachers encouraged us to read it. My own mother read it!
Bryant Wieneke has written a book about the author Rachel Carson. His work will inspire a new generation to be unafraid to look at themselves in a mirror. While we seem to have taken a literary detour towards fantasy, Mr. Wieneke has jumped from the train to manually pull the rail switch. Hopefully, the cultural train will roll towards wisdom once again.
His book is a throwback – a retro model, reminding us of how we used to celebrate heroes and heroines: regular Joes and Josephines who overcame daunting obstacles to achieve something for all of us. Carson finished her great work while dying of cancer. Mr. Wieneke is a cancer survivor.
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