rabck from quiet orchid; the story of the 1958 Springhill Nova Scotia coal mine "bump" - I would call it a cave in. 174 miners were trapped and a group of 7 and a group of 12 miners were found alive. It was the beginning of "breaking news" journalism, which turned the episode into a fiasco. Author did a good job of bringing together the facts, including a bit of the history of this mine and the miners and their families. A good read ( )

On October 23, 1958, a devastating "bump" occurred at the 13,400 foot level of a coal mine in Springhill, Nova Scotia, Canada. It killed or trapped 174 miners. This book starts with a history of coal mining in Nova Scotia and specifically Springhill and then describes the life of a coal miner and his family.

Greene did years of research including interviewing survivors, children of miners and wives of survivors and victims of the bump. Her descriptions of what the miners experienced during the seven to nine days they waited for rescue make for tough reading. This especially true of the miner whose arm was caught under huge timbers and rocks and could not be freed. Greene described how the experienced destroyed some of the men as they never attained their pre disaster personalities becoming poor fathers and husbands.

One unexpected topic the book covers, is the Segregation laws of Georgia and the American deep South. The survivors were given a free holiday on Jekyll Island in Georgia as a tourism promotion. Planning was well on the way when the Governor's assistant discovered there was a black miner in the group. The scrambling to solve this political nightmare for the Georgians makes for interesting reading.

While I was reading, it disturbed me that Greene had included conversations in quotation marks of what took place underground. In her end notes she answers my concern by explaining that the quotes are from transcripts of interviews that were done with the miners immediately after they were rescued.

This is a very complete description of the disaster by a woman from the State of Georgia. ( )

This is a compelling story of miners who were trapped underground. In [Last Man Out] [Melissa Fay Greene] does an excellent job of capturing the emotions of those trapped as well as the families above ground. She also connects the political and economic climate of the time by telling the story of how these Canadian miners ended up connected to Georgia's fight for tourist dollars and caught experiencing segregation first hand. This is an emotional and well told story on many levels. ( )

This is a rivetting story of a great mine disaster that became a miracle rescue operation. The author has captured the tension, drama, and elation as events unfold, day by day by day. The events of the trip to Georgia, where the hero of the bump was excluded from hotels and dinners because he happened to be black, has been told, and how he encouraged the others to go. A great story. ( )

Seeing that this account of a 1958 Nova Scotia mine disaster was written by the author of Praying for Sheetrock: A Work of Nonfiction (1991) did attract my attention. Greene http://www.melissafaygreene.com/ provides a well-researched account of the struggle, courage, and suffering of trapped miners underground and agonized families above ground. Along the way, the author unveils links to Ed Sullivan and the state of Georgia. (lj) ( )