In an op-ed for the Charleston Gazette, Gordon Simmons reviews the new book from Susan Kushner Resnick, GOODBYE WIFES AND DAUGHTERS. Simmons says Kushner's story "shows how tragedy repeats."
CHARLESTON, W.Va -- Like any great tragedy, West Virginia's explosion and deaths at Upper Big Branch mine captured the attention of the nation. But after the last funerals, investigations by safety experts and legislative hearings are done, it will likely fade from the national memory into a cold statistic occasionally found in official and historical documents.
This consideration makes Susan Kushner Resnick's new book, "Goodbye Wifes and Daughters," all the more timely. The disaster she chronicles is eerily similar to the one West Virginia just witnessed.
You can read the rest of the article here.
One morning in 1943, close to eighty men descended into the Smith coal mine in Bearcreek, Montana. Only three came out alive. “Goodbye wifes and daughters . . .” wrote two of the miners as they died. The story of that tragic day and its aftermath unfolds in this book through the eyes of those wives and daughters—women who lost their husbands, fathers, and sons, livelihoods, neighbors, and homes, yet managed to fight back and persevere.
