Last Man Out: The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster

The book of Melissa Fay Greene is a wonderfully written, thoughtful description and analysis of an extreme situation: a disaster that strikes an entire town. What I love about the book is that it presents very difficult situations in a compassionate, yet totally true and honest way. The book is based on extensive research and interviews, and the author allows the men who were trapped underground in the mine collapse to speak with their own words, making their suffering and lives very distinct and understandable. Yet the voice of the author is also clearly heard in the book and she draws conclusions from these individual stories, conclusions about the nature of heroism, communal reactions to catastrophes, the solitude of dying. These conclusions are never ponderous: Melissa Fay Greene never preaches or behaves like "senior analysts" we are besieged with. Her reasoning is woven into the story, and she is a superb story-teller. She writes with such a talent and taste for language and words, that every page is a delight to read. This is a book that made me cry, laugh, and think. I recommend it to all readers.

Last Man Out is an engaging and compelling story about the Springhill mine disaster, in which 75 miners perished. Miraculously, two groups of trapped miners survived underground for almost a week before being rescued. The book reads like a novel - Green skillfully weaves together information from a variety of sources, including detailed interviews conducted by researchers soon after the event and her own interviews with the now elderly survivors or their families. The book provides a multi-dimensional picture behind the seemingly simple events; in her narrative, disaster can pull people away from each other as much as it binds them together. A good read and a fascinating study of the first disaster story handled by the new medium of television. I highly recommend it.

These are the times that try men's souls--and men and women alike look to literature to buoy us up for the dark days that seem to keep coming. Thus, overturned cruise ships and volcanoes abound, but for my money you can do no better than pick up Last Man Out; The Story of the Springhill Mine Disaster. Melissa Fay Greene has written more than a gripping hour-by-hour account of how, in 1958, 19 Canadian miners struggled to survive after a "bump" smashed floor and ceiling together, rendering the mine an underground prison. She takes a story that we think we've all seen before---the desparate, waiting women and children, the little town banding together, the media carnival that follows their miraculous rescue--and with nuanced language and a gift for uncovering human folly, steers us to look beyond the taleof disaster into its implications in the larger world. With Greene's book, we think not just about terror and bravery but what happens to heroes once the cameras finally turn off. Who is this book for? Well, definitely my book club, and Father's Day,but now I'm thinking Mother's Day as well. It's that universally appealing, that compelling a read, that good.

This wonderful book tells the story of a Nova Scotia coal mine disaster in 1958 and its rather unique aftermath. Melissa Fay Greene weaves a series of small personal stories into a haunting and evocative narrative: one of the best "disaster" books I have ever read. The resiliency of the survivors, when juxtaposed with the unusual events which followed, including the bizarre intervention of the racist Governor of Georgia, really gives this account a special perspective on history and the human condition.I found it fascinating that the author, from Georgia, became involved in the saga of the Springhill miners from the back end of the story, as it were. The Georgia connection adds a remarkable coda to the miners' ordeal, but if she had just told that, it would not have resonated as effectively as the book does. She took the time to trace the story to its beginning and to tell it all. For that I am grateful. I learned far more than I had ever known before, and I was drawn in by her skill with narrative and her genuine understanding of/empathy for those involved. This insightful book is definitely a worthwhile experience.

This book was a terrific read. It is a story of 19 men who are trapped in a coal mine in Springhill, Novia Scotia, when a "bump" occurs: a huge force of gas from deep in the earth which pushes the floor of the mine tunnels to the ceiling timbers, crushing equipment like toys and killing over a hundred miners. It is also the story of the families of the miners, segregation in the state of Georgia, the choices made by politicians and their advisors, post-traumatic stress of survivors, and how individual lives are affected by having the spotlight of fame shone of them for a brief period of time. At its heart, "Last Man Out" is a human tale of courage, honor and decency in the face of natural and manmade adversity. I finished the book in two sittings, needing to know if these men would be liberated from their dark prison of coal and how their wives and children would survive.