Welcome to Shirley: A Memoir from an Atomic Town

Thanks Kelly for perfectly capturing the spirit of our shared hometown. I often find it hard to explain why I am simultaneously compelled to defend and run away from Shirley. I lived in Shirley from 1971 until 1986, had "city water" and know several of the people and families included in your story. My mom just finally sold our house in 2006. The lab has always been a clandestine "something's not right" zone and I found your account of all the bits and pieces simultaneously shocking and unsurprising. I guess Shirley is just a town of juxtaposing emotions.

I read this book on a plane to Switzerland. Couldn't put it down. Kelly McMasters is a great writer. I felt sad and outraged that the Brookhaven people wouldn't admit the role the plant played in the obviously strange cancer rates in the area. McMasters does a great job combining factual information with beautiful prose and evocative descriptions of the town and it's people. I learned alot reading this book. About the gross negligence and indifference to human lives that government and corportations are capable of. About how beauty can be found even in the most unlikely places. And mostly about how strongly a person can love where they are from, even when there is seemingly nothing there to love. The reason this book strikes a chord is because it is not just another "big bad corporation vs. the people" story. It is the very human way McMasters describes the people and nature of Shirley that makes the book so much more. She relates how, little by little, as she and the town grow up/older, they both lose their innocence to outside forces. Is it just me, or do some of these other reviewers sound like former Brookhaven employees? Don't let those reviews dissuade you..read this. You'll probably see a little bit of your own hometown in it.

My family has owned a house in Mastic Beach since the late 70's, primarily as a vacation home. I remember all the summers spent out there, it had so much promise, but it never materialized. Reading the book brought back many of the good memories as well as the bad, I could close my eyes and see Handy Pantry again and taste Onofrio's pizza. Not being able to drink the water, don't stay in the shower too long, etc, etc. My sister who spent the most time out at the house recently passed away from breast cancer, no family history, my aunt who had a house up the block passed away with breast cancer, uncle who also had a house up the block passed away from cancer.....needless to say, everyone knew that there was a problem, but the big machine can't be questioned. I will never go out to the house again and will never take my kids there. I sent a copy of the book to my remaining 3 sisters and 1 brother hoping that they will never go to the house again. I don't really care whether or not the basic history facts may or may not be 100% accurate. The fact remains that BNL polluted the area with toxic waste and nobody did anything about it.

I just finished reading this book and it is an easy read. I usually get bored mid-way through a book. This book kept be interested with the mix of her personal stories and factual information about the radioactive pollution that is affecting people in the Suffolk County area. The lab sits on top of the sole aquifer in the area and is pumped into the homes of families within about a twenty mile radius. I am particularly interested because I live in Shirley's sister town, Mastic Beach. My mother in-law lived there for 20+ years, has no history of breast cancer in her family, never smoked, never abused alcohol and has been in and out of remission from breast cancer. Her oncologist said she is a 'rare' case because she never abused these things and it does not run in her large family. But it does not seem that they took into consideration where she was living. I remember watching the Montel Williams show when they did a piece with Alec Baldwin in the late 90's about the 13 rare childhood cancers in Suffolk county. They were 1 in a million (or higher) cancers and when you viewed the map you could see where the children lived created a circle around Brookhaven Lab. McMasters speaks of a child in the book that has a one in 4 million case of cancer and how her father finds out there are 28 other cases of it in Suffolk County. McMasters speaks of the danger this radioactive water poses in everyday life. Shocking revelation after shocking revelation are revealed: it's not just about drinking the water; hand-washing clothes (for instance)the agitation of the clothes in the water releases the water into the air for the person to inhale and absorb the isotopes into the lungs and bloodstream. This also occurs when we shower and the vaporized steam is inhaled and also absorbed through the skin upon contact. The water we use everyday in innumerable ways is the enemy and we can't get away from it unless we get away from the area. As she grows up cancer seems to envelope the people in her area. She reports of numerous young adults having benign tumors and then going back to the doctors, those same adults now have developed cancer. Everyone needs to read this book. You never know what is lurking in your backyard and how it is affecting you.