Review by New York Times Review
Facing our impermanence requires constant denial: In the shadow of certain death, we use conditioner, car-pool, sip coffee. Though the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens was but "a little pimple on the bunghole of creation" (in the words of a lawyer comparing the explosion with previous volcanic eruptions in the West), the vast destruction it wrought allows us to better appreciate how precious and fragile our time here is. At 8:31 a.m. on Sunday, May 18, 1980, a minute before Mount St. Helens exploded in a blast of searing gas and rock, raining hot ash for hundreds of miles, triggering massive avalanches and floods, and becoming the most powerful natural disaster in United States history, the campers, tourists, scientists and residents beneath it were up to the ordinary business of living. Ostensibly, Olson's mission is to explain why the victims who died in the wake of the explosion were so close to an active volcano. He shows how policy makers, cowed by a powerful logging interest, hid the true danger of the smoldering mountain from their constituents. But in recreating the history of the region and the social, economic and political moment in which the volcano erupted, Olson also reaches for a deeper, existential meaning in describing the many lives lost to the eruption. In the mundane quality of their activities at 8:31, we see ourselves. And for good reason: 91 percent of Americans, Olson warns, are "blissfully ignorant" of living in places with "moderate to high risk" of deadly disasters.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 2, 2016]
Review by Booklist Review
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens caused the deaths of 57 people and initiated a new era in the field of volcanic science. It was also the perfect storm of private and public interests bringing together loggers, environmentalists, scrappy frontier individualists, and the politics of money and power tied to the land and reaching all the way to the governor's office. Olson wisely focuses on the many people involved in the eruption, creating evocative profiles of those who studied, worked, and died on the mountain. He also delves deeply into the history of land ownership and use of Mount St. Helens and how the powerful Weyerhaeuser family came to control so much of the region's economy. More important, he puts to rest the persistent lie that those who lost their lives in the eruption were breaking laws and somehow culpable in their own deaths. Olson shows how it was political weakness more than anything else that affected the body count and only dumb luck that kept it from rising even higher. This is a thoroughly sourced, compelling, and significant read.--Mondor, Colleen Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Olson (Count Down) brings cinematic structure to descriptions of the events surrounding the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980, finding in them a lesson for those tasked with mitigating the effects of future disasters. He sets the scene by presenting the history of the U.S. Forest Service and describing the growth of Weyerhaeuser, a forest-products company that owned much of the land around the mountain. Olson also introduces geologists and their attempts to convey the extent of the volcano's capabilities once it began to rumble in March. A group led by the Forest Service proposed restricting areas, authorized by governor Dixy Lee Ray, but they left land owned by Weyerhaeuser unrestricted despite its proximity to an ominous bulge in the mountain's side. With the danger clear to readers, Olson follows the individuals who were near the mountain on the night before the eruption, reconstructing the final moments of those who died and the paths that the survivors took to where they could be rescued. He concludes with descriptions of the explosion's aftermath, the establishment of the national monument, and the scientific advances based on research on the eruption. Making it clear that these deaths could have been prevented by properly established restricted areas, Olson takes a detailed and human-centered look at a terrible disaster. Agent: Raphael Sagalyn, ICM/Sagalyn. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Fifty-seven people lost their lives on May 18, 1980, when Washington State's Mount St. Helens erupted with catastrophic force. National Book Award finalist (Mapping Human History) Olson tells the story of this tragic event using personal narratives of survivors and other primary documents. Olson solidly builds tension as he places the survivors and victims in their locations prior to the eruption. The actual eruption is brilliantly narrated; the listener is taken from one locale to another as events unfold and tragedy strikes some and others are saved by sheer luck and instinct. The environmental policies, scientific achievements, and geological knowledge gained complete the book. The ideology of environmental preservation and conservation is a major theme throughout, which adds another layer. The decision by Olson to spend nearly a quarter of the audio-book tracing the history of the lumber industry in general and the Weyerhaeuser Company in particular will likely disrupt the narrative flow for most listeners but will not ruin the experience. Jonathan Yen reads expertly. VERDICT Fans of Olson's previous work, geology, natural disasters, and the Pacific Northwest will find this audiobook worthy of their time.-Jason L. -Steagall, -Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A National Book Award finalist unravels the compelling back story of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Olson (Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World's Toughest Math Competition, 2003, etc.) combines nature writing with an investigative focus on the political, economic, and historical factors that changed the way scientists study volcanoes. Whether the author is delving into the dangers of working in the timber industry, offering an overview of the state of volcanology in 1980, or recounting the stories of individuals living and working near Mount St. Helens, his writing propels readers swiftly along as the story races toward the massive blast and its aftermath. Olson details the story of Weyerhaeuser, the infamous Washington logging company that owned "substantial portions of the land between Mount St. Helens and the Pacific Ocean." The author weaves in both the corporate and family history of the Weyerhaeusers ("an American dynasty"), using that remarkable story as foundation for his narrative. This framework offers a compelling look into the region's environmental and social history and how the company and the timber industry shaped a region. "It is difficult to overstate the significance of Weyerhaeuser Company to the history of the Pacific Northwest," writes the author. "Weyerhaeuser and other economic interests have formed the backdrop against which much of the region's history has played out." Olson pinpoints 1980, the year of the eruption, as significant due to the social, economic, and environmental changes taking shape across America and what these shifts meant for the timber industry. The author provides an engrossing explanation of volcanology during the 1980s and how the eruption of Mount St. Helens altered the prevailing science. He also captures the forgotten or untold stories of the individuals who perished in the blast and describes the political wrangling surrounding the status of the devastated area. A riveting trek combining enthralling nature writing with engaging social history. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
