by Glenn Cheney
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Product Description
Glenn Cheney arrived in Kiev during those first days when the Soviet Union ceased to exist and Ukraine was reborn. Immediately he found himself talking with scientists, journalists, refugees, engineers, top-level government officials, doctors, environmentalists, parents of sick children and people living just a few kilometers from the Chernobyl complex. The reports of atrocities, epidemics, tyranny and despair blend with a most unusual travelogue, considerable humor and KGB intrigue.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Awful, 2008-12-25
I've read many books on the subject of the Chernobyl accident, and I've seen references to this title pop up every now and then. It only seemed natural for me to read it.
With a couple of exceptions, this book is a complete waste of time.
This book's main offense is the author, who seems to be completely unable or unwilling to write from a neutral point of view. Having written many general-interest books and articles on the dangers of nuclear power, nuclear testing, and nuclear proliferation, Glen Alan Cheney pounces on every opportunity to throw in a gratuitous attack on every subject dealing with nuclear industry. While Chernobyl was a catastrophic event, florid descriptions of the world's plight on every other page are unnecessary, and insulting to the reader's intelligence.
Perhaps even worse is Cheney's attitude to his host country and its populace. Every description of a place, person, or action is seasoned with a snide remark, thrown in for no apparent reason other than to add further despair and misery to his narrative. Most telling is the fact that the author is completely unwilling to even attempt to learn the local language, and is proud of it! In this, Cheney is the stereotypical "American tourist."
Lastly, Cheney travels to Ukraine more than seven years after the disaster with a complete ignorance of the events that occurred, the medical and ecological consequences of the radioactive fallout, the government's response to the accident, or really anything pertaining to Chernobyl. One does not have to read between the lines to detect this ignorance; his words say exactly that - in black and white - right in the first chapter. Personally, I prefer to read books written by people who are smarter and more knowledgeable than me on the given subject.
The above reasons cause one to lose all confidence in the author's objectivity, which can make the actual information contained in the book untrustworthy. In general terms, his stories are consistent with information available from other sources, so I have no reason to doubt the broad strokes of Cheney's narrative. However, any specific information present in the book is not given from a position of authority and becomes utterly worthless for the purposes of research.
Not recommended.
If anyone wants my copy, feel free to ask.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Perspective, clarity, honesty, 2008-11-10
Glenn Cheney's voice raises questions, exposes uncomfortable truths, and propels the reader into forbidden places, from the recesses of his own brain to the Prohibited Zone near the reactor. Three stories are going on here -- the meltdown of the nuclear reactor, the meltdown of life for those around the reactor, and the reaction of a journalist from somewhere else. Read this book.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Easy, fun reading!, 2008-04-11
If you are interested in what the Ukraine was like during the collapse of the Soviet Union, this is the book to read. The author takes you through a 'diary,' a 1st person view of his experience with the aftermath of the accident, coupled with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The book is interesting, and fun to read. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in the Chernobyl accident.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
 An American in a Nuclear World, 2007-09-07
After reading a few reviews about this book elsewhere, I was eager to give it a read. On paper, the concept is intriguing: an American visiting Kiev in the days right after the Soviet Union ceased to exist, styling himself as a journalist and researcher, and attempting to unravel some of the horrifying mysteries and secrets surrounding the April 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Cheney's good to his word: he goes to Kiev and he investigates Chernobyl. The resulting book is most disappointing, however, in spite of Cheney's engaging style of writing.
For one thing, it's hard to get past what appears to be a great deal of callousness and cultural insensitivity. The visit took place in the end of 1991, so we're treated to more commentary than necessary on the evils of Communism and the Soviet system, the blessings of capitalism, and how the American government would never, ever allow its citizens to be exposed to that much radiation. At times Cheney veers into full-out Ugly American Tourist mode. He's offended and reacts rudely when he learns that a visit to the Chernobyl reactor will cost money--he thinks he should be able to go for free, permits be damned. He shortchanges a shopkeeper. At one point, he complains that the signs in the Metro are in Cyrillic...gee, in Kiev who would ever expect that?
The book is peppered with uncomplimentary descriptions of the people Cheney meets. A taxi driver who showers Cheney with kindness is "ugly." The flight attendants on Aeroflot: "babushkas in training." The patients in one hospital's cancer ward are insensitively described as "half-dead children," and Cheney photographs them without even trying to learn their names or think of them as actual people. There are endless criticisms on the clothing, the hair, the style of the locals: in one instance, Cheney claims that he only respects a top scientist's data because the man is able to afford a respectable Western suit. He pokes fun of Russian pronunciations of English words, such as "business," and is critical of the locals' lack of English prowess (gee, why doesn't everyone speak English in Ukraine and Russia? You mean they have their own languages there?!), but can't be bothered to learn a word of the local languages himself. Although the locals shower him with help and hospitality, the only thing he can think to tell the "folks back home" about Ukrainians is that they wear the same clothes every day.
While Cheney does offer some stunning write-ups of his encounters with Chernobyl insiders, and gives a helpful summary of the difference between rads, curies and rontengens, even these leave the reader cold. The stories of the liquidators are brushed off, and, even in the face of cancer wards and numerous statements about the vast amount of radioactive material contaminating the country, people who claim there are thousands of victims are described as being "lying or hysterical." The sarcophagus that covers the demolished Reactor Four, with its nuclear payload, was build shoddily because the people constructing it "didn't care to do it properly" (I suppose the fact that all the robots and machines were, you know, malfunctioning because of the radiation, the fact that people working there were made seriously ill by being so close to the reactor and many sacrificed their lives to the cause, and the fact that they were in a hurry to try to contain the radiation as quickly as possible didn't have anything to do with it--nope, they just didn't give a damn!). When Cheney makes the callous comment that he looks as though he's "dying of radiation poisoning" when--gasp!--he's had to go through the day with only one meal!--the reader realizes he just doesn't get it, and he's not going to get it.
Although Cheney's book purports to be an expose of the Chernobyl crisis, perhaps it's important for another reason: it's a direct account of how, even in the face of massive evidence, people both inside and out of the USSR felt perfectly willing to ignore and deliberately disregard the impact of Chernobyl and its staggering number of casualties.
For an accurate look at the human face of the Chernobyl disaster, I'd point people toward Svetlana Alexievich's amazing "Voices from Chernobyl." I'd only recommend this book to those who have already read up on the disaster and know the story.
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