Book Review: St. Ursula’s Girls Against the Atomic Bomb, by Valerie Hurley, MacAdam Cage, 2003. Raine is a Jew of adopted faith, granddaughter of Vikey who hid Jews in her native Slovakia during the Holocaust. Raine loves ritual and meaning, holding seders in her upstairs bedroom of the family’s New York City brownstone. She reads from the book of Lamentations, recites prayers, and communes with the dogwood in her backyard garden. She is the child of tailored, professional parents who carry their own baggage. The mother is a concert violinist, an emigrée from war-torn Slovakia. The father seems to be awakening from years of work and little attention to his daughter. Mary, their Greenlandian housekeeper, has raised Raine and instilled in her the love and lore of native mythology. Raine is a fervent, passionate reader, who runs through books to support her politics much in the way a third-year Columbia student might — on a good day. This, is no ordinary high school senior. Raine lands in the guidance office of Al Klepatar, a neighbor from across the garden, as a new student at St. Ursula’s school for girls. Al has dedicated his life to remaining in control, out of touch, and untouched by the very things Raine craves. He leads an ordered life in his New York apartment, watching the birds, tending the garden, preparing Saturday soup to share with his wife, a second-shift nurse. Aware that his world is slipping away from him, Al toes the line that has served him so well over the years — stick to the routine, keep your head down, let it pass. Unfortunately, inaction masks his real feelings, and Al loses his own world just as Raine is trying to build hers. The two personalities shape one another, bringing each to a new place through a series of crises and responses. One learns to connect, while the other learns to live life, placing one foot in front of the other instead of being mired in the idea of what action might be. This is a wonderful, lyrical book by Vermont author Valerie Hurley. In it, Hurley gives us a young woman who wants desperately to wake up society, to make a difference, to end our ignorant participation in a conspiracy that has us tending weapons of mass destruction and creating toxic nests of chemical and biological destruction. Her dream is to begin a club, St. Ursula’s Girls Against the Atomic Bomb, to give life, breath, and support to her dream of youth advocacy. With a club behind her, Raine will no longer need to lie prone, alone, across the steps of the recruiting office. With a club, she will find community in a place where others value her ideas. Raine turns to Al, the only mainstream adult who seems to like her or offer hope, to be her club sponsor. "Raine, I would be derelict in my duty if I encouraged your involvement in this silly, illusory bomb group." "What’s silly and illusory about it?" she said. […] "I love being a Jew, but I kind of wish I was Catholic because Catholics feel so guilty. St. Ursula’s will be a great place to begin my bomb group. I tried in my other school, but I swear those kids don’t have consciences. I’m expecting my group to spread like the plague at St. Ursula’s because Catholics feel guilty even when they’re innocent. " "Raine, I can’t earn a diploma for you. But I can’t give up on you either." "Why can’t you?" she said. "Because I’m getting a salary to encourage you to succeed." "But what is success, exactly?" That becomes the crux of the quest on which they unwittingly embark. Making moves, choices, and decisions, living life and experiencing its consequences, Raine and Al work together to come to a new place in each of their respective lives. This book is a gem, at once a marvelous light read, underscored by a deeper examination of the structures in our lives that give meaning. Throughout the book runs the thread of hope for our desire to make the world a better place. I particularly loved this book for its reminders to all of us to keep our hearts and souls open to young people, to encourage them and help them nurture their ideals. Raine is at once real and surreal — a teen struggling to find her place in the world, and a very old soul looking to plant itself in a new generation. St. Ursula’s reminds us that it is possible to be gentle guides, who learn by listening and mentoring, and who rediscover ourselves along the way. |
Damned
if you do, damned if you don’t. Such must surely be the motto for
Raine Rassaby and Al Klepatar, unlikely neighbors and ultimate helpmates
in the novel St. Ursula’s Girls Against the Atomic Bomb, by Valerie
Hurley. Raine, the novel’s young protagonist, feels everything so
deeply and with such conviction that she finds herself at odds with the
world in which she lives. Raine’s world is a series of constructs
designed to bring meaning to her personal life while she gathers the strength
to fight the good fight against nuclear and atomic weapons, and the indifference
that threatens existence worldwide.