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The Accident
During a postwar nuclear experiment at Los Alamos, Louis Saxl, a scientist, risks his life to save the other six experimenters
- GenresFiction
336 pages, Paperback
First published August 6, 1985
About the author
Dexter Masters
11 books1 followerDexter Wright Masters was an American editor and novelist, mostly known for his book about the dangers of the atomic bomb. Masters was married to writer Joan Brady. Their son, Alexander Masters, is also a writer.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 9, 2009
Dexter Masters writes in a scholarly, yet grandfatherly, tone. His 1955 novel The Accident opens with a detailed description of the road to Los Alamos, New Mexico - so incredibly detailed, in fact, that such efforts to paint the scene should seem superfluous... and yet, the entire passage has that familiar sensation of a wise old man painstakingly recreating the sights that the reader would otherwise miss along the way. And this is followed closely by a scene depicting a youthful Los Alamos doctor's reflections upon a hike up New Mexico's Truchas Peak some time prior.
This serves as a sharp contrast with (or perhaps details an eerie similarity to) the manner in which the novel's pivotal conflict is revealed shortly thereafter: a nuclear "pile" goes critical, and seven men are exposed to a potentially lethal dose of radiation. This action occurs while the reader is "locked" outside of the building before a guard, who had been reading a comic book and admiring a unique flower of northern origin in the grass when the accident took place. The only knowledge presented within the text was the aural effect coming from the inside; an insistent Geiger counter, a scientist's howled name ("Louieeeeeee!"), and the resultant silence. But no man died that day.
Louis Saxl, the scientist who had broken apart the nuclear pile with his bare hands and thus protected the six other men from receiving too much radiation, is a fictional creation of Dexter Masters. Louis Slotin, however, was a very real scientist within the confines of Los Alamos on May 21st, 1946 (almost a full year after World War II had ended), who had died several days after performing this self-same experiment. In life, Mr. Slotin's screwdriver had allegedly slipped, causing the experiment to go critical, thus causing his prolonged death by radiation poisoning. In the novel, though, Louis Saxl's error was never fully revealed, save to say that "There was no dropped screwdriver." This accident was, in its fictionalized counterpart, completely inexplicable.
Yet, the accident is not what matters most to the novel.
Masters utilizes what had been a tragedy nearly a decade old by his novel's first printing, and succeeds in bringing to life on the page a biography-of-sorts of the scientist as a human being. Louis Saxl, the character, was called a hero by his superiors prior to his fictional demise - just as his living counterpart had been by the American military, for having ostensibly saved the lives of six men at the sacrifice of his own. In both stories, however, the indication is that this "heroism" was more than likely an instinctual reaction to prevent the accident entirely.
This detail does not matter, either.
Louis Saxl recalls his life, inspired by his fevered delirium, in a series of chronological venues, until his mind barely functions under the influence of his illness and his medications. Having lost the use of both his hands (left to soak in two troughs of ice), he is essentially trapped within his own body, growing progressively more feeble with sporadic and cruel "remissions" serving to inspire false hope within both him and his caretakers. Poetry and classical fiction read to him by his sensitive young nurse are his only respite, as his memories grow progressively more painful, until these too are no longer able to pacify his tortured mind.
The Accident is not a thriller, nor is it at all suspenseful in the modern sense of the word. It is a thoughtfully crafted portrait of how a certain Los Alamos scientist may have been a human being beyond the headlines of the day. It is clearly not a biography of Louis Slotin, the living entity, but of a wholly fictional avatar derived and based upon the man, as if in posthumous tribute.
On its surface, the book's title appears to refer simply to the release of toxic radiation into the controlled environment. As the life of the afflicted man unfolds, though... The Accident seems completely appropriate at any number of points along the way. Rich with regional imagery and subtle symbolism, this book proves to be a most challenging read - and a most rewarding one.
This serves as a sharp contrast with (or perhaps details an eerie similarity to) the manner in which the novel's pivotal conflict is revealed shortly thereafter: a nuclear "pile" goes critical, and seven men are exposed to a potentially lethal dose of radiation. This action occurs while the reader is "locked" outside of the building before a guard, who had been reading a comic book and admiring a unique flower of northern origin in the grass when the accident took place. The only knowledge presented within the text was the aural effect coming from the inside; an insistent Geiger counter, a scientist's howled name ("Louieeeeeee!"), and the resultant silence. But no man died that day.
Louis Saxl, the scientist who had broken apart the nuclear pile with his bare hands and thus protected the six other men from receiving too much radiation, is a fictional creation of Dexter Masters. Louis Slotin, however, was a very real scientist within the confines of Los Alamos on May 21st, 1946 (almost a full year after World War II had ended), who had died several days after performing this self-same experiment. In life, Mr. Slotin's screwdriver had allegedly slipped, causing the experiment to go critical, thus causing his prolonged death by radiation poisoning. In the novel, though, Louis Saxl's error was never fully revealed, save to say that "There was no dropped screwdriver." This accident was, in its fictionalized counterpart, completely inexplicable.
Yet, the accident is not what matters most to the novel.
Masters utilizes what had been a tragedy nearly a decade old by his novel's first printing, and succeeds in bringing to life on the page a biography-of-sorts of the scientist as a human being. Louis Saxl, the character, was called a hero by his superiors prior to his fictional demise - just as his living counterpart had been by the American military, for having ostensibly saved the lives of six men at the sacrifice of his own. In both stories, however, the indication is that this "heroism" was more than likely an instinctual reaction to prevent the accident entirely.
This detail does not matter, either.
Louis Saxl recalls his life, inspired by his fevered delirium, in a series of chronological venues, until his mind barely functions under the influence of his illness and his medications. Having lost the use of both his hands (left to soak in two troughs of ice), he is essentially trapped within his own body, growing progressively more feeble with sporadic and cruel "remissions" serving to inspire false hope within both him and his caretakers. Poetry and classical fiction read to him by his sensitive young nurse are his only respite, as his memories grow progressively more painful, until these too are no longer able to pacify his tortured mind.
The Accident is not a thriller, nor is it at all suspenseful in the modern sense of the word. It is a thoughtfully crafted portrait of how a certain Los Alamos scientist may have been a human being beyond the headlines of the day. It is clearly not a biography of Louis Slotin, the living entity, but of a wholly fictional avatar derived and based upon the man, as if in posthumous tribute.
On its surface, the book's title appears to refer simply to the release of toxic radiation into the controlled environment. As the life of the afflicted man unfolds, though... The Accident seems completely appropriate at any number of points along the way. Rich with regional imagery and subtle symbolism, this book proves to be a most challenging read - and a most rewarding one.
November 10, 2012
This story closely parallels the real 1946 accident caused by Los Alamos physicist Louis Slotin. In fact, the character in the book is Louis Saxl. Louis (pick one) was lowering a hemisphere of beryllium onto a small sphere of plutonium one day in May 1946, trying to create the beginnings of a criticality for some other scientists standing at various distances from the apparatus, when his sloppy jerry-rigging slipped and started a very brief burst of radiation (brief chain reaction), with blue glow, the whole bit.
Louis himself suffered a fatal dose, with the other men in the room receiving various doses, none fatal (some died in later years due to the after-effects--cancers, etc. which probably were the result of this accident). Louis himself dies some 7½ days later in the local place they have for a hospital. The author is more frank about this incident than the official story usually told about the real Louis (his having died a hero by "saving" his fellow scientists, etc.). Louis' carelessness was the cause of the accident and his yanking the beryllium hemisphere away to stop the reaction was a natural one, not necessarily an act of courage. The story covers Louis' days in the hospital, his thoughts, memories, and the various associations between fellow scientists and the doctors who tried to do what they could to save him, albeit as futile as it was. Except for the fairly often forays into what I'll call "symbolic meanderings" by Mr. Masters, the book is worth a read, especially for anyone at all interested in the early days at Los Alamos.
Louis himself suffered a fatal dose, with the other men in the room receiving various doses, none fatal (some died in later years due to the after-effects--cancers, etc. which probably were the result of this accident). Louis himself dies some 7½ days later in the local place they have for a hospital. The author is more frank about this incident than the official story usually told about the real Louis (his having died a hero by "saving" his fellow scientists, etc.). Louis' carelessness was the cause of the accident and his yanking the beryllium hemisphere away to stop the reaction was a natural one, not necessarily an act of courage. The story covers Louis' days in the hospital, his thoughts, memories, and the various associations between fellow scientists and the doctors who tried to do what they could to save him, albeit as futile as it was. Except for the fairly often forays into what I'll call "symbolic meanderings" by Mr. Masters, the book is worth a read, especially for anyone at all interested in the early days at Los Alamos.
March 21, 2010
It's incredible how much acclaim and praise this book received when it was published in 1955, indeed, given to such popularity that it was translated and republished into ten languages. It was still renowned when it was given a second printing run in 1965.
All of this is not without merit, for Dexter Masters so effectively captures the human element inside the science and technology disaster horror story that it is easy to forget that one is not reading fiction, but instead being carried by the narrator through his recollection - seeing the visions playing against his synapses as he recalls the daily events that have become burnt into his memory.
Yet, here we are and the book and the author are so thoroughly forgotten in the passages of literary history that no fewer than four publications have re-appropriated the title themselves. .
It is a shame, for this book reads like a warning to the future. The novel foreshadowing a range of issues surrounding the nuclear field - including radiation poisoning, worker injuries, community harm and even the moral debates over the right of magazines to publish details of nuclear tests and accidents.
If you can get your hands on a copy, it is a pleasure to read - and one I hope to find and re-grace my shelves once again.
All of this is not without merit, for Dexter Masters so effectively captures the human element inside the science and technology disaster horror story that it is easy to forget that one is not reading fiction, but instead being carried by the narrator through his recollection - seeing the visions playing against his synapses as he recalls the daily events that have become burnt into his memory.
Yet, here we are and the book and the author are so thoroughly forgotten in the passages of literary history that no fewer than four publications have re-appropriated the title themselves. .
It is a shame, for this book reads like a warning to the future. The novel foreshadowing a range of issues surrounding the nuclear field - including radiation poisoning, worker injuries, community harm and even the moral debates over the right of magazines to publish details of nuclear tests and accidents.
If you can get your hands on a copy, it is a pleasure to read - and one I hope to find and re-grace my shelves once again.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews