Rating: 
Summary: A Facinating True Story
Review: How could nearly 30,000 people be killed by a volcano unless they were not paying attention? The volcano had been erupting for a month, raining ashes on St. Pierre just four miles from the crater. There were earthquakes, mudflows, and birds dropping dead out of the sky. Yet in a weird twist of mass psychology, very few people evacuated. In fact, many actually moved into the city just before the catastrophe.Part of this strange true story is told by the victims themselves though letters and cablegrams they sent in the weeks before the disaster. I felt I got to know some of the characters so well that their actions almost seemed reasonable! Almost. I'm sure I would have been inclined to evacuate if I had been living in St. Pierre in May of 1902. The author has done a great job of bringing the many pieces of this story together. A lot of readers will be fascinated by the parts about the scientists and journalists trying to determine what was happening. Others will be intrigued by the political shenanigans. However, as a social worker, my favorite parts were the human stories of decision and indecision, love and conflict, and the ability of the human spirit to cope with adversity. A facinating book!
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling
Review: I recently read Simon Winchester's "Krakatoa", and it put me to sleep. But here is a fascinating nonfiction book on a similar subject--a historic volcanic disaster--that doesn't seem to have gotten much promotion from its publisher, yet has all the elements that enthrall the reader-- tension, character development, suspense, surprise, substance... leading the reader to often gaze up at the ceiling and say "hmmm..." The author has done a marvelous job of bringing alive characters that have been dead for a century. Fundamentally, however, this book is about ignorance-- how a lack of knowledge of natural geological processes led to some egregiously erroneous political decisions that sealed the terrible fate of 30,000 humans on the island of Martinique in 1902. The author, however, does not insult the reader's intelligence, and your conclusions from this fascinating book will be your own.
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling
Review: I recently read Simon Winchester's "Krakatoa", and it put me to sleep. But here is a fascinating nonfiction book on a similar subject--a historic volcanic disaster--that doesn't seem to have gotten much promotion from its publisher, yet has all the elements that enthrall the reader-- tension, character development, suspense, surprise, substance... leading the reader to often gaze up at the ceiling and say "hmmm..." The author has done a marvelous job of bringing alive characters that have been dead for a century. Fundamentally, however, this book is about ignorance-- how a lack of knowledge of natural geological processes led to some egregiously erroneous political decisions that sealed the terrible fate of 30,000 humans on the island of Martinique in 1902. The author, however, does not insult the reader's intelligence, and your conclusions from this fascinating book will be your own.
Rating:
Summary: A Year on Bald Mountain
Review: On the morning of May 8, 1902, a massive pyroclastic flow surged down the flank of Mt Pelee on the island of Martinique in the French West Indies. The searing cloud slammed into the city of St Pierre; within two minutes, the city was a pile of smoking rubble and 30,000 people were dead. Asked to name the greatest volcanic disasters in history, most people would probably offer up Mt Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum; they might also volunteer the explosion of Krakatoa or the even more recent eruption of Mt. St Helens. Mt Pelee and St Pierre are usually only vaguely recalled, which is remakable given the sheer size of the human tragedy. Zebrowski's book does a marvelous job of taking the reader back to 1902, when scientists understood far less than they do now about what volcanos can do. The series of eruptions at Mt Pelee were triggered by the rise of a huge bulge of magma from the subduction zone beneath the Lesser Antilles. These forces set off Mt La Soufriere on the island of St Vincent, where pyroclastic flows and lahars killed two thousand people the day before St Pierre was destroyed; the rising magma also erupted in an undersea volcano at a spot called Kick 'em Jenny. Zebrowski describes the weeks leading to the eruption of Mt Pelee and how the local inhabitants and French bureacracy struggled to understand what they were up against. The blame for the disaster is often laid at the feet of Louis Mouttet, the governor of Martinique, but it is difficult to imagine what else he could have done. At the time, scientists thought of volcanic eruptions in terms of slow moving rivers of lava rather than swift and deadly pyrolastic flows and lahars. If Mouttet had tried to evacuate St. Pierre, he would have had very little support; even if he had succeeded, he would have created an enormous refugee crisis. Zebrowski explains what life in St Pierre was like before the disaster, how Martinique's inhabitants coped with the increasingly dangerous volcano in their midst, what happened to the city and its people when the volcano erupted and afterward, how the French government handled (or failed to handle) the aftermath of the disaster, and how a courageous group of scientists and journalists explored the still-erupting volcano to understand what had happened. Zebrowski has chosen a rich canvas for a gripping tale, and he makes the most of it in this well-written book.
Rating:
Summary: A Year on Bald Mountain
Review: On the morning of May 8, 1902, a massive pyroclastic flow surged down the flank of Mt Pelee on the island of Martinique in the French West Indies. The searing cloud slammed into the city of St Pierre; within two minutes, the city was a pile of smoking rubble and 30,000 people were dead. Asked to name the greatest volcanic disasters in history, most people would probably offer up Mt Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum; they might also volunteer the explosion of Krakatoa or the even more recent eruption of Mt. St Helens. Mt Pelee and St Pierre are usually only vaguely recalled, which is remakable given the sheer size of the human tragedy. Zebrowski's book does a marvelous job of taking the reader back to 1902, when scientists understood far less than they do now about what volcanos can do. The series of eruptions at Mt Pelee were triggered by the rise of a huge bulge of magma from the subduction zone beneath the Lesser Antilles. These forces set off Mt La Soufriere on the island of St Vincent, where pyroclastic flows and lahars killed two thousand people the day before St Pierre was destroyed; the rising magma also erupted in an undersea volcano at a spot called Kick 'em Jenny. Zebrowski describes the weeks leading to the eruption of Mt Pelee and how the local inhabitants and French bureacracy struggled to understand what they were up against. The blame for the disaster is often laid at the feet of Louis Mouttet, the governor of Martinique, but it is difficult to imagine what else he could have done. At the time, scientists thought of volcanic eruptions in terms of slow moving rivers of lava rather than swift and deadly pyrolastic flows and lahars. If Mouttet had tried to evacuate St. Pierre, he would have had very little support; even if he had succeeded, he would have created an enormous refugee crisis. Zebrowski explains what life in St Pierre was like before the disaster, how Martinique's inhabitants coped with the increasingly dangerous volcano in their midst, what happened to the city and its people when the volcano erupted and afterward, how the French government handled (or failed to handle) the aftermath of the disaster, and how a courageous group of scientists and journalists explored the still-erupting volcano to understand what had happened. Zebrowski has chosen a rich canvas for a gripping tale, and he makes the most of it in this well-written book.
Rating:
Summary: zebrowski does not ignore the human side
Review: perhaps the debate "is zebrowski's book a scientific account or a novel?" is best understood when we look at a simple fact: it has a human side. no writing can be strictly an "account" if it takes on the brutal task of touching on not just the facts but the sociological effects of such a disaster, as zebrowski's story does. and the humanization of a scientific fact of life is not a fault. a novel or an account... why can't it be both? after all, what is a great story if not a wonderful descripton of a point in time, with characters and dialogue-and truth, at that. and spelling geographical terms in a different way than we are used to is not a "liberty," it is a choice. this is a truly phenomenal book. dr. zebrowski is clearly a scientist-and a writer.
Rating:
Summary: Geology with Humanity
Review: This book is that rarity - a page turner about geological phenomena. I had no previous interest in or knowledge about volcanoes, but The Last Days of St. Pierre was hard to put down. The tragic history of Mount Pelee, its fatal eruption and horrific aftermath, come alive in the words of contemporary witnesses (and many who did not survive). I could see how Zebrowski must have identified with the adventurer-geologists who investigated the volcano after its initial eruption, for he describes their travels (and travails) vividly. But this is not just a book for earth scientists. It deserves a wide general readership.
Rating:
Summary: martique-a nice place to visit BUT
Review: this is far and away the best book i have read since "krakota" to rebuild a time period. leading up to an historic eruption and its human aftermath which surely altered history. an honest attempt to recreate the human horror and suffering such an event caused. i can only say that as a volcano "fan" i found the book first-class-couldn't-put-it-down-reading. no expert-i, i just enjoyed it. it is enough to make you move inland to an isolated hill free desert. think man is getting smarter ? i believe that no human remains have been found on thera while at st. pierre, many centuries later, about 30,000 died.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Historical Novel
Review: While I agree with the previous reviewers that this is a historically captivating story, I must take issue on a couple of points. This is not a "scientific" text. The author's explanation of volcanological phenomena is rather shaky. At one point he talks about "underground lakes" within Mt. Pelee. While that may be his most egregious transgression, there are others. I was also dismayed by the excessive liberties he takes in the spelling of local geographical names. Assier for example becomes Acier. Normally not an issue, but there are just too many. I couldn't help wonder what other liberties he has taken in recounting this event.
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