Judith Merril: Shadow on the Hearth

[bibliogramma]

One of the few 1950s era novels dealing with the immediate consequences of nuclear war that was written by a woman and from the perspective of a female protagonist.

Reading a '50s novel that's written from the perspective of an ordinary '50s suburban housewife is a very strange thing in 2014. So much has changed, especially for women. And yet so much is familiar. Many developments in the novel that come in the wake of a surprise attack on American soil, such as the persecution of immigrants who've been in the country for years, eerily parallels recent events in the US.

It was difficult to read about the struggles of women who had so little practical knowledge and experience of anything outside home and family to make sense of what's happening to them - even though I'm old enough to remember when that was true for many middle class married women. And yet the subtle pervasiveness of sexual threat, both from strangers in lawless and desperate times, and from the men placed in charge of a frightened and helpless population, was unhappily too familiar still. Merril captures the protagonist's transition from confused and helpless suburban wife and mother to a survivor with the strength to deal with privation and illness with skill.

C. L. Moore and Leigh Brackett also wrote dystopic/post-apocalyptic novels in the 50s (Doomsday Morning and The Long Tomorrow) and I don't remember ever reading either one. I think I might hunt them down and check them out. Andre Norton also wrote several post-apocalyptic novels - Star Man's Son is the one that leaps immediately to mind but I think there were othets as well. Might be interesting to re-read those as well.