Synopses & Reviews
Published on March 11, 2012—the one-year anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster—this book is a whirlwind tour of the nuclear industry, seen through the lens of the industrial and planetary crisis still unfolding in Japan. As much personal reflection as investigative journalism, this searing denunciation of the nuclear industry lays bare the connection between nuclear warfare and nuclear energy; it traces the evolution of the authors own consciousness, while recording day-by-day the worsening developments that continue to unfold at Fukushima Daiichi. Often poetic in tone, philosophical in scope, reflections on the disaster are peppered with comic monologues, day-to-day reportage, meditations, and occasional flights of fancy.
Review
"Cecile Pineda's astonishing anatomy of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster . . . echoes the best work of Rachel Carson, Marilyn Robinson, and Helen Caldicott. It is a work of a conscience truly in touch with, and deeply concerned with, humanity." —John Nichols, author, The Milagro Beanfield War
Review
"Pineda's masterful framing of the urgency for readers to learn from the Japanese nuclear disaster and the machinations of its industry handlers makes Devil's Tango one of the most important and required reads this year." —Jeff Biggers, Huffington Post
Review
"With Devil's Tango [Cecile Pineda] has created a new and necessary genre, one which reflects both the fission at the core of the nuclear process and its fragmenting effects on our minds and lives. . . . Pineda lets us glimpse how we too can bring a kind of wholeness, or healing, to our fractured world." —Joanna Macy, Eco-philosopher and author, Pass It On: Five Stories that Can Change the World
Synopsis
As much personal journal as investigative journalism, this second edition traces the worsening developments at Fukushima Daiichi during the first year following the nuclear disaster. Often poetic in tone and philosophic in scope, this day-to-day reportage is peppered with the authors reflections and dramatic monologues as she investigates the publics willing blindness toward the nuclear power industrys disregard for public safety in the pursuit of profit. The book offers a unique perspective and attempts to come to terms with Fukushimas catastrophic consequences on the planet.
About the Author
Cecile Pineda was born in Harlem, the daughter of a scholarly Mexican father, and a Swiss-French mother. Her language of origin is French. After some twelve years of producing and directing her own experimental theater company, Pineda began to write fiction. Her novels have been critically acclaimed, with Face winning the Californian Commonwealth Clubs Gold Medala record for first fictionthe Sue Kaufman Prize, and a National Book Award Nomination. Her picaresque novel, The Love Queen of the Amazon, written with a NEA Fiction Fellowship, was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times. Other novels include Frieze, set in 9th century India and Java; Fishlight, a fictional memoir of childhood, and two mononovels, Bardo99, in which the 20th century itself passes through a bardo state; and Redoubt, a meditation on gender. Her play, Like Snow Melting in Water,” set in contemporary agrarian Japan, centers on themes of displacement and ecological collapse. It will see productions in India and Thailand in 2012. Pineda has been an anti-war activist from early life. More than ever, she has turned her attention to issues affecting the sustainability of the planet. Devils Tango: How I learned the Fukushima Step by Step is Pinedas anguished dissection of the nuclear industry seen through the lens of the industrial and planetary disaster now unfolding at Fukushima Daiichi. A crazy quilt of multiple voices, pieced together day-by-day, it reflects her attempt to come to terms with Fukushimas catastrophic consequences to the planet. Visit her web page at http://www.cecilepineda.com