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as "a rather chintzy account of what happened to a
Westchester family when the atomic bombs began to burst through the American air", noting that Merril "concentrate on the creation of believable leading characters" and concluding that the novel "is generally entertaining reading, even if . . . not
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read the incomplete draft and bought the novel. Merril quit her editorial job at Bantam to complete it. When she completed it, Doubleday imposed its own title (avoiding any mention of nuclear war), revising the text to create a happier ending, and wrapping the novel in a nondescript dust jacket. "On
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notes that "contemporary critics respect Merril's novel for its originality in domesticating nuclear attack -- hence the story's power and darkness". David Seed reports the novel is "universally praised . . . for its understated method, avoidance of melodrama and unusually oblique description of
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as a short story; "When it reached ten thousand words," she remembered, "I began to understand that it wanted to be a novel." Although she stopped working on the piece when it reached twice that length, needing to spend more time with her young daughter, Doubleday editor
290:"is one of the only postwar holocaust narratives that manages to work its way out from under the paralyzing shadow of the mushroom cloud and to imagine the possibility of women -- and men -- working together to build a more peaceful and rational future".
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declared that "its beautifully rendered interlocking series of incidents and events . . . creates an almost too-vivid picture for the reader of what life in the very near future may become". Kenneth F. Slater wrote in
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reviewer, John
Cournos, received the novel unfavorably, saying its story "seems more like a somewhat uncomfortable picnic than a manifestation of a catastrophe".
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tells the story of "a
Westchester woman and her two children after the explosion of a series of atomic bombs on New York". Merril described it as "a very
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the cover was an attractive young mother, obviously in great distress: it could have been a gothic novel", Merril later groused, "or basically anything".
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in 1966. Italian translations appeared in 1956 and 1992; a German translation was issued in 1982. It was included in
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praised it as "a sensitively human novel, terrifying in its small-scale reflection of grand-scale catastrophe."
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Monsters, Mushroom Clouds, and the Cold War: American
Science Fiction and the Roots of Postmodernism, 1946-1964
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469:"Not Lost in Space: Revising the Politics of Cold War Womanhood in Judith Merril's Science Fiction", in
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is "a relatively daring novel" and "a useful corrective to the heroic vision of post apocalypse life".
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that "The emotions you will find here are in places hard and brutal, not softly sentimental".
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omnibus compiling all Merril's novels (the other two written in collaboration with
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More recent reviewers also rate the novel highly. Lisa Yaszek writes that
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in 1950. It was her first novel. A British hardcover was published by
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as "a masterly example of sensitive and perceptive story-telling."
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has ever been published, although a book club edition appeared.
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American
Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and Film
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always for the reasons intended by the author". Another
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Genre reviewers viewed Merril's effort more favorably.
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348:Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril
295:nuclear attack". M. Keith Booker declares that
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258:found it a "warm, human novel" comparable to
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471:New Boundaries in Political Science Fiction
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147:in 1953, with a paperback following from
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346:Judith Merril & Emily Pohl-Weary,
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350:, Between The Lines, 2002, pp. 97-99.
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153:Spaced Out: Three Novels of Tomorrow
514:, Greenwood Publishing, 2001, p.70
475:University of South Carolina Press
31:Dust-jacket from the first edition
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560:American post-apocalyptic novels
488:Judith Merril: A Critical Study
292:Judith Merril: A Critical Study
375:The New York Times Book Review
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430:"Science Fiction Bookshelf",
565:Debut science fiction novels
387:"Galaxy's Five Star Shelf",
163:). No American paperback of
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555:1950 science fiction novels
16:1950 novel by Judith Merril
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418:Astounding Science Fiction
316:ISFDB publication history
135:novel by American writer
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528:The Motorola TV Theatre
406:, December 1950, p. 104.
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400:"Recommended Reading",
391:, October 1950, p. 141.
199:aired an adaptation of
456:"From the Bookshelf",
447:, February 1954, p.125
434:, November 1950, p.160
389:Galaxy Science Fiction
359:"Books of the Times",
280:Future Science Fiction
274:Nebula Science Fiction
145:Sidgwick & Jackson
460:, November 1950, p.98
443:"Something to Read",
421:. March 1951, p. 145.
180:Merril began writing
20:Shadow on the Hearth
550:1950 American novels
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570:1950 debut novels
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213:Reception
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