“What a wild ride this book is. The characters are plucky, sympathetic, and memorable, the situations sometimes laugh-out-loud funny and sometimes bittersweet, and the pacing just right. Zafris is a keen observer of the human comedy.”
—Library Journal, starred
“Likable and thought-provoking . . . another winner.”
—The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Laced with quiet tongue-in-cheek humor and told from multiple viewpoints, the adventures of this quirky cast of characters makes for a warm-hearted, entertaining read.”
—The Denver Post
“Her gift is blending unique characters with vivid settings.”
—The Winston-Salem Journal
“The search for a fresh start is a classic American story, and one that Zafris makes new with this novel. . . . Low-key but persuasive, this period piece evokes the innocence of an earlier era and underscores the desperation and hope of the eclectic bunch this mom and her kids meet in their pursuit of the new gold.” —Goodhousekeeping.com/The Book Babes
“Funny and touching.”
—Pages Magazine
“Zafris . . . invests her offbeat material with deep emotion and tragic undertones. Charlie’s debilitating illness and the effects of uranium poisoning (unknown at the time) sit in counterpoint to the loopy banter and endearing cast of characters. Like Marianne Wiggins’ quirky, superb Evidence of Things Unseen, this novel is both disturbing and hypnotic.”
—Booklist, starred
“Comic and darkly ironic.”
—Southwest Bookviews
“In this lovely book, Zafris finds power in the slow, mute strangeness of everyday anxiety, the blossoming of hope in a barren desert and the terrible irony of what uranium means to those who seek it.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Zafris’ writing lets emotions and memories penetrate each other the way they do in ordinary thought, though seldom in fiction. Sometimes you have to go back and see what’s really being said . . . Yet each of Zafris’ sentences is as sharp-edged as a miner’s pick, and to have to reread one occasionally is a pleasure.”
—Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
“Zafris’s dry sense of humor runs through the story, a counterpoint to the poignancy of Charlie’s illness, the desperation of the uranium seekers, and the not-yet-understood danger of radiation poisoning. The sinister, thrilling mushroom cloud of the bomb casts its shadow over everything. Lucky Strike is a quirky novel that rewards careful reading.”
—The Boston Globe
“All learn that love and friendship endure beyond fortune. In Zafris’ disturbing and ironic novel, the universe operates under skies where the laws of atomic energy are highly visible . . . [the ending] haunts long after the reader puts the book down.”
—The Oregonian
“Eerie . . . [a] noir-tinged adventure story . . . One could read Lucky Strike as a historical portrait of a time and place. All the realistic details, though, reverberate with unsettling implications. The characters don’t know how poisonous their environment is, but readers know—and dread the future effects on the characters of the uranium they long to find.”
—The Columbus Dispatch
“Vibrant and original. Those who find themselves reading Lucky Strike . . . will be more than grateful for their own good fortune.”
ALSO BY NANCY ZAFRIS
The People I Know (short stories) The Metal Shredders (novel)
Lucky Strike
NANCY ZAFRIS
This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Lyrics from “Once I Had a Secret Love” by Sammy Fain © 1954 (renewed) Warner Bros. Inc. (ASCAP) used by permission
Unbridled Books
Denver, Colorado
Copyright © 2005 Nancy Zafris
Originally published as an Unbridled Books hardcover.
First paperback edition, 2006
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zafris, Nancy.
Lucky Strike / Nancy Zafris.
p. cm.
Hardcover edition ISBN 1-932961-04-6
Paperback edition ISBN 1-932961-16-X
1. Uranium mines and mining—Fiction. 2. Single mothers—Fiction.
3. Uranium miners—Fiction. 4. Prospecting—Fiction.
5. Widows—Fiction. 6. Utah—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3576.A285L83 2005
813'.54—dc22
2005000113
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Book Design by SH • CV
For Sam and Jim, and Marjorie Kinnear Sydor
To borrow a word from this novel’s title, I am lucky indeed to have such an amazing editor in Greg Michalson. The devotion and vision that Greg, along with Fred Ramey and Caitlin Hamilton Summie, brings to Unbridled Books is a dream come true for a writer. Some of the research for this book was carried out at the University of Utah library in the Oral Histories section.
In the 1940s and 50s, the U.S. demand for uranium ore to supply the nuclear arms build-up instigated a rush of fortune hunters: interested readers should check out Raye C. Ringholz’s book, Uranium Frenzy, which offers a fascinating history of this postwar phenomenon. I would like to thank Gail Hochman for all her hard work, Linda Hengst of the Ohioana Library Association for sharing their wonderful Lois Lenski collection with me, Susanne Jaffe, Dan Kobil, Lynn Larsen, Kit Irwin, Gretchen McBeath, David Lynn, Ellen Sheffield, Julian Anderson, and Bob Harrist always. In particular, I am grateful to Joe Freda for his invaluable aid; Erin McGraw for her wise and witty counsel; Brad Kessler for supplying a crucial bit of research; Tara Ison, ever the passionate teacher, for the instructive conversation at Noah’s Bagels; and Jim Zafris.
PREFACE
One of the things Harry liked to do was make up songs. He was a cheerful traveling salesman dressed in a seersucker suit, and he often visited us in camp. At first his singing was something we ignored, like a few raindrops, like Harry himself as he pitched his tent. Then came the downpour, the original words and music of Harry L. Lindstrom heard twice as they echoed off the canyon walls. At length it became up to us to close him down. No one could accomplish this with the effectiveness of my mother, who was fond of shooting off her pistol.
It was 1954. My brother, Charlie, was twelve and I was ten. We were camping out with my mother in the red rock of Utah, prospecting for uranium. An adventure was what we were after. We were alone and words like claim jumping painted exciting action images coated with violence. When one of the old prospectors offered