Having largely found the experience of narrative non fiction an edifying and uplifting experience I jumped at the opportunity to read Eliese Colette Goldbach’s Rust. And as is my predilection I let initial images and responses flow freely as I contemplated this volume. I thought of Erin Brockovich, possibly because the steel works conveyed a corporate, industrial idea in my head that boded no good! I thought of Megan Phelps Roper and Unfollow, her journey from hatred to hope. I thought of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, from lost to found and I thought of William Blake and his ‘dark, satanic mills’. So with all those thoughts running around my wayward mind I settled down to read this book.
I suppose the book can be appreciated on more than one level. If you ever wondered about how something as immense as a steel works functions then this leaves virtually no stone unturned and the descriptions are vivid. You can almost see the heat steaming from the pages as you rub the dust from your eyes as you read! The many processes and the logistics of managing those processes are well detailed. The hierarchies of a workforce that seems at first disparate and at variance with each other turns out to be quite the reverse and a sense of solidarity emerges.
But it is very much one woman’s journey through mental illness and a traumatic experience that exacerbates her condition and how she finds redemption and a way forward. You can’t actually divorce the two because her unlikely employment at the steel mill is fundamental to her coming to an understanding of herself and her place within her own world, her family, her friends. It’s a story of candour and self exploration. For the reader there are parts that will make you so very angry about what happened to Eliese. Her frustration, disappointment, for want of better words, are palpable but her refusal to allow bitterness and negativity to completely overcome her is a testament to her ultimate faith - with a small as well as a capital ‘f’. (Faith, especially the Catholic faith play an important part in Eliese’s life.)
The state, if not the world as a whole, then the United States is also a major subject in the book. Not overtly political but with substantial reference to the pervading atmosphere. Perhaps less accessible to readers outside of the States and Ohio in particular yet there are universal observations-
‘The rift had been born from a particularly human failing. We had forgotten how to see each other. We had let down our guard. We had closed our eyes. Now the weavers of shrouds and fantasies had come along, recognising our self-imposed darkness. They believed that we were too blind to know better so they covered our eyes carefully…….’
There is a salient passage that does seem to summarise dominant attitudes of society today;
‘My perspective matters most. My problems deserve to be solved. I am the spotless protagonist in the epic poem of my life, and I want a distraction from my pain.’
Thankfully the author identifies this as delusion that we need to step away from. I saw the steel and the mill as a sustained allegory for her own life. The processes required to become a ‘finished product’ so to speak. The stages she went through. The final strength of the steel that emerges through all its incarnations and not always smooth journey complement Eliese’s own. Read as such it provides a powerful image and an uplifting one. Ultimately this is an uplifting book - one woman’s often difficult and traumatic journey to defy the odds and show how possible it is to reach alternate points of view and find some peace and a place within this often confusing world.
I am thrilled to be part for the blog blast for this book and my thanks to Katya Ellis for inviting me and sending me a copy of the book. Please see what others have to say about this book.
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