Still Life With Woodpecker Tom Robbins was one of those authors whom I always heard referenced, but never understood their contribution to literature. This was finally remedied in Robbins’ case by an old friend of mine who (citing a conversation we’d apparently had but which I only vaguely remember) pushed Still Life With Woodpecker into my hands and insisted that I read it. It surprised me, and that’s difficult to do.
Fire in the Grove: The Cocoanut Grove Tragedy and Its Aftermath Standard social studies fare for most high school students is the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which horrifically and succinctly summarizes the excesses of the industrial age that eventually led to novels like The Jungle and the creation of institutions of governmental oversight. For those who don’t know or have forgotten the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, it was an blouse-making factory on the 8th-10th floors of a building in New York which succumbed to an industrial fire; 146 garment workers were killed, in large part because the exit doors were locked (to prevent theft and indigence, most likely) and the building was not set up in such a way as to allow easy egress.
The result of the fire, however, was a movement to regulate fire safety in new buildings (as well as further unionization). It was in this well-intentioned environment of fire safety that Fire in the Grove begins.