Local Author Anne Macdonald Launches World War II Novel Set in Melrose
Written By Ellen Putnam
Photographed By Nancy Clover
Anne Macdonald, left, and Lisa Sullivan Ballew at Sunday's event
On Sunday afternoon, local author Anne Macdonald held an event at Follow Your Art to launch her new novel, The Macdonalds of Cedar Park.
Macdonald is a writer-in-residence at the Follow Your Art Writer’s Studio, and the event was moderated by Lisa Sullivan Ballew, another writer-in-residence. Many other local writers were in attendance.
Macdonald calls the book a “historical biographical novel,” because it is based on her extensive research into her family’s history during World War II, but she has written it as a novel, with invented scenes and conversations to make the narrative come alive for readers.
The novel follows Macdonald’s family - her grandfather, Mac, an engineer for the Manhattan Project; her grandmother, Bertha, the “quiet center” of the story; her uncle, Sonny, who went from skiing at Mount Hood to serving in the 10th Mountain Division in Italy; and her father, Ig, who served as a teenaged messenger for the Manhattan Project.
“It’s the sights and sounds of wartime Melrose that really made this book sing for me,” said Ballew. “It’s so familiar - we can see ourselves and our neighbors in the pages - catching the train, going to City Hall for ration coupons. You’ve captured a world that’s both timeless and deeply personal. We can really feel your love for both the characters and the town.”
Macdonald’s research for the novel began with her grandmother’s box of letters, which included love letters from her grandfather. She hoped that they would reveal what her grandfather did as an engineer on the Manhattan Project - a topic that had long been a family secret. The letters revealed nothing concrete, so Macdonald set off on a quest for information that included trips to Oak Ridge, Tennessee and the National Archives facility in Atlanta.
While Macdonald was able to find the information she needed to write a full story, she noted that Stone and Webster, one of the companies Macdonald worked for, would not release their records without a court order - the work still shrouded in secrecy even now, eighty years later.
Macdonald did extensive research in order to be able to explain concepts like how the vacuum valves her grandfather designed fit into the overall design of the atomic bomb. She joked about reading entire books just to write a single sentence.
And while all of the major historical figures that come into the story - generals, famous scientists, and so forth - are fully based on historical fact, Macdonald did combine some less well-known real-life people into fictional characters to streamline the story.
Macdonald’s new novel fits into a larger conversation about the atomic bomb, spurred by the release two years ago of the movie, Oppenheimer. Melrose author Jane Healey also addressed moral questions around the atomic bomb in her new book, The Women of Arlington Hall, which is also historical fiction featuring real people, and centers on codebreaking and the Soviet spies who stole the plans for the atomic bomb.
“You handled the moral struggle around the bomb very well in your book,” Ballew told Macdonald, noting that, for Macdonald’s grandfather, “bringing the boys home,” was not just an abstract goal - it could mean life or death for his older son.
In her novel, Macdonald touched not only on large-scale issues like the Manhattan Project, but also on details like the fact that companies stopped producing dog food during the war in order to save both meat and the aluminum from the cans - which resulted in packs of wild dogs roaming through Melrose.
“I suggest,” Ballew said at the conclusion of the event, “that we get back together in a few months, when everyone’s had the chance to read the book. Because I want to talk about this book - about the women, about the community in this book, and about the parallels to today.”
We certainly look forward to talking about this book when we finish reading!
