Using our Library Voices
Using our Library Voices
Reading Room Radio: The Unclaimed
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Rachel shares her review of this compelling non-fiction read.
Title: The Unclaimed
Author: Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans
Reviewed by: Rachel W.
Title: The People's Hospital
Author: Ricardo Nuila
Reviewed by: Rachel W.
Created by the Podcast Team at the Harris County Public Library.
www.hcpl.net
Podcast Team Members include: Beth Krippel, John Harbaugh, Mary Mink, Dylan Smith, Sadina Shawver, Alinda Mac, John Schaffer, Jennifer Finch, Katelyn Helberg, Darcy Casavant, Darla Pruitt and Nancy Hu
Welcome to Harris County Public Library's Reading Room Radio, where your to-be red pile gets a little more exciting one micro podcast at a time. Hi, this is Rachel from the Barbara Butch Library. I wanted to tell you about The Unclaimed, Abandonment and Hope, and the City of Angels by Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans. This book is nonfiction and it follows the final years of four people in Los Angeles who were at risk of not having their remains claimed after their deaths. This was on the Topaz list, which is put uh nonfiction recommended reads put out by TLA. That's where I originally heard of it. And I am a pretty big nonfiction reader, and I'm always interested in people's lives and how we interact with each other. I think in a lot of ways this did tie into our work in public libraries that we're helping people at some of their low moments, and this is really some of the most pivotal and difficult moments of people's lives. I think probably the intersectional marginalization and multiple marginalizations when people are dealing with both poverty and discrimination and a lack of knowledge of how to interact with systems that are affecting their lives, that sort of every issue gets magnified. So things that might be one small hiccup for one person can become these huge, insurmountable obstacles for others. So this book is based on years of research and lots of interviews with the people who knew and loved those who went unclaimed. That was something I found really fascinating and sort of heartbreaking about this was that some of these people did have deep friendships, had a relatively robust support system, but because those people who were closest to them didn't have any sort of legal and family ties to them, that they weren't able to take possession of their remains after their deaths. So, yes, so these authors interviewed those who were close to those who had passed, as well as the government employees who work on these cases surrounding unclaimed people. I recommend this book to adults who are interested in a deep consideration of social issues such as disability, poverty, family, both found and blood, and the role government plays during our lives and after our deaths. While these are heavy topics, the book centers the personalities of the people it chronicles, which keeps it from reading like a seminar on public policy. If you want to do a double feature on these themes, I recommend pairing this book with The People's Hospital Hope and Peril in American Medicine by Ricardo Nuila.