Wilson-Opper, Catherine - Dubuque County

General Comments :

I am a 30 year resident of Iowa but actually grew up in Illinois, the suburbs of Chicago. My brother graduated from grammar school in 1945. One week after his graduation, 8 of the students who were with him in his class picture came down with polio. Some cases were severe and left the child permanently damaged; some were lighter and the child recovered more completely. We, the younger students, really lost a summer: the pools closed, the movies were off limits, parents were sensitized to our every breath. I remember reading a lot. Fall came, life went on, and polio became a dark memory.

Yesterday, a book group in Dubuque which I attend, discussed Splendid Solution. One thing that amazed us was the fact that some of the greater epidemics of polio occurred in the 50's when most of us were in college. Amazingly, none of us had any recollection of polio affecting our lives at all in that period. Maybe our areas were spared, although we were in school all over the country. Maybe we had just gotten used to its presence every summer.

Our group appreciated the state's choice of this non-fiction book. Besides being very enjoyable and a remarkably good read, it informed us and reminded us of experiences we had had. We love fiction's reality, too, but an attempt at an objective account of the world around us provoked not just conversation but a healthy surge of memories.