Gina Leola Woolsey (author)

Fifteen Thousand Pieces is a comprehensive study of both the September 1998 crash of Swissair Flight 111 near Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia and the complex, troubled Chief Medical Examiner, John C. Butt, who oversaw the identification of all 229 passengers who’d been killed. Chapters alternate between the details of the disaster and investigation (which was done in tense coordination with the RCMP) and the story of Dr. Butt’s life. Woolsey suggests that the medical examiner’s problematic—perfectionistic and controlling—leadership style was intimately and directly related to the repression of his sexual orientation. Having a traditional marriage—a wife and children—was central to being a successful professional male, even in the latter part of the twentieth century. Butt did marry—very unhappily— and had an unfulfilling turmoil-ridden family life. (It wasn’t easy on his wife and daughters either.) In the early 1990s, when this prominent forensic pathologist built the medical examiner system in Alberta, Canada, a person’s sexual orientation could be cause for dismissal from a job. Kim Campbell, Canada’s federal justice minister at the time, was instrumental in having sexual orientation written into the Canadian Human Rights Act. Until that was done, Woolsey makes clear, the wisest move for any ambitious professional was to keep mum.

Woolsey’s book covers multiple aspects of the Swissair disaster. Readers who are curious about how mass-casualty events are managed will find much of value here. Likewise, those interested in the psychological cost of denying, tamping down, one’s most essential self will find the text compelling. Woolsey has capably and honestly presented Dr. Butt, her subject, warts and all. The book is far from hagiographic. Butt gained considerable media attention for his compassion and sensitivity during the disaster, but the author makes it clear that he was a heavy-handed taskmaster who had difficulty retaining staff.

While I acknowledge the strengths of Woolsey’s account of the crash, the investigation, and Butt’s life, I feel her book could have done with a good trim. Details about Butt’s high-end Vancouver condo and fancy eightieth birthday party in a British Columbia resort town, for example, felt like unnecessary padding. Some metaphors are notably strained, and the prose is occasionally cliché.

I’d like to thank Net Galley and the publisher for an early review copy.

Rating: 3.5 rounded down… (mais)