Novel puts mesothelioma, shipbuilders in the spotlight

Ross Raisin wrote "Waterline," the story of a man whose wife died of mesothelioma.

Summertime book sales often center around light-hearted romances or edge-of-your-seat thrillers--you know, "beach reads". So what chance does a serious novel about a one-time Glaswegian shipbuilder whose wife recently died of mesothelioma (from second-hand asbestos exposure--a fact that fills the protagonist with guilt as well as grief) have? Well, from the looks of it, a pretty good one. 

Ross Raisin's "Waterline" follows the downfall of the recently widowed Mick Little, a former shipbuilder on the Clyde River in Scotland. (For union history buffs, the Clyde shipyards were the site of Jimmy Reid's impressive leadership that led to saving 8000 shipyard jobs in 1971--a feat union leaders could only dream of in our current anti-labor atmosphere). 

Clyde shipyard union leader Jimmy Reid, center. 

Anthony Cummins summarized the novel's downward arc in Sunday's Observer: 

"Mick feels guilty because [his wife's] cancer was probably caused by his exposure to asbestos during his years working as a shipbuilder on the Clyde; within weeks of burying Cathy, he takes to sleeping in the garden shed. Then he gets the bus to London, where he finds a job as a pot-washer in a hotel kitchen at Heathrow, before being kicked out for trying to unionize. He uses up the last of his wages on a bed in a hostel, growing more reliant on alcohol to blot out the memories that plague his sleep; soon he is on the street."

I won't give away the rest of the novel, but suffice to say it doesn't shy away from the depressing realities of life after a loved one dies of cancer.


My great-grandfather worked on the docks in Belfast. I'd be curious to know if Ross Raisin's depiction of shipyard life is accurate. I'm sure there were many changes between the early 20th century and the mid-20th, and Mick worked in Glasgow, but I'm betting the work was hard wherever you were, and the asbestos a constant. If anyone can tell me if Raisin got it right or dropped the ball, let me know in the comments.