BESTSELLER CREATIVE NON-FICTION

Creative non-fiction encompasses books where a true incident is reported through real and imaginary characters. Incidents of significant degrees of bravery, sorrow, horror and happiness in any walk of life are written about, where original facts are interlaced with exciting fiction so that the reader remains glued to the book right until the finish. It does not matter if the protagonist of the book is or is not a real-life character. The real fact occupies the center stage of the story that is enlivened by imaginary characters. An excellent example of a bestseller creative non-fiction is a book by the name of Five Past Midnight in Bhopal.

Five Past Midnight in Bhopal: This book is authored by Dominique Lapiere and Xavier Moro. The book is about the Bhopal Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) Gas Disaster which took place at 12:05 am on the 3rd of December in the year 1984. The story centers around the life of a rural girl by the name of Padmini (a fictional character) and recounts her experience of the MIC catastrophe as well as of the future fallout of the catastrophe. The authors have painted with their pens a true picture of the selfishness and complete apathy of multinational behemoths such as Union Carbide towards stakeholders who are not strong enough to fight for themselves. Union Carbide was fully aware of the hazards of carrying out its chemical operations in a factory on the outskirts of Bhopal that was predominantly inhabited by the poor and failed to enforce proper safety norms and the right precautions among its employees and the community amidst which it thrived. A singular focus on a bloating bottom-line was all that mattered to this organization and the more profits they could earn while sacrificing on important safety expenses, the better it was for them.

The result of this megalomaniacal attitude was the emission of more than 40 tons of the deadly Methyl Isocyanate from its burst tank which instantly proved to be fatal for some 20,000 people and killed in excess of hundreds of thousands of people in and around Bhopal over the next few days. The authors interviewed several people ranging from police officers, railway officers, doctors; to factory workers, laborers, common folk, and people of a multitude of professions who were witness to this cataclysmic tragedy and did not succumb to it, before writing the book. In consequence, the book gives vivid descriptions of moments that were nightmarish and quotes conversations of appalled railway staff who saw people staggering to their deaths on the platform, doctors who endeavored to treat patients dissolving in their own body fluids, and police officers who felt helpless at not being able to cope with a tragedy that assumed horrifying proportions.

The authors also questioned various Union Carbide officers and have scripted their perfunctory, cautious and hedgy responses in the book. The book gives a pathetic impression of the parent Union Carbide corporation which had its headquarters located at Danbury, Connecticut and which was striving for panicky last-minute conciliatory measures in the form of compensations to the affected and to pass the buck as far as possible to the Indian subsidiary in order to garner a good image of itself and maintain its stock prices. The lurid incident of corporate conceit and neglect is spun around the lives of some fictitious characters, namely, Padmini (mentioned before), Pulpul Singh, Gangaram, etc. to make the reading spellbinding. Some of the characters of the book however meet with better fates than their real-life counterparts who remain seriously maimed for life more than 20 years after the apocalypse. The image of Union Carbide was severely tarnished and the price of its shares plummeted as a consequence of this incident till the company finally merged with and became part of Dow Chemicals. Five Past Midnight in Bhopal is an impeccable microcosm of a bestseller creative non-fiction.

Other bestselling creative non-fictions include:

• Beyond the Techno-Cave – A work by Harold Jaffe
• Wanderings: Tesserae & Mosaics – by Van.K. Brock
• Writing and Publishing Personal Essays - by Sheila Bender

As bestseller creative non-fictions are spun around real people, get hold of a bestseller creative non-fiction and play an active part in the story.