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vegebrarian's review
1.0
Written in the first person plural the novel describes day to day existence of the 1940's wives who lived in Los Alamos. The domesticity and the inanity were maddening. I only finished it because it was for a book club. The one quote I liked was from a report about the development of the Atomic Bomb - "The ultimate responsibility for our nation's policy rests on its citizens and they can discharge such responsibilities wisely only if they are informed." Henry Smyth
canadianbookworm's review
5.0
This novel has a very different structure. Nesbit did a fair bit of research on Los Alamos and the women who lived there with their scientist husbands, and came up with an approach that spoke to all the women, spoke from a first person point of view, but in a group sense, and felt very personal.
Each chapter has a different theme, and is made up of short paragraphs around that theme. Within each paragraph, the voice offers different experiences in the same vein, some of them opposite to each other. These speak both to the range of backgrounds of the women, as well as the commonalities.
Living in this small community, forced to interact with each other, with only a partial understanding of what their husbands were working on, very limited access to the outside world, and assigned housing with undependable utilities, these women were creative, feisty, and good sports.
I could barely put this book down, it did such a good job of pulling me into the experience of Los Alamos.
Here are a few examples to give you a taste of the way this book is written.
From the chapter "West":
"We lied and told our children we were packing because we would be spending August with their grandparents in Denver or Duluth. Or we said we did not know where we were going, which was the truth, but our children, who did not trust that adults went places without knowing where they were going, thought we were lying. Or we told them it was an adventure and they would find out when we got there."
and from the chapter "Land":
"In that first week we were invited to learn how to run our clothes through the hand-cranked mangle at the community laundry. Before this, we had other people do our laundry, or we had electric wringers, and for many of us our memories of those hand-powered water extractors were of the heavy crank and our mother's warnings not to get our hair caught in it. We were still wearing high heels and they stuck in the mud and we pretended that we learned what we were taught about the mangle but instead gathered our husband's shirts in a wet bundle and carried them home, smiling sourly. We hung the clothes on the line and ironed the cotton shirts on our kitchen table. Because our clothesline was erected in one of the only spots on the mesa that was not in direct sunlight, in the morning we brought our children's cloth diapers and our husband's boxer shorts in as square little ice boards."
and from the chapter "Talk":
"We were a group of people connecting both honestly and dishonestly, appearing composed at dusk and bedraggled at daybreak, committed, whether we wanted it or not, to shared conditions of need, agitation, and sometimes joy, which is to say: we were a community."
There is just something about this writing that takes the individual and group experiences of these women and makes them come alive for me. I feel their frustration, their loneliness, their anger. It opened my eyes to another historical experience, one that could never happen now due to the advances in communication, and makes you feel what it might have been like.
Each chapter has a different theme, and is made up of short paragraphs around that theme. Within each paragraph, the voice offers different experiences in the same vein, some of them opposite to each other. These speak both to the range of backgrounds of the women, as well as the commonalities.
Living in this small community, forced to interact with each other, with only a partial understanding of what their husbands were working on, very limited access to the outside world, and assigned housing with undependable utilities, these women were creative, feisty, and good sports.
I could barely put this book down, it did such a good job of pulling me into the experience of Los Alamos.
Here are a few examples to give you a taste of the way this book is written.
From the chapter "West":
"We lied and told our children we were packing because we would be spending August with their grandparents in Denver or Duluth. Or we said we did not know where we were going, which was the truth, but our children, who did not trust that adults went places without knowing where they were going, thought we were lying. Or we told them it was an adventure and they would find out when we got there."
and from the chapter "Land":
"In that first week we were invited to learn how to run our clothes through the hand-cranked mangle at the community laundry. Before this, we had other people do our laundry, or we had electric wringers, and for many of us our memories of those hand-powered water extractors were of the heavy crank and our mother's warnings not to get our hair caught in it. We were still wearing high heels and they stuck in the mud and we pretended that we learned what we were taught about the mangle but instead gathered our husband's shirts in a wet bundle and carried them home, smiling sourly. We hung the clothes on the line and ironed the cotton shirts on our kitchen table. Because our clothesline was erected in one of the only spots on the mesa that was not in direct sunlight, in the morning we brought our children's cloth diapers and our husband's boxer shorts in as square little ice boards."
and from the chapter "Talk":
"We were a group of people connecting both honestly and dishonestly, appearing composed at dusk and bedraggled at daybreak, committed, whether we wanted it or not, to shared conditions of need, agitation, and sometimes joy, which is to say: we were a community."
There is just something about this writing that takes the individual and group experiences of these women and makes them come alive for me. I feel their frustration, their loneliness, their anger. It opened my eyes to another historical experience, one that could never happen now due to the advances in communication, and makes you feel what it might have been like.
jillann's review
3.0
I'm not sure how to rate this one! The style drove me a little crazy (written in the first person plural - thought that would have been fine as an introduction) but there were also some beautiful passages. And the topic is fascinating - the Manhattan Project.
deannah's review
3.0
So, I am really conflicted about what to rate this book. At the very least, it was good. And the best, it was very good. And I can't figure out where it falls for me.
The novel is written in first person plural. For me this gives it a feeling of generality and anonymity. I kept wanting to know specifics--who was doing what. I haven't decided if this was a brilliant move or not. In a sense, the wives of Los Alamos were treated as a group. They had very limited/restricted information. They knew practically nothing of what was going on. And, I guess in a sense, the format of this book makes you feel in a similar manner.
Also, because it is kept so general, there were times as a reader I could relate to the feelings expressed since I too have felt too those feelings of isolation, boredom, powerlessness, etc. I may not have identified with those feelings if portrayed more specifically.
This book reminded me of the middle grade book, The Green Glass Sea, written of the same location and time but from the perspective of children. It is ironic perhaps that these books are so similar. That both the women (non-scientists) and the children where living in such close proximity to a life-changing work, yet knew so little of it. In fact there is this huge discrepancy between what is described in the book (the mediocrities of life) vs the work that was actually done there.
The novel is written in first person plural. For me this gives it a feeling of generality and anonymity. I kept wanting to know specifics--who was doing what. I haven't decided if this was a brilliant move or not. In a sense, the wives of Los Alamos were treated as a group. They had very limited/restricted information. They knew practically nothing of what was going on. And, I guess in a sense, the format of this book makes you feel in a similar manner.
Also, because it is kept so general, there were times as a reader I could relate to the feelings expressed since I too have felt too those feelings of isolation, boredom, powerlessness, etc. I may not have identified with those feelings if portrayed more specifically.
This book reminded me of the middle grade book, The Green Glass Sea, written of the same location and time but from the perspective of children. It is ironic perhaps that these books are so similar. That both the women (non-scientists) and the children where living in such close proximity to a life-changing work, yet knew so little of it. In fact there is this huge discrepancy between what is described in the book (the mediocrities of life) vs the work that was actually done there.
susanscribs's review
2.0
This book would have been much more satisfying if it didn't try to pass itself off as a novel. As a piece of non-fiction it is interesting, especially if you have little knowledge about the role of Los Alamos in the history of the Manhattan Project. Educating today's readers about the lives of the women who uprooted themselves so their husbands could work on the top-secret project was a worthwhile endeavor. But the first person plural narrator made it impossible to know or care about individual characters, especially when the author tries to be universal, e.g. "we were from the city, or we were from the country, or we were from Europe." (I'm paraphrasing.)
Fortunately it was a short, quick read, and it did inspire me to want to learn more about this unique piece of history. But as a novel, it fell far short of my expectations.
For an example of first person plural narrative done well, check out Then We Came To the End by Joshua Ferris, which makes the reader feel part of the "we" of the corporation while also creating fully realized individual characters.
Fortunately it was a short, quick read, and it did inspire me to want to learn more about this unique piece of history. But as a novel, it fell far short of my expectations.
For an example of first person plural narrative done well, check out Then We Came To the End by Joshua Ferris, which makes the reader feel part of the "we" of the corporation while also creating fully realized individual characters.
thelifeofbookishmartha's review
4.0
The "we" instead of characters through me off but once I was able to get into the book it was an easy read and went fast. Maybe my love of history helped me to like this book.
knowledgelost's review
3.0
It wasn’t until the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 that the Americans really got involved in the Second World War and they did this in a big way. It was often referred to as Project Y, a secret laboratory that sourced scientist from all over the country to help the allies in their war efforts. The Laboratory was located in Los Alamos, New Mexico and the secret project was The Manhattan Project.
TaraShea Nebit’s debut novel The Wives of Los Alamos explores the birth of the atomic age. Although many may have wondered what it was like for the wives of these scientist. The secrets their husbands had to keep and somehow convince their wives and families to move to an undisclosed location. If we took the time and really thought about what it would have been like, we might have come up with the same answers as Nebit.
However TaraShea Nebit did the research (resources used are mentioned at the end of the novel) and then set out to write this unique novel. The Wives of Los Alamos is written in the collective voice of the wives of Los Alamos, which takes a while to get used to. The plural first person perspective is rather odd and it tends to keep the reader at arm’s length and never really allows an intimate look at the feelings these women must have been going through. With lines like “We married men just like our fathers, or nothing like them, or only the best parts.“ I get the sense that the author is generalising the feelings and while I appreciate the research she did, this type of writing feels more like speculation rather steaming from truth.
I find it difficult to review this novel, there is no protagonist and the plot is a very basic look at different aspects of life set out to drive the book along. TaraShea Nebit is very clever and the novel pushes the reader to actually imagine what life would be like for these families. In a time where everyone is concerned with war these families are uprooted and forced to live with a completely different sets of worries in mind. Secrecy can tear families apart and the importance of The Manhattan Project demands that this secret be kept. I can’t imagine a life like this but The Wives of Los Alamos offers some idea.
I found it difficult to connect with the women in the story, they were nameless and faceless. Their collective voices all sang the same tune but really people are not all the same that I never got a look into the emotions and thoughts of just one of the women. A biography from one of these women would have been better; The Wives of Los Alamos gives you a taste but left me wanting so much more.
This was a fascinating novel but it never went into any great detail of the social complexities facing these families. I would have liked to explore the psychological effects this great secret had on the family and relatives. Even have a peek into the cultural effects of birth of the atomic age, considering the Los Alamos National Laboratory played key roles in both the Atom and Hydrogen bomb. It is a fascinating period of American history and science, The Wives of Los Alamos has whet my appetite and I might look at some of the books TaraShea Nebit mentioned at the end.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/05/09/the-wives-of-los-alamos-by-tarashea-nesbit/
TaraShea Nebit’s debut novel The Wives of Los Alamos explores the birth of the atomic age. Although many may have wondered what it was like for the wives of these scientist. The secrets their husbands had to keep and somehow convince their wives and families to move to an undisclosed location. If we took the time and really thought about what it would have been like, we might have come up with the same answers as Nebit.
However TaraShea Nebit did the research (resources used are mentioned at the end of the novel) and then set out to write this unique novel. The Wives of Los Alamos is written in the collective voice of the wives of Los Alamos, which takes a while to get used to. The plural first person perspective is rather odd and it tends to keep the reader at arm’s length and never really allows an intimate look at the feelings these women must have been going through. With lines like “We married men just like our fathers, or nothing like them, or only the best parts.“ I get the sense that the author is generalising the feelings and while I appreciate the research she did, this type of writing feels more like speculation rather steaming from truth.
I find it difficult to review this novel, there is no protagonist and the plot is a very basic look at different aspects of life set out to drive the book along. TaraShea Nebit is very clever and the novel pushes the reader to actually imagine what life would be like for these families. In a time where everyone is concerned with war these families are uprooted and forced to live with a completely different sets of worries in mind. Secrecy can tear families apart and the importance of The Manhattan Project demands that this secret be kept. I can’t imagine a life like this but The Wives of Los Alamos offers some idea.
I found it difficult to connect with the women in the story, they were nameless and faceless. Their collective voices all sang the same tune but really people are not all the same that I never got a look into the emotions and thoughts of just one of the women. A biography from one of these women would have been better; The Wives of Los Alamos gives you a taste but left me wanting so much more.
This was a fascinating novel but it never went into any great detail of the social complexities facing these families. I would have liked to explore the psychological effects this great secret had on the family and relatives. Even have a peek into the cultural effects of birth of the atomic age, considering the Los Alamos National Laboratory played key roles in both the Atom and Hydrogen bomb. It is a fascinating period of American history and science, The Wives of Los Alamos has whet my appetite and I might look at some of the books TaraShea Nebit mentioned at the end.
This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/05/09/the-wives-of-los-alamos-by-tarashea-nesbit/
carolinah2137's review
2.0
While the premise of the book was interesting, I wasn't able to connect with the characters due to the plural first person. Also, there was no story, the first 75% of the book is just random facts about life in Los Alamos and how the women went about their days. Definitely points for creativity but just not for me.
aishaal's review
4.0
Although many dislike the use of the first person plural, I found that once I got used to the unified character of "the wives" I began to really enjoy it. For me, this writing technique was the main reason I enjoyed this book so much. I feel that it emphasized the sense of community I can only imagine was felt between these wives over the 3 or so years living there. I think it brings a different sort of narration to the story, and that Tara Shea Nesbit does it in a way that we get enough detail and variety in the women's lives as the novel moves on. Sure it makes it less personal that the usual narration of novels, but I think that it suits the story being told. I appreciate how Nesbit also showed the day-to-day life a little, how the children grow up, and multiply, needing to clean etc etc.
green16's review
1.0
The entire book is told from a collective point of view which ruined the whole thing for me. (We were bored. We were not entertained.)