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deannah's review against another edition
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.
laurabrantreads's review against another edition
1.0
The writing style was hard to digest. Using the third person plural made the book have an "every woman" voice that range false to me. I enjoyed learning about the origins of Los Alamos in a narrative form but that was where my enjoyment ended.
corrigan's review against another edition
1.0
This was nearly unreadable. I thought the "we" thing was gonna just be the introduction and then it'd get into individual stories, but noooope.
rainbowbookworm's review against another edition
3.0
I had read Joshua Ferris's Then We Came to the End, novel that uses the first person plural narrator, and loved it. When I picked up this book I did not expect the author's choice of narrator to bother me. However, there were times when it seemed the author was hesitant to commit to events that occurred in Los Alamo's during the building of the atomic bomb. The narrators' "we" seems like a cop out when she was not sure whether this happened or that. Nonetheless, it is an interesting read.
nrthstr78's review against another edition
2.0
The subject matter is so interesting, but it's written in the first person plural and it just becomes so repetitive that I found myself forcing myself to finish.
hspaulds's review against another edition
3.0
The style of this book is a bit odd, and I'm still not entirely sure if it was the best choice, but sometimes it really works. Overall, it's an interesting read about the lives of the women who's husbands worked on the atomic bomb, and I enjoyed it.
jennybellium's review against another edition
2.0
Like the concept, hate the execution. Hearing about the secret city where famous scientists developed the bomb while their families lived in barely-constructed houses has the potential to be an engrossing book. However, the conceit used in this just irritated me on every page - the author lumps ALL wives and ALL kids and ALL houses and ALL experiences into one weirdly generic story.
Something like this (not an actual quote): "We came from the east coast, from Germany, from England. We had two kids, no kids, a boy living with his grandparents, and then we had a baby who grew up to become a scientists himself, or we had a baby who grew up to hate science. They told us x and they didn't tell us x and they..."
I get it- and as an introduction, I think it could work. Shows the diversity of people and lifestyles. But she does this through the WHOLE book. It's irking me just recounting this.
Actual quote that kind of illustrates (assuming you can imagine this happening through the whole book:
"We took the car to the shop to get the oil changed. We dropped off our children's old bike tires, our worn-out bathing cap, and a bucket of nails our husbands left in the garage at the Junior Leagues' Metal and Rubber Drive. We bought a few more war bonds. Some of us had been smart enough to ask about gas and electric..."
So - using this construction - EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM took a bucket of nails somewhere, but only SOME had asked about gas and electric? I just can't handle the grammatical inconsistency.
Something like this (not an actual quote): "We came from the east coast, from Germany, from England. We had two kids, no kids, a boy living with his grandparents, and then we had a baby who grew up to become a scientists himself, or we had a baby who grew up to hate science. They told us x and they didn't tell us x and they..."
I get it- and as an introduction, I think it could work. Shows the diversity of people and lifestyles. But she does this through the WHOLE book. It's irking me just recounting this.
Actual quote that kind of illustrates (assuming you can imagine this happening through the whole book:
"We took the car to the shop to get the oil changed. We dropped off our children's old bike tires, our worn-out bathing cap, and a bucket of nails our husbands left in the garage at the Junior Leagues' Metal and Rubber Drive. We bought a few more war bonds. Some of us had been smart enough to ask about gas and electric..."
So - using this construction - EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM took a bucket of nails somewhere, but only SOME had asked about gas and electric? I just can't handle the grammatical inconsistency.
melanie_reads's review against another edition
2.0
Too many "we"s and not enough actual people. A whole book written from the POV plural protagonists is just something we cannot bear.
tvisser's review against another edition
3.0
Fictionalized companion to Girls of Atomic City. These families are relocated to Los Alamos and are just as secluded and sworn to secrecy as the families in Girls. The trials of living in close quarters and not really knowing what anyone else is doing, the friendships and secrecy. This followed by pride, remorse or guilt depending on the person and the view. I enjoyed the book.
bookswithmybulldog's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0