A review by lovesarahmae
The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit

3.0

TaraShea Nesbit takes on one of the most controversial communities of American history in her novel "The Wives of Los Alamos." The novel examines the lives of the women and children living in Los Alamos while their husbands work to create the atomic bomb during WWII. Written entirely from the perspective of the royal collective (the narrator is always "we," and never an individual), readers are given a grand and diverse view of daily life, but the novel misses the mark for emotionally engaging readers. Since there is no one character to latch onto (in fact there is much effort to obscure individual characters, only referencing the most famous of communities residents), the whole novel feels a little removed from the scene, almost as if it is meant to be read over a long slideshow at the road-side museum. If this book had been published in 1954, when rings of secrecy and shame still existed around the Manhattan Project I would understand the choice to keep things vague- but published in 2014, when most of these women have passed away- we miss the opportunity to grab hold of the few remaining first person voices and stories of this unique wartime experience. The women of Los Alamos lived in sub-par conditions to further science and history, and this novel tackles the mundane (how to flirt to get a steak, what address they used, etc), but lacks the personal stories that could really bring to life a long quieted narrative. In all- if you're looking for a quick read that brushes over the experience, "The Wives of Los Alamos" is worth your time, but if you are really searching for a personal narrative of women on the fringes of science, try Lily Koppel's "The Astronaut Wives Club."