Name: The Wives of Los Alamos
ISBN: 9781620405031

TaraShea Nesbit

An emotionally charged debut told in the collective voices of the wives of the team who created the atom bomb traces their struggles to adapt and raise children in a rugged military town where everything their husbands are doing is an intense secret.

A Novel

The Wives of Los Alamos

         Los Alamos, New Mexico is one of my favorite places in the whole world.  Both of my parents graduated from Los Alamos High School and my grandmother still lives there.  She has a cozy house on Barranca Mesa with a backyard that backs up to a canyon.  I spent hours on the side of the canyon, listening to the sounds of the forest, watching the birds, and smelling the desert sage and pine trees.  I have always felt like it was one of the most beautiful settings I have ever experienced.  It’s extremely peaceful at 7500 above sea level, despite being the birthplace of the atomic bomb. 

            Neither of my parents lived in LA while the bomb was being built, they both moved there after the guard towers stopped checking every car that drove into town.  When my mom moved there, the guard towers were still manned, but they just watched.  My mom’s parents worked at the Lab, but didn’t talk about what they did.  My mom moved to LA from Ohio when she was fifteen-years-old and she hated it.  Ohio is as different from Los Alamos as you could possibly imagine, and my mom wanted nothing to do with it.  I’ve heard all of these stories my entire life, what it was like in this tiny mountain town when you’re a high school kid.  I don’t believe either of my parents realized the history of the town when they moved there, but they certainly do now. 

            I didn’t know the secretive parts of Los Alamos.  When I was a kid it was just where my grandparents lived.  The Lab is still there, and after the twin towers were attacked in 2001, new guard stations were added near the entrances, but in my life, the Lab was just a place where science happened.  As I grew older, I learned more about the history of Los Alamos and it’s role in World War II.  It’s a fascinating place with a fascinating history, and even more interesting, is that the people that live there don’t really talk about it.

            The wives in this story sound a lot like how my mom describes her first impressions of New Mexico and Los Alamos.  It’s dry (much drier than Ohio), the air is thin and it’s impossible to breathe, it gets insanely hot in the summer, it’s a high desert.  I found myself getting personally offended by how these women described the area.  It’s hard to read or listen to talk about New Mexico negatively, so throughout this book I found myself hating it a little.  However, I fully understand why so many of the families that relocated to NM hated it as much as they did. 

            The writing style took some getting used to…it’s quite odd.  It’s vague and sweeping, like the author couldn’t make up her mind what she wanted to say.  Over the course of the book, it occurred to me that the writing style matches how the wives might have felt when they were there…vague.  They didn’t really know what was going on at the Lab, but they were resigned to being there.  While I didn’t love this particular depiction of life in Los Alamos while the bomb was being developed, it’s not terrible. 

Kristen Claiborn

         Los Alamos, New Mexico is one of my favorite places in the whole world.  Both of my parents graduated from Los Alamos High School and my grandmother still lives there.  She has a cozy house on Barranca Mesa with a backyard that backs up to a canyon.  I spent hours on the side of the canyon, listening to the sounds of the forest, watching the birds, and smelling the desert sage and pine trees.  I have always felt like it was one of the most beautiful settings I have ever experienced.  It’s extremely peaceful at 7500 above sea level, despite being the birthplace of the atomic bomb. 

            Neither of my parents lived in LA while the bomb was being built, they both moved there after the guard towers stopped checking every car that drove into town.  When my mom moved there, the guard towers were still manned, but they just watched.  My mom’s parents worked at the Lab, but didn’t talk about what they did.  My mom moved to LA from Ohio when she was fifteen-years-old and she hated it.  Ohio is as different from Los Alamos as you could possibly imagine, and my mom wanted nothing to do with it.  I’ve heard all of these stories my entire life, what it was like in this tiny mountain town when you’re a high school kid.  I don’t believe either of my parents realized the history of the town when they moved there, but they certainly do now. 

            I didn’t know the secretive parts of Los Alamos.  When I was a kid it was just where my grandparents lived.  The Lab is still there, and after the twin towers were attacked in 2001, new guard stations were added near the entrances, but in my life, the Lab was just a place where science happened.  As I grew older, I learned more about the history of Los Alamos and it’s role in World War II.  It’s a fascinating place with a fascinating history, and even more interesting, is that the people that live there don’t really talk about it.

            The wives in this story sound a lot like how my mom describes her first impressions of New Mexico and Los Alamos.  It’s dry (much drier than Ohio), the air is thin and it’s impossible to breathe, it gets insanely hot in the summer, it’s a high desert.  I found myself getting personally offended by how these women described the area.  It’s hard to read or listen to talk about New Mexico negatively, so throughout this book I found myself hating it a little.  However, I fully understand why so many of the families that relocated to NM hated it as much as they did. 

            The writing style took some getting used to…it’s quite odd.  It’s vague and sweeping, like the author couldn’t make up her mind what she wanted to say.  Over the course of the book, it occurred to me that the writing style matches how the wives might have felt when they were there…vague.  They didn’t really know what was going on at the Lab, but they were resigned to being there.  While I didn’t love this particular depiction of life in Los Alamos while the bomb was being developed, it’s not terrible. 

Tannie Davidson

The first person plural throughout was very off-putting. I feel that that choice made the book very generalized, and at times, contradictory. I finished the book because I was interested in the subject, not because of he writing style. I would have sympathized and bonded with the characters and storyline more if it had been told in a different way.

The Wives of Los Alamos A Novel

Reviews

Highlights