The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit *****

The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit is a beautiful prose-poem written in the first-person plural covering the development of the atomic bomb during the years 1943-1945…from the perspective of the wives. “We married men just like our fathers, or nothing like them, or only the best parts.”

The book focusses on four groups: the wives, the scientists, the military, and the indigenous people.

The wives, at the center of the action, were diverse, but mostly European, educated, and forceful. Though the military nominally controlled everything, and their husbands were occupied by research and development, they found ways to get what they wanted, including jobs, recreation, education for their children, domestic help, and fresh vegetables. Much of their activities included observing the others.

The scientists come across like stereotypical scientists.

“Many of them cared a lot about utility and nothing for appearances. If it were their choice our bookshelves, dining room chairs, and coffee tables would all be made of industrial materials like steel. Thankfully for us, these materials were difficult to come by during the war.”

For a while, they were proud of what their husbands had accomplished (atomic bombs). When they watched the news, they told their children “That’s what your father made” while thinking, “Our husbands who could not repair a clogged shower drain.” “Our husbands who could not swim or drive a car.”

The military was stuck at Los Alamos. Most wish they were where the action was in Europe or the Pacific. The wives had little to do with most of the military, except for some harmless flirting and petty conflicts with the WACs who ran the commissary, housing office, and almost everything else. There was one exception.

“We had a fondness for the engineering division.” “They were men with undergraduate degrees.” “Surely, they annoyed the MPs and sergeants with…their thick glasses, their gangly bodies with paunchy stomachs. And when they marched on weekends with the rest of the military, they were placed in the back of the caboose, and each of their steps was miraculously out of sync with the others.”

Indigenous women provided domestic help. The wives made friends with these women. “We tutored their sons in English after school and they taught us how to make more northern New Mexico dishes—tortillas, posole, and corn cooked in the Indian way. They learned to make our peanut butter sandwiches, but we never learned the delicious secret of their…fried bread.”

An evocative story of life at Los Alamos during World War II. Not an introduction to the development of the atomic bomb, but a beautiful supplement.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.

The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen ****

Ava Collette is an author, suffering from guilt for a drunk New Year’s Eve transgression which she is self-medicating with copious amounts of alcohol. She has retreated to an old, possibly haunted, house on the coast of Maine, Brodie’s Watch. How haunted? She had BDSM sex encounters with the ghost, Captain Jeremiah Brodie who died 150 years ago. All this might have been fine until the body of a young woman washes up in the harbor.

The sex is pretty explicit with references to breasts, nipples, ripped dresses, and leather cuffs. “Say it.” He leans closer. “Say you will submit.” My voice is barely audible. “I will submit.” Her reaction to this treatment is, “Captain Brodie has ruined me for the touch of a real man.” I would have preferred a stronger female protagonist-certainly no Rizzoli or Isles here.

Ava, when she wasn’t entranced by the ghost, investigated the 150-year history of women dying at Brodie’s watch up to the most recent murder evidenced by the body washed up in the harbor. Aside from the ghost, there were almost no suspects until the reveal. I found the reveal a bit incomplete and disappointing.

A supernatural, horror, romance thriller from Tess Gerritsen, the author of Rizzoli and Isles.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations. 

Fredrick Douglas by David W Blight *****

FredrickDouglass identified “three sets of excuses,” for the terrorizing and murder of blacks. Prior to the Civil War: “insurrection,” during reconstruction: “negro supremacy,” and afterward: “rape.” From the late 1830s to the early 1890s he campaigned (unsuccessfully) for black civil rights. Throughout this long (850 page) biography, David W Blight reflected on the similarities between the 19^th and 21^st century.

Winner of 2019 Pulitzer Prize in History

I had imagined the Civil War had been between the slaveowners in the South and the abolitionists in the North. Fredrick Douglass, and the author, made a convincing case that the culture of white supremacy was endemic throughout the country. Even the abolitionists believed in a fundamental white supremacy. For this reason, following the Civil War, the South quickly recovered its position of power, and the negros never rose above theirs of servitude.

Douglass felt the South won the war. After the Civil War amendments (13, 14, 15) overturned Dred Scott (1857), the Supreme Court again came down on the side of states’ rights when employed against blacks. Consider: US vs Cruikshank (1876). “The [Supreme] Court overruled the conviction of Louisiana whites who attacked a political meeting of blacks… The justices ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment did not give the federal government power to uphold convictions against whites.” Again in 1883, US vs Stanley, the Supreme Court upheld the right for individuals to discriminate against blacks. Compare this to the contemporary discussion of doctors and bakers discriminating against women and gays.

Douglass ended his life campaigning against lynchings. Compare this to the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement.

Before the Civil War Fredrick Douglass lectured against slaveholders in the South, but also against the churches in the North that might be against slavery but were also supporters of white supremacy. During the war, he reiterated this message: “We shall be fighting a double battle against slavery at the South and against prejudice and prescription at the North.”

A story of a great man and the apparently persistent racism of the United States. One of Fredrick Douglass’s unwelcome messages was that racism existed throughout the country and the culture. This book is more enlightening than optimistic.

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.