“Children of the Bomb”: shared commentary on growing up in the shadow of nuclear bomb developments in one’s own “neighborhood”
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A REPLY TO REBECCA ROMANELLI
REBECCA, I must have missed your comment somehow when you first posted it a month ago. This is my reply, which I hope will be informative for others interested in this topic
READERS: PLEASE SEE SEQUENCE AT THE END HERE FOR DISCUSSION CONTEXT & INSPIRATION FOR THIS ARTICLE.
I actually came across a couple of other “bomb babies” many years ago when I was first diagnosed with fibromyalgia (1992, age 45) and we participated on the old FIBRO-L (sp ?) listserv, which is what we had before the internet was opened up to commercial use. The ‘Net originally served only military and university research institutions. My Fibro correspondent’s dad was in maintenance while my dad worked with Oppenheimer as a physicist.
Yes, I did watch the Manhattan Project series, and I was seriously disappointed when it was discontinued after … was it two seasons? They said its viewership was too low, but I can’t help but think there were other forces at work…
I also read a couple of Young Adult novels set in Los Alamos during the war and immediately after. They are excellent.
The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages
See longer review here.
White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages
See longer review here.
I believe these are classified “YA” only because the main characters are two 11-year-old girls whose dads work on “The Gadget.” They are most definitely adult-reader friendly.
There are many other books on life at Los Alamos as well as at other Manhattan Project locations, such as Oak Ridge, TN.
An adult book, The Wives of Los Alamos, is also a great read/listen.
See longer review (New York Times) here.
