In The Wives of Los Alamos, Tarashea Nesbit tells the story of
the creation of the atomic bomb through the experiences of a group who knew
nothing about the work, the wives of the scientists recruited to develop a
project they called the “Gadget.”
Families began arriving in Los Alamos in 1943 when it was a city still
under construction. Although the wives were a diverse group, coming from
various backgrounds and various parts of the country, they quickly became a
group, a neighborhood and a sisterhood, united by isolation from friends and
family, physical hardship, patriotism, and keeping secrets when they didn’t
even know what secrets they were keeping. For this reason, the author’s choice
of telling the story through the first person plural, the communal “we,” works
very well. Most of the wives were young, newly married college graduates. Their
names were changed and their letters home censored. They were assigned to live
in hastily constructed apartments with army-issued home furnishings. The roads
and yards were either mud or dust. Sometimes there was no water or power. They
tried to lead ordinary lives: cooking, cleaning and raising children. They
formed friendships and helped each other. They formed book clubs and held
dances. They argued and gossiped. After August, 1945, when everyone in the
world learned what their husbands had been working on in Los Alamos, they were
free to return to normal life. Some stayed in Los Alamos, their husbands taking
jobs with the National Laboratory. Some left, their husbands taking teaching
positions or jobs in private industry. Some felt pride and some felt guilt
about the bomb. They resumed their middle-class American lives, but for a few
years they had been part of something that changed the history of the world.
