BEGINNING THE WORLD AGAIN

by Roberta Silman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1990

In what seems to be a bid for the Michener audience, Silman lays aside her subtlety and literary skill (evident in The Dream Dredger, 1986; Boundaries, 1979; Blood Relations, 1977) and presents everything the average reader could want to know about the making of the atomic bomb--plus a plea for disarmament. Narrator Lily Fialka accompanies her brilliant scientist-husband out to Los Alamos in 1943 and soon learns more about the secret research than she's supposed to. While the men work round the clock, Lily has the time for moral questions (Will we be able to control the Bomb once it's created? Should it ever be used? How do the Pueblo Indians feel about our taking their land for a testing site?). Lily's values are also challenged by her affair with the brilliant refugee scientist Jacob Wunderlich (most of the men are repeatedly characterized as ""billiant'), whose wife, Steffi, longs desperately to return to Europe and join with the ""good Germans"" to overthrow Hitler. Lily reports significant conversations (the characters don't talk to each other--they make speeches) about such loaded topics as racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, international cooperation; the women of Los Alamos (including the portentously named History) continue to affirm life by having babies; Erik Traugott (based on Niels Bohr) works tirelessly and fruitlessly to get Roosevelt and Churchill to use scientific knowledge responsibly. Well-intentioned and chock-full of facts (the trivial along with the essential) but--uncharacteristically for this author--graceless as fiction.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1990

Categories: FICTION