The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

There are many stories in our own Detroit of this happening, specifically when residents of the Poletown district were relocated to build a General Motors assembly plant.

Many of us felt for those who had been kicked out of their homes for the factories. One could read only the story sections and learn about life in Oak Ridge or just the science sections and hear only of war strategies and upper military planning. It was interesting to read about those in Europe and what they were doing to advance science, but the women of Oak Ridge wouldn’t have known that so these stories didn’t overlap. She used separate chapters to tell us about what was happening in Europe or with the US government but didn’t mix these things with the sections that told the stories of the women. The first question from LitLovers asked us, “Denise Kiernan explains in an author’s note, “The information in this book is compartmentalized, as was much of life and work during the Manhattan Project.” (page 18) How does the book manage to recreate the workers’ experience of months-long ignorance, and the shock of finding out what they were working on?” Kiernan formatted the book into ‘story’ and ‘science’ sections. I guess we see what the history books want us to remember! We knew about the testing in New Mexico but had no idea that there were people in Tennessee refining the uranium. This was a topic none of us knew much about before reading it. One member thought she needed an editor to cut out some of the passages that seemed repetitive (mud mud mud). I love when a non-fiction book reads like fiction and I think we found that in this novel. One member thought she needed an editor to cut out some of the passages that seemed repetitive (mud We used the LitLovers questions to guide our discussion.I love when a non-fiction book reads like fiction and I think we found that in this novel.

We met the day before my birthday this year to talk about The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan. It feels like an extra present from the universe when it happens. My book club always seems to meet around my birthday.