The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard

This is the second book I have read about the girls working and living in Oak Ridge, TN during the top secret mission of building an atomic bomb to end WWII. They are very different from each other. The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan is a biography. It is a true story of some of the women and scientists who lived in Oak Ridge during this time. It is a mix of the women's lives there - and very detailed scientific explanations of what the scientists were doing (meaning, how to build an atomic bomb). This book, The Atomic City Girls, is fiction. It does include actual pictures taken in Oak Ridge at the time, although the pictures don't really match the story that is unfolding, which is weird.

This was the easier book to read for sure! It's actually a very quick read. There are basically two story lines: June, a young white woman (18) who goes to Oak Ridge for employment. Her older sister already works there. It's odd that her sister is rarely mentioned. I forgot she even had a sister until "Mary" is mentioned again at the end of the book. Anyway, the second storyline is about Joe, a black man who goes to Oak Ridge so he can support his wife and three children back home.

What's interesting is that the characters I liked the most, June and Joe, didn't seem to understand the significance of what was happening at the time. June was in love with Sam, but Sam couldn't accept the consequences of the US sending the atomic bombs to Japan to end the war. He was a mess, but I totally understood why - and June did not. She was focused on his drinking too much. She didn't see WHY he was drinking so much. Sam was deeply disturbed about killing innocent people - and the aftermath of the survivors of the bomb (basically, a slow death vs. a quick death). It was frustrating to me that she couldn't think past Sam's drinking.

Then there was Joe, who couldn't understand what Ralph was fighting for. Ralph saw the injustice of the way the black people were treated - their pay, their housing, their food, their entertainment - in comparison to the white people living at Oak Ridge. Ralph was fighting for what was right, in a peaceful manner none-the-less. Joe just wanted Ralph to accept the way things were - not rock the boat.  So, even though I liked June and Joe's characters the most, I thought they were both naive. The only character I really disliked (intensely) was Cici. Love must be blind, considering that Tom seemed like a really good guy and he married her. 

I liked the book. It gave a good overview of why everyone was there - and the difference between how white people were treated there vs. black people. Through Sam, it talks about the negative impact on innocent lives and it also describes how excited people were that the war was over after the bombs were dropped, which would be the common sentiment of the average person who didn't understand the damage done to Japan.

Wendy's Rating: ****