Cassy's Reviews > American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Let’s do the numbers.

599 pages of text
256 books read for research
44 articles and dissertations consulted
41 manuscript collections pillaged
10 government document collections accessed
1 Pulitzer Prize
6 newspapers/magazines named it best book of the year
19 quality blurbs
41 listed abbreviations
20 page-long index
83 pages of notes
112 people interviewed (several more than once)
2 authors
25 years in the making
38 days to read across 3 cities
23 corners folded by this girl to mark something fascinating

To describe this book as merely “well researched” would be an insult. It is an exhaustively thorough look at an important American figure…that I had never heard of when my dad gave this book to me as a Christmas gift several years ago. I had a vague notion that J. Robert Oppenheimer was in the newspaper business.

Oppie (as I now refer to him) was a brilliant physicist and character, who headed the American development of the atomic bomb during WWII only to be stripped of his security clearance years later for petty political reasons. When I finished this book, I was all “Oppie said the cleverest thing about [insert topic]” and “Oppie would have loved this [documentary/book/color shirt].” I swear I was that annoying person who just achieved a (likely one-sided) friendship with someone much cooler and can’t shut up about it.

What exactly can you expect to learn about MY NEW BESTIE in this book?

(1) Speculation about whether Oppie was a closet Communist
There are paragraphs, pages, and chapters playing the was-he-or-wasn’t-he game. What exactly did he learn at that wacko school as a youngster? Did he pay party dues? Why didn’t he report that conversation earlier? Why did he meet with that person on that day?

The only person who really had the answer to the main question is Oppie, and he said “no.” Repeatedly. This speculation may sound boring (and it was at times), but it was integral to the story as it later brought down a man who had devoted his life to doing what he thought was best for this country.

(2) Luminaries of the day
As brilliant as Oppie was, he was also surrounded by brilliant people. After nearly every description of his physicist buddies, there was a note that “so-and-so went on to receive the Nobel Prize.” You will also learn about key political and military figures of the day. And for all these people, you will get more than just a rehashing of their image. You’ll get a quick glimpse of their personality, weakness, opinions, antics. This book breathes with characters.

(3) A critical era of American history
The authors evoked not just the people, but also stepped back and evoked the times – starting with the rush to develop the atomic bomb before the Germans (hurry, hurry, hurry!) and then the debate that followed Hiroshima (was that really necessary? what now? build another?). It was a dicey time for America and the world. I had learned some of this during my undergraduate, but this book bought it home for me.

(4) Absolutely nothing about science
If you are curious regarding the specifics of how the bomb was built or the physics behind it, you will be sorely disappointed while I was greatly pleased.

(5) His wife!
I have become increasingly interested in the stories of the women behind important men: how they helped made their men great and even how they suffered for it. For example, I remember walking through a museum about Einstein a couple years ago and thinking his wife deserved a medal, bucket of tears, her own museum, something for the crap she put up with. And Oppie’s wife, Kitty was similarly intriguing. Here is a brief review of her, count ‘em, four marriages:

Husband #1: Why you should read your spouse’s diary
When Kitty was “studying” aboard in Europe, she impulsively married a musician only to discover, when she snooped in his diary, that he was a gay drug addict. Strike one.

Husband #2: Voluntary poverty followed by voluntary death
Kitty bounced back quickly and married a handsome American activist. Although both came from well-to-do families, they chose to live in poverty to show their commitment to Communist ideals. Kitty eventually got fed up with lifestyle and walked away. The two were just starting to rekindle their love when he was killed fighting in the Spanish Civil War on the side of, you guessed it, the leftists.

Husband #3: “This is Robert calling. Your wife is pregnant with my child.”
Kitty’s next pick was an emotionally distant doctor. It was during this marriage that Kitty met Oppie and started some extramarital hanky-panky. When she discovered she was pregnant with Oppie’s child, Husband #3 and Oppie had a very civilized phone conversation where they decided it would be best if Kitty divorced one and married the other. I really wish the FBI had wire-tapped that call! What kind of husband can calmly discuss his wife’s infidelity with her lover? He must have been cold as a block of ice!

Husband #4: Loved by Oppie, hated by everyone else
After all the duds, Oppie was “the one.” The general consensus was that Oppie’s wife was a rude, habitually tipsy, and mediocre housewife, as well as a cold mother. Her one redeeming quality was her fierce loyalty to Oppie and his career. Yet she seemed frustrated in his shadows having given up her burgeoning career in botany for his sake. My favorite quote about Kitty was that “she made small talk, but she really wanted to make big talk.”

Whew! I don’t know about you, but Kitty wears me out. And since she is not likeable enough to be the subject of her own biography, I am glad these authors gave her such good coverage here. As many anecdotes that made me sympathize with her, there were just as many times when I wanted to reach back in time and shake her.

That’s enough about Kitty.

It’s not often that I have a picture of myself reading the book I’m reviewing. But today is your lucky day! In a scene that is probably familiar to GoodReaders, here I am reading my book off in a corner during a family get-together.

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This time we were bunkered down in a cabin in a state park right as the temperature plummeted. Off camera were my cousins and uncles playing rowdy board and computer games. While they clicked their mouses to send imaginary bombs at enemy troops in whatever game (Extra Bloody DeathCom War Unlimited 4?), I was reading about Oppie’s ethical doubts after an actual bomb killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese. Who was having more fun?!?

I should probably let this review end with the picture. But since we started with the numbers, I think we should finish with one more.

5 stars.