“The challenge in telling the story of the atomic bomb is one of nuance, requiring thought and sensitivity and walking a line between commemoration and celebration.” Has Kiernan done a good job of this?
I personally feel D.K. has done as good a job as any, to capture the feelings of the people at Oak Ridge, once they learned of what they were working on, and the destruction it caused. All over the country there were celebrations, because the war ended. I think the people in Oak Ridge probably dealt with the knowledge much more difficult than the average American, who had nothing to do with creating the bomb.
I really am glad I read this book, and was a part of the discussion. Whether we agree or disagree with what content was in the book, whether it seemed a bit redundant, D.K. gave us first hand knowledge from these women who survived working at the plants, and are still living, some seventy years later. This book took me on a Google search, to learn even more than was covered in this book. For that, I am thankful, I would never have picked this book up on my own to just read by myself.
I loved D.K.'s ending...... As I drive away from Oak Ridge, I cross back over the Clinch, the sheer curtain of pinkish-gray evening settling on the its waters, no pearls sleeping in the beds. I leave my dinner with Virginia behind, thinking of her and other women's journeys across the river in a much different time during a very different war. I have no answers as I head east deeper into the secret-shrouded shadow of the mountains. I roll down the window and wash my hands in the clouds.
I have traveled over Clinch mountain many times in my years being married, with my Mom sitting in the back seat of our small hornet wagon, with my three small children. That mountain before they blasted through it and made it much wider, was truly a scary time, with such a huge drop, and such a narrow road of nothing but curves that could not been seen to anticipate ahead of you. I remember as we drove through the mountain, my mother who talks non-stop while in the car would go silent. I knew she was a bit fearful. I always helped my hubby who was driving stay alert, and prayed silently, Our Father who art in Heaven........ I sense if D.K. is a prayerful person, she too would be saying a little prayer for all those women and residents of Oak Ridge, Tenn., as she washed her hands in the clouds.
