An all-star cast of narrators takes turns performing the “testimonies” of fictional characters who share stories about Robert Oppenheimer, head of the U.S. atomic bomb project. We hear from his students, friends, and colleagues at various points in his life—when he worked at the Los Alamos research facility and at Princeton as well as when he underwent a brutal loyalty interrogation in the McCarthy era. There are no weak links in this group of narrators, though not all of the women succeed in rendering the deeper male voices in dialogue. Each character reveals a different aspect of Oppenheimer, a complex man who was inconsistent in his feelings about atomic weapons. An underlying theme is how women were treated in the 1940s and how they coped with their limited choices. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Trinity: A Novel
Narrated by Cassandra Campbell, David Colacci, Saskia Maarleveld, John Lee, Brittany Pressley, Yetta Gottesman, Charlie Thurston, Amy Landon
Louisa HallUnabridged — 9 hours, 9 minutes
Trinity: A Novel
Narrated by Cassandra Campbell, David Colacci, Saskia Maarleveld, John Lee, Brittany Pressley, Yetta Gottesman, Charlie Thurston, Amy Landon
Louisa HallUnabridged — 9 hours, 9 minutes
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Overview
From the acclaimed author of Speak comes a kaleidoscopic novel about Robert Oppenheimer-father of the atomic bomb-as told by seven fictional characters.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was a brilliant scientist, a champion of liberal causes, and a complex and often contradictory character. He loyally protected his Communist friends, only to later betray them under questioning. He repeatedly lied about love affairs. And he defended the use of the atomic bomb he helped create, before ultimately lobbying against nuclear proliferation.
Through narratives that cross time and space, a set of characters bears witness to the life of Oppenheimer, from a secret service agent who tailed him in San Francisco, to the young lover of a colleague in Los Alamos, to a woman fleeing McCarthyism who knew him on St. John. As these men and women fall into the orbit of a brilliant but mercurial mind at work, all consider his complicated legacy while also uncovering deep and often unsettling truths about their own lives.
In this stunning, elliptical novel, Louisa Hall has crafted a breathtaking and explosive story about the ability of the human mind to believe what it wants, about public and private tragedy, and about power and guilt. Blending science with literature and fiction with biography, Trinity asks searing questions about what it means to truly know someone, and about the secrets we keep from the world and from ourselves.
Editorial Reviews
08/06/2018
Hall’s ingeniously structured novel is a fictionalized biographical portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the controversial director of the Manhattan Project, as witnessed by seven individuals who came in contact with him at different points in his life: a conflicted army intelligence agent, a romantically beset Women’s Army Corps member at Los Alamos, an old academic friend with a faulty memory, a married Princeton secretary suffering from an eating disorder, a closeted lesbian neighbor on the island of St. John, an impressionable New England prep school student, and a female journalist recovering from a broken marriage. Through their eyes, readers see Oppenheimer sneak a tryst in San Francisco in 1943, count down to the day of the Trinity Test, protest the development of the hydrogen bomb during the Red Scare, and try to repair his reputation after his security clearance is revoked. Hovering in the background of all these stories is Jean Tatlock, his Communist lover, who committed suicide in 1944 and whose ghost seems to haunt Oppenheimer’s every move. Hall (Speak) excels at creating distinct characters whose voices illuminate their own lives and challenges, as well as the historical period that saw Oppenheimer’s fall from grace. Taken together, they only burnish the endlessly fascinating enigma of the flawed genius who became known as the father of the atomic bomb. (Oct.)
Brilliant… Hall has shaped a richly imagined, tremendously moving fictional work. Its genius is not to explain but to embody the science and politics that shaped Oppenheimer’s life…. The resulting quantum portrait feels both true and dazzlingly unfamiliar.” — New York Times Book Review
“Triumphant.... Each of the anecdotes functions as a compelling story in its own right, and only becomes more powerful when taken together as a complete narrative. With beautiful specificity and nuance, Hall interrogates such major issues as ethics in scientific discovery and breaching the chasm between public and private selves.” — Vanity Fair
“[Hall has] earned acclaim for her ability to wield language with unusual precision.... Trinity [is] a brilliant imagining of how the details omitted from one notorious man’s story might define him more fully than the broad strokes we already know....Trinity sounds a wake-up call.” — Time
“A startling novel that asks how well we can ever really know anyone else, no matter how much we scrutinize them.... Trinity is a dizzying, kaleidoscopic marvel of a book, and a beautiful reflection on the impossibility of creating a truly accurate narrative of any person’s life.” — Texas Observer
“Intelligent, elegant.... [Hall tells] his story through the eyes of seven fictional characters with whom [Oppenheimer] comes into tangential contact.... The emotional weight of their sections lies in their own hurts and betrayals, their own flailing attempts to understand how, precisely, their own lives have somehow come to this.” — Washington Post
“A narrative exploration of the gap between public and private selves, as the novel makes plain that people are unreliable, and that betraying others is inextricably linked with betraying ourselves.... Hall’s book ambitiously takes on far-reaching issues at Los Alamos in a passionate, personal way.” — Santa Fe New Mexican
“Using real events to frame the narrative, Hall creates visceral vignettes using science, history, and biography to create three-dimensional characters pouring forth their own stories.... Highly recommended.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“Ingeniously structured.... [Hall] excels at creating distinct characters whose voices illuminate their own lives and challenges, as well as the historical period that saw Oppenheimer’s fall from grace.” — Publishers Weekly
“[Hall] explores themes of guilt and betrayal as well as the fallout from lies and self-delusion—in the process bringing Oppenheimer, an often aloof, conflicted man, to vivid life.… Lushly written, this is an ambitious, unsettling novel that takes on big issues in a passionate, personal way.” — Kirkus Reviews
“With war, McCarthyism, and nuclear proliferation as backdrop, Hall’s observers paint a picture of not just one man but of humanity.... Each narrator has a unique and convincing voice in this compelling novel.” — Booklist
“Louisa Hall’s Trinity is an intelligent and sweeping account of the characters—some real, some fictional—swirling around the testing of the first atomic bomb. It is also an affecting meditation on the ways in which we betray others and, in the process, ourselves.” — Karan Mahajan, author of The Association of Small Bombs
“[Hall] employs an ingenious and creative tactic to paint an image of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb”.... In this staggeringly beautiful novel, he is fragmented, shown only through the eyes of people who are all struggling with their own existences.... Trinity is a masterpiece.” — BookPage
Triumphant.... Each of the anecdotes functions as a compelling story in its own right, and only becomes more powerful when taken together as a complete narrative. With beautiful specificity and nuance, Hall interrogates such major issues as ethics in scientific discovery and breaching the chasm between public and private selves.
Intelligent, elegant.... [Hall tells] his story through the eyes of seven fictional characters with whom [Oppenheimer] comes into tangential contact.... The emotional weight of their sections lies in their own hurts and betrayals, their own flailing attempts to understand how, precisely, their own lives have somehow come to this.
Brilliant… Hall has shaped a richly imagined, tremendously moving fictional work. Its genius is not to explain but to embody the science and politics that shaped Oppenheimer’s life…. The resulting quantum portrait feels both true and dazzlingly unfamiliar.
With war, McCarthyism, and nuclear proliferation as backdrop, Hall’s observers paint a picture of not just one man but of humanity.... Each narrator has a unique and convincing voice in this compelling novel.
A narrative exploration of the gap between public and private selves, as the novel makes plain that people are unreliable, and that betraying others is inextricably linked with betraying ourselves.... Hall’s book ambitiously takes on far-reaching issues at Los Alamos in a passionate, personal way.
A startling novel that asks how well we can ever really know anyone else, no matter how much we scrutinize them.... Trinity is a dizzying, kaleidoscopic marvel of a book, and a beautiful reflection on the impossibility of creating a truly accurate narrative of any person’s life.
[Hall has] earned acclaim for her ability to wield language with unusual precision.... Trinity [is] a brilliant imagining of how the details omitted from one notorious man’s story might define him more fully than the broad strokes we already know....Trinity sounds a wake-up call.
[Hall] employs an ingenious and creative tactic to paint an image of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb”.... In this staggeringly beautiful novel, he is fragmented, shown only through the eyes of people who are all struggling with their own existences.... Trinity is a masterpiece.
Louisa Hall’s Trinity is an intelligent and sweeping account of the characters—some real, some fictional—swirling around the testing of the first atomic bomb. It is also an affecting meditation on the ways in which we betray others and, in the process, ourselves.
With war, McCarthyism, and nuclear proliferation as backdrop, Hall’s observers paint a picture of not just one man but of humanity.... Each narrator has a unique and convincing voice in this compelling novel.
Intelligent, elegant.... [Hall tells] his story through the eyes of seven fictional characters with whom [Oppenheimer] comes into tangential contact.... The emotional weight of their sections lies in their own hurts and betrayals, their own flailing attempts to understand how, precisely, their own lives have somehow come to this.
[Hall has] earned acclaim for her ability to wield language with unusual precision.... Trinity [is] a brilliant imagining of how the details omitted from one notorious man’s story might define him more fully than the broad strokes we already know....Trinity sounds a wake-up call.
An all-star cast of narrators takes turns performing the “testimonies” of fictional characters who share stories about Robert Oppenheimer, head of the U.S. atomic bomb project. We hear from his students, friends, and colleagues at various points in his life—when he worked at the Los Alamos research facility and at Princeton as well as when he underwent a brutal loyalty interrogation in the McCarthy era. There are no weak links in this group of narrators, though not all of the women succeed in rendering the deeper male voices in dialogue. Each character reveals a different aspect of Oppenheimer, a complex man who was inconsistent in his feelings about atomic weapons. An underlying theme is how women were treated in the 1940s and how they coped with their limited choices. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
2018-07-31
Seven fictional characters tell the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the A-bomb, reflecting on his complicated legacy as they talk about their own lives, which intersect with his.
Much has been written about Oppie, as friends called him, the renowned physicist hailed as a hero for his work on the bomb, then pilloried for his left-wing views and Communist Party connections during the McCarthy era. (After JFK was elected in 1960, Oppenheimer's reputation was rehabilitated.) But in this boldly imagined, multilayered novel, author Hall (Speak, 2015, etc.) takes a new approach. Through her invented narrators, she explores themes of guilt and betrayal as well as the fallout from lies and self-delusion—in the process bringing Oppenheimer, an often aloof, conflicted man, to vivid life. Among those offering "testimonials" as she calls them: Sam Casal, a military intelligence operative, who one evening in 1943 tails the married Oppenheimer from the Rad Lab in Berkeley, California, to the San Francisco apartment of his (real-life) former lover, Jean Tatlock. Then there's Grace Goodman, a young WAC assigned in 1945 to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the A-bomb was built and tested under Oppie's supervision. Only the last story, narrated by Helen Childs, a journalist who comes to interview the disillusioned and fatally ill scientist in 1966, goes on too long and strains to make the necessary connection with the man himself. Oppenheimer chose the code name "Trinity" (a reference, apparently, to a John Donne poem Jean Tatlock introduced him to) for the A-bomb test that preceded the historic August 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the beginning of each chapter, as a framing device, the author provides a glimpse of Oppenheimer at work in Los Alamos in the tense hours and minutes leading up to the test.
Lushly written, this is an ambitious, unsettling novel that takes on big issues in a passionate, personal way.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940173613127 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 10/16/2018 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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