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Trinity: Shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize
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.
Louisa Hall, the acclaimed author of Speak, has returned with a kaleidoscopic novel about the father of the atomic bomb. Through narratives that cross time and space, a set of seven fictional 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.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 16, 2018
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June 25, 2023
Trinity is historical fiction that provides glimpses of J. Robert Oppenheimer, 'the father of the atomic bomb', from the perspective of some of his contemporaries.
First, a brief overview of the (real) historical Oppenheimer.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer, born in 1904, was a brilliant American theoretical physicist and a physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
J. Robert Oppenheimer
During World War II, Oppenheimer was recruited to head the Manhattan Project, a program to develop the atomic bomb (A-bomb) at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory. The first A-bomb was successfully detonated during the Trinity Test in July, 1945.
Entrance to Los Alamos National Laboratory
The Trinity Test. This led Oppenheimer to recall verses from the Bhagavad Gita”Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Oppenheimer and a military man examining the ground after the Trinity Test
In August 1945, A-bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after which Japan surrendered.
The mushroom cloud from the Nagasaki “Fat Man” bomb, August 9, 1945
After the war, Oppenheimer became an important figure in the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). From this powerful position, Oppenheimer opposed building the hydrogen bomb and lobbied for sharing nuclear technology with Russia, to prevent an arms race. These notions were wildly unpopular with powerful people, and led to 1954 McCarthy era hearings at the AEC.
Oppenheimer testifying at the Atomic Energy Commission
Among other things, the hearings revealed Oppenheimer's former connections to the American Communist Party and divulged embarrassing details about his marital infidelities (in front of his wife, no less). This resulted in Oppenheimer's fall from grace, and the revocation of his security clearance.
To minimize repercussions against himself, Oppenheimer 'outed' friends and co-workers who were communist sympathizers or otherwise compromised.
After John F. Kennedy became President in 1960, Oppenheimer's reputation was rehabilitated and he was awarded the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award. Regardless of the controversy, Oppenheimer served as the director of Princeton's 'Institute for Advanced Study' from 1947 to 1966.
Oppenheimer receiving the Enrico Fermi Award
*****
Oppenheimer, generally known as Oppie, is closely connected with the massively destructive - and potentially Earth-destroying - atomic bomb. This makes him a controversial figure whose persona is conflated with the devastation caused by nuclear weapons. In this book, seven fictional characters recount stories about the physicist, based on his real life. The narrators' tales aren't necessarily straightforward, being influenced by events in their own lives.
- Sam Casal - an intelligence agent tasked with keeping tabs on Oppie - describes the married physicist sneaking away from his Berkeley lab in 1943, to have an assignation with a lover in San Francisco. The woman, Jean Tatlock, is Oppenheimer's former girlfriend and a communist supporter. Afterwards, when Oppie is back home, the agent keeps Jean under surveillance, to detect possible traitorous activity. Six months later Jean commits suicide for unknown reasons.
Jean Tatlock
- Grace Goodman, a member of the Women's Army Corps (WAC), works at Los Alamos in the mid-1940s. Grace observes Oppie from the perspective of a woman in love with Oppie's married colleague Jack. Grace describes Oppie as a charismatic figure who wears a porkpie hat and whose habits (like smoking Chesterfield cigarettes) and mannerisms (like flicking ashes with his finger) are copied by people in his circle.
Oppenheimer with his signature porkpie hat and cigarette
When married Jack breaks up with Grace following an abortion, the WAC purposely takes up with a divorced 'wife beater', then taunts Jack with her (accidental) facial bruise.
Grace compulsively watches Oppie and Jack as they go off to conduct the Trinity Test, which she describes as follows: “Then the earth under our feet lurched toward the mountains, and the mountains tilted a foot to the right, and the trees leaped off the sides of the mountains.”
- Andries Van Den Berg, Oppie's old friend and colleague from Berkeley, describes Oppie and his wife Kitty visiting him in Paris in 1949. Van Den Berg is not permitted back in the United States, perhaps because of Oppie's disclosures.
Kitty Oppenheimer
Van Den Berg talks about the fun he and his ex-wife Barbara used to have with Oppie and Kitty. Van Den Berg - who's distracted by his young girlfriend - remembers everything wrong, however, as Barbara later reminds him in a sardonic letter that alludes to his infidelities.
- Sally Connelly is a secretary who works for Oppie at Princeton in 1954. Prior to Sally's employment, her twin sister - who compulsively collected horrible photos of bomb victims in Nagasaki and Hiroshima - died from anorexia. Unlike her sister, Sally is overweight, and a compulsive cereal eater. Sally has low expectations for a blind date with a Princeton man named Stan who - to her surprise - falls for and marries her.
Sally's marriage isn't a success, and she begins wasting away like her sibling....until she weighs less than 90 pounds. However, no one - including Stan and Oppie - notices. When Oppie finally becomes aware of Sally, he insists on telling her his 'whole story.' By now Oppie regrets his role in the building of the atom bomb and opposes development of the even more destructive hydrogen bomb.
- Lía Peón is half of a lesbian couple living on the island of St. John, where Oppie and Kitty build a home in the late 1950s. Oppie and Kitty are friends with the gay couple, who were driven out of the United States by discrimination against homosexuals. Oppie's family lives in tents on Lia's property while their home is being constructed. Oppie may have blabbed about Lia (as he did many other people) during his testimony at the Atomic Energy Commission.
Oppenheimer and friends on the island of St. John
Oppie shows some mettle in St. John's when a drunken neighbor gets aggressive about a 'noisy party.' Oppie also saves a turtle with his daughter, showing his softer side.
Oppenheimer with his wife and children on the island of St. John
- Tim Schmidt, a student at a Massachusetts prep school in 1963, talks about Oppie coming to speak at his school. This engagement is part of Oppie's professional/personal/political rehabilitation, engineered by his colleagues and friends.
While Tim is talking about Oppie, he recalls his activist mother showing up at an event organized by his previous school and hustling Tim out. He wouldn't like this to happen again.
- Helen Childs, a journalist who lived near the Oppenheimers when she was a child, tells the longest story. On her way to interview Oppie at Princeton in 1966 - when the physicist is dying of cancer - Helen is reminded of her former husband. She relates the entire history of their courtship and marriage, and talks about her husband's infidelity during her pregnancy. Hubby's betrayal almost destroys Helen, and she in turn badgers him mercilessly - like Oppie was badgered before and during his hearings.
Helen also recalls Kitty Oppenheimer, who drank too much - perhaps because her husband attracted women like a magnet attracts iron nails.
Preparing to question Oppie, Helen determines to be relentless and aggressive, to squeeze 'the truth' out of him. Perhaps Helen's unfortunate experience with her spouse makes her angry at all men, but that's not clear. For me this last section was overwritten, boring, and hard to get through.
Oppenheimer became ill and died of cancer
Oppenheimer was an enigmatic figure, and patching together these characters' sketches of the scientist still doesn't give us a clear picture of the man or his beliefs or his behavior.
Oppie came to deplore nuclear weapons and to feel guilty about his role in their creation. Realistically, though, if Oppie hadn't made the first A-bomb someone else would have. And it's just as well it wasn't someone in Germany (IMO).
I found the book interesting and imaginative, but it's not very enlightening about Robert Oppenheimer.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....
First, a brief overview of the (real) historical Oppenheimer.
Julius Robert Oppenheimer, born in 1904, was a brilliant American theoretical physicist and a physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
J. Robert Oppenheimer
During World War II, Oppenheimer was recruited to head the Manhattan Project, a program to develop the atomic bomb (A-bomb) at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory. The first A-bomb was successfully detonated during the Trinity Test in July, 1945.
Entrance to Los Alamos National Laboratory
The Trinity Test. This led Oppenheimer to recall verses from the Bhagavad Gita”Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Oppenheimer and a military man examining the ground after the Trinity Test
In August 1945, A-bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after which Japan surrendered.
The mushroom cloud from the Nagasaki “Fat Man” bomb, August 9, 1945
After the war, Oppenheimer became an important figure in the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). From this powerful position, Oppenheimer opposed building the hydrogen bomb and lobbied for sharing nuclear technology with Russia, to prevent an arms race. These notions were wildly unpopular with powerful people, and led to 1954 McCarthy era hearings at the AEC.
Oppenheimer testifying at the Atomic Energy Commission
Among other things, the hearings revealed Oppenheimer's former connections to the American Communist Party and divulged embarrassing details about his marital infidelities (in front of his wife, no less). This resulted in Oppenheimer's fall from grace, and the revocation of his security clearance.
To minimize repercussions against himself, Oppenheimer 'outed' friends and co-workers who were communist sympathizers or otherwise compromised.
After John F. Kennedy became President in 1960, Oppenheimer's reputation was rehabilitated and he was awarded the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award. Regardless of the controversy, Oppenheimer served as the director of Princeton's 'Institute for Advanced Study' from 1947 to 1966.
Oppenheimer receiving the Enrico Fermi Award
*****
Oppenheimer, generally known as Oppie, is closely connected with the massively destructive - and potentially Earth-destroying - atomic bomb. This makes him a controversial figure whose persona is conflated with the devastation caused by nuclear weapons. In this book, seven fictional characters recount stories about the physicist, based on his real life. The narrators' tales aren't necessarily straightforward, being influenced by events in their own lives.
- Sam Casal - an intelligence agent tasked with keeping tabs on Oppie - describes the married physicist sneaking away from his Berkeley lab in 1943, to have an assignation with a lover in San Francisco. The woman, Jean Tatlock, is Oppenheimer's former girlfriend and a communist supporter. Afterwards, when Oppie is back home, the agent keeps Jean under surveillance, to detect possible traitorous activity. Six months later Jean commits suicide for unknown reasons.
Jean Tatlock
- Grace Goodman, a member of the Women's Army Corps (WAC), works at Los Alamos in the mid-1940s. Grace observes Oppie from the perspective of a woman in love with Oppie's married colleague Jack. Grace describes Oppie as a charismatic figure who wears a porkpie hat and whose habits (like smoking Chesterfield cigarettes) and mannerisms (like flicking ashes with his finger) are copied by people in his circle.
Oppenheimer with his signature porkpie hat and cigarette
When married Jack breaks up with Grace following an abortion, the WAC purposely takes up with a divorced 'wife beater', then taunts Jack with her (accidental) facial bruise.
Grace compulsively watches Oppie and Jack as they go off to conduct the Trinity Test, which she describes as follows: “Then the earth under our feet lurched toward the mountains, and the mountains tilted a foot to the right, and the trees leaped off the sides of the mountains.”
- Andries Van Den Berg, Oppie's old friend and colleague from Berkeley, describes Oppie and his wife Kitty visiting him in Paris in 1949. Van Den Berg is not permitted back in the United States, perhaps because of Oppie's disclosures.
Kitty Oppenheimer
Van Den Berg talks about the fun he and his ex-wife Barbara used to have with Oppie and Kitty. Van Den Berg - who's distracted by his young girlfriend - remembers everything wrong, however, as Barbara later reminds him in a sardonic letter that alludes to his infidelities.
- Sally Connelly is a secretary who works for Oppie at Princeton in 1954. Prior to Sally's employment, her twin sister - who compulsively collected horrible photos of bomb victims in Nagasaki and Hiroshima - died from anorexia. Unlike her sister, Sally is overweight, and a compulsive cereal eater. Sally has low expectations for a blind date with a Princeton man named Stan who - to her surprise - falls for and marries her.
Sally's marriage isn't a success, and she begins wasting away like her sibling....until she weighs less than 90 pounds. However, no one - including Stan and Oppie - notices. When Oppie finally becomes aware of Sally, he insists on telling her his 'whole story.' By now Oppie regrets his role in the building of the atom bomb and opposes development of the even more destructive hydrogen bomb.
- Lía Peón is half of a lesbian couple living on the island of St. John, where Oppie and Kitty build a home in the late 1950s. Oppie and Kitty are friends with the gay couple, who were driven out of the United States by discrimination against homosexuals. Oppie's family lives in tents on Lia's property while their home is being constructed. Oppie may have blabbed about Lia (as he did many other people) during his testimony at the Atomic Energy Commission.
Oppenheimer and friends on the island of St. John
Oppie shows some mettle in St. John's when a drunken neighbor gets aggressive about a 'noisy party.' Oppie also saves a turtle with his daughter, showing his softer side.
Oppenheimer with his wife and children on the island of St. John
- Tim Schmidt, a student at a Massachusetts prep school in 1963, talks about Oppie coming to speak at his school. This engagement is part of Oppie's professional/personal/political rehabilitation, engineered by his colleagues and friends.
While Tim is talking about Oppie, he recalls his activist mother showing up at an event organized by his previous school and hustling Tim out. He wouldn't like this to happen again.
- Helen Childs, a journalist who lived near the Oppenheimers when she was a child, tells the longest story. On her way to interview Oppie at Princeton in 1966 - when the physicist is dying of cancer - Helen is reminded of her former husband. She relates the entire history of their courtship and marriage, and talks about her husband's infidelity during her pregnancy. Hubby's betrayal almost destroys Helen, and she in turn badgers him mercilessly - like Oppie was badgered before and during his hearings.
Helen also recalls Kitty Oppenheimer, who drank too much - perhaps because her husband attracted women like a magnet attracts iron nails.
Preparing to question Oppie, Helen determines to be relentless and aggressive, to squeeze 'the truth' out of him. Perhaps Helen's unfortunate experience with her spouse makes her angry at all men, but that's not clear. For me this last section was overwritten, boring, and hard to get through.
Oppenheimer became ill and died of cancer
Oppenheimer was an enigmatic figure, and patching together these characters' sketches of the scientist still doesn't give us a clear picture of the man or his beliefs or his behavior.
Oppie came to deplore nuclear weapons and to feel guilty about his role in their creation. Realistically, though, if Oppie hadn't made the first A-bomb someone else would have. And it's just as well it wasn't someone in Germany (IMO).
I found the book interesting and imaginative, but it's not very enlightening about Robert Oppenheimer.
You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....
May 7, 2018
When you start thinking about Oppenheimer, there is one big place your mind tends to go: how do you live the rest of your life after creating what may be the end of humanity? How do you live knowing all the people who have died because of your discovery? How do you separate the scientific search of knowledge from the human exploitation of that knowledge? In Louisa Hall's novel those questions are definitely there, but they're also secondary to smaller, more personal questions about causing harm to those you love most. In these interconnected stories, Oppenheimer is the central figure but the central thread is how we love, how we hurt those we love, and how we stop loving.
If you're wondering what Oppenheimer has to do with that kind of question, it's answered for us quite early in the book. Oppenheimer cheated on his wife Kitty, and then years later had to answer questions about the affair in front of a congressional hearing while his wife sat in the crowd listening. The characters around Oppenheimer have their own romantic betrayals, both given and received. They consider their lovers and spouses and wonder if they can ever truly know them or if they themselves are really known.
It took me a little while to get into this book. The first of the chapters had me a bit off kilter and I am not always patient enough to take the time to orient myself. But I read Hall's previous novel, SPEAK, which also used interconnected stories to explore big questions (in that book, questions of thought and consciousness and technology) so I kept coming back to it until it stuck and it was worth the effort. It didn't quite hit me in the gut the way SPEAK did, though the reasons are more structural than anything else, but as someone who has always approached Oppenheimer's work and the work of other scientists as a science person, I enjoyed changing my point of view.
There's also a lot here on McCarthyism and suspicion, the limitations put on women in mid-century America, jealousy, and more. I appreciated how many of these stories were narrated by women, definitely not what you'd get from a male writer taking on a similar project, and was especially pleased that one section was focused on a queer couple.
This is a thoughtful book that is not going to give you easy answers. It's going to make you work a bit, it's going to make you look for the connections and work to see the questions it's asking. But if you're willing to make the effort, it's worth it.
If you're wondering what Oppenheimer has to do with that kind of question, it's answered for us quite early in the book. Oppenheimer cheated on his wife Kitty, and then years later had to answer questions about the affair in front of a congressional hearing while his wife sat in the crowd listening. The characters around Oppenheimer have their own romantic betrayals, both given and received. They consider their lovers and spouses and wonder if they can ever truly know them or if they themselves are really known.
It took me a little while to get into this book. The first of the chapters had me a bit off kilter and I am not always patient enough to take the time to orient myself. But I read Hall's previous novel, SPEAK, which also used interconnected stories to explore big questions (in that book, questions of thought and consciousness and technology) so I kept coming back to it until it stuck and it was worth the effort. It didn't quite hit me in the gut the way SPEAK did, though the reasons are more structural than anything else, but as someone who has always approached Oppenheimer's work and the work of other scientists as a science person, I enjoyed changing my point of view.
There's also a lot here on McCarthyism and suspicion, the limitations put on women in mid-century America, jealousy, and more. I appreciated how many of these stories were narrated by women, definitely not what you'd get from a male writer taking on a similar project, and was especially pleased that one section was focused on a queer couple.
This is a thoughtful book that is not going to give you easy answers. It's going to make you work a bit, it's going to make you look for the connections and work to see the questions it's asking. But if you're willing to make the effort, it's worth it.
December 17, 2018
I was a big fan of Speak, Hall’s second novel, a story of artificial intelligence and communication that is composed of six narratives ranging from a seventeenth-century diary to the lament of a robot discarded in the desert in the near future. Trinity again fractures the message through a lot of different voices: seven “testimonials” from fictional narrators whose lives overlapped with Robert Oppenheimer’s between 1943 and 1966. They include Los Alamos and Princeton colleagues, acquaintances from later in life, and a journalist who comes to interview him as he’s dying of inoperable cancer. The idea is to give glimpses into the life of a troubled and difficult figure, and I did value the comments on secrecy and guilt.
My favorite section was by Sally Connelly, an overweight would-be writer who stops eating when she becomes the secretary to Oppenheimer, then the director of the Institute for Advanced Study, a year and a half before his security hearing. But in the end none of these characters seem to matter. You question their presentation of Oppenheimer, and Oppenheimer’s presentation of himself, but most of the testimonials add very little to the whole picture. I especially wearied of the final chapter. If you’re at all interested in Oppenheimer’s life story, you’d be better served reading American Prometheus.
Favorite lines:
“Robert told me his whole story, though of course sometimes there were holes. If a man told his life’s story and didn’t leave any holes, it would take him more than a lifetime to tell it.” (Sally Connelly)
“how, I thought, could I try to know a man like Oppenheimer—who created the weapons he did, who, though he probably didn’t intend to, ushered us into an era of anxiety unlike any era before ours—in any state other than fear and uncertainty?” (Helen Childs, the journalist)
My favorite section was by Sally Connelly, an overweight would-be writer who stops eating when she becomes the secretary to Oppenheimer, then the director of the Institute for Advanced Study, a year and a half before his security hearing. But in the end none of these characters seem to matter. You question their presentation of Oppenheimer, and Oppenheimer’s presentation of himself, but most of the testimonials add very little to the whole picture. I especially wearied of the final chapter. If you’re at all interested in Oppenheimer’s life story, you’d be better served reading American Prometheus.
Favorite lines:
“Robert told me his whole story, though of course sometimes there were holes. If a man told his life’s story and didn’t leave any holes, it would take him more than a lifetime to tell it.” (Sally Connelly)
“how, I thought, could I try to know a man like Oppenheimer—who created the weapons he did, who, though he probably didn’t intend to, ushered us into an era of anxiety unlike any era before ours—in any state other than fear and uncertainty?” (Helen Childs, the journalist)
October 29, 2022
An interesting way to learn about the midwife of the atom bomb, through what the author calls 7 testimonials, people whose lives intersected in some minor ways with Oppenheimer’s but collectively illustrate the man, his dedication to science, and his flaws. Her choice of witnesses is provocative, making you wonder as they tell you their story what it has to do with Opje, but by the end of each, completely appropriate and nailed.
Only three stars because many times I had to wonder far too long what “this” witness had to tell or why the telling was so roundabout. But by the end I got it, just a little overlong.
Only three stars because many times I had to wonder far too long what “this” witness had to tell or why the telling was so roundabout. But by the end I got it, just a little overlong.
January 3, 2019
How should we think about Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb? Was he a thirsty seeker of knowledge, a scientist who believed it was one’s ultimate duty to discover what is unknown? Was he a betrayer of friends, his wife, his country, the man who unleashed the mighty power of the ultimate weapon of destruction?
Louisa Hall suggests this: that “only in those moments between the slides of the kaleidoscope, those moments of a life that never crystallize into practiced anecdote or reliable knowledge” do we begin to feel “people pass through or, or over us and around us.” She invents seven characters who give testimonials about their own fledgling acquaintances with Oppenheimer – from an Army intelligence officer who tails Oppenheimer during his tryst with his lover Jean to a married Princeton secretary in the throes of an eating disorder to a betrayed journalist who is assigned to interview the scientist in his last dying days.
But in circuitously talking about Oppenheimer, they inevitably end up telling their own tale, and the tale is a universal one: it is a tale of insecurity, secrets, the seeking of meaning. Each – including Oppenheimer – is pursued like Henry James’ mythical beast in the jungle, the as-yet-unknowable hunter.
Robert Oppenheimer, Louisa Hall suggests, is part of us. We are all inadvertent liars and poor witnesses to history; for example, within the book, there are several versions of Oppenheimer’s affair with Jean Tatlock and similarly, many versions of what Oppenheimer’s inner life must have been like. But more dauntingly, we are all complicit with a program that killed 129,000 people when, according to most historians, the war had already been won – choosing later to accuse him of betrayal instead of a more horrific crime.
The novel almost begs you, the reader, to examine your own beliefs about this flawed genius: did he create a weapon that ended World War II early or did he unleash Pandora’s box onto a once-innocent world? I have come to believe the latter, but each of us must decide on our own. This multi-layered and creatively-rendered novel provides fleeting glimpses – not deep dives – into Oppenheimer but its main goal is to use Oppenheimer as a mirror who reflects back to all of us.
Louisa Hall suggests this: that “only in those moments between the slides of the kaleidoscope, those moments of a life that never crystallize into practiced anecdote or reliable knowledge” do we begin to feel “people pass through or, or over us and around us.” She invents seven characters who give testimonials about their own fledgling acquaintances with Oppenheimer – from an Army intelligence officer who tails Oppenheimer during his tryst with his lover Jean to a married Princeton secretary in the throes of an eating disorder to a betrayed journalist who is assigned to interview the scientist in his last dying days.
But in circuitously talking about Oppenheimer, they inevitably end up telling their own tale, and the tale is a universal one: it is a tale of insecurity, secrets, the seeking of meaning. Each – including Oppenheimer – is pursued like Henry James’ mythical beast in the jungle, the as-yet-unknowable hunter.
Robert Oppenheimer, Louisa Hall suggests, is part of us. We are all inadvertent liars and poor witnesses to history; for example, within the book, there are several versions of Oppenheimer’s affair with Jean Tatlock and similarly, many versions of what Oppenheimer’s inner life must have been like. But more dauntingly, we are all complicit with a program that killed 129,000 people when, according to most historians, the war had already been won – choosing later to accuse him of betrayal instead of a more horrific crime.
The novel almost begs you, the reader, to examine your own beliefs about this flawed genius: did he create a weapon that ended World War II early or did he unleash Pandora’s box onto a once-innocent world? I have come to believe the latter, but each of us must decide on our own. This multi-layered and creatively-rendered novel provides fleeting glimpses – not deep dives – into Oppenheimer but its main goal is to use Oppenheimer as a mirror who reflects back to all of us.
January 3, 2019
How should we think about Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb? Was he a thirsty seeker of knowledge, a scientist who believed it was one’s ultimate duty to discover what is unknown? Was he a betrayer of friends, his wife, his country, the man who unleashed the mighty power of the ultimate weapon of destruction?
Louisa Hall suggests this: that “only in those moments between the slides of the kaleidoscope, those moments of a life that never crystallize into practiced anecdote or reliable knowledge” do we begin to feel “people pass through or, or over us and around us.” She invents seven characters who give testimonials about their own fledgling acquaintances with Oppenheimer – from an Army intelligence officer who tails Oppenheimer during his tryst with his lover Jean to a married Princeton secretary in the throes of an eating disorder to a betrayed journalist who is assigned to interview the scientist in his last dying days.
But in circuitously talking about Oppenheimer, they inevitably end up telling their own tale, and the tale is a universal one: it is a tale of insecurity, secrets, the seeking of meaning. Each – including Oppenheimer – is pursued like Henry James’ mythical beast in the jungle, the as-yet-unknowable hunter.
Robert Oppenheimer, Louisa Hall suggests, is part of us. We are all inadvertent liars and poor witnesses to history; for example, within the book, there are several versions of Oppenheimer’s affair with Jean Tatlock and similarly, many versions of what Oppenheimer’s inner life must have been like. But more dauntingly, we are all complicit with a program that killed 129,000 people when, according to most historians, the war had already been won – choosing later to accuse him of betrayal instead of a more horrific crime.
The novel almost begs you, the reader, to examine your own beliefs about this flawed genius: did he create a weapon that ended World War II early or did he unleash Pandora’s box onto a once-innocent world? I have come to believe the latter, but each of us must decide on our own. This multi-layered and creatively-rendered novel provides fleeting glimpses – not deep dives – into Oppenheimer but its main goal is to use Oppenheimer as a mirror who reflects back to all of us. 4.5 stars.
Louisa Hall suggests this: that “only in those moments between the slides of the kaleidoscope, those moments of a life that never crystallize into practiced anecdote or reliable knowledge” do we begin to feel “people pass through or, or over us and around us.” She invents seven characters who give testimonials about their own fledgling acquaintances with Oppenheimer – from an Army intelligence officer who tails Oppenheimer during his tryst with his lover Jean to a married Princeton secretary in the throes of an eating disorder to a betrayed journalist who is assigned to interview the scientist in his last dying days.
But in circuitously talking about Oppenheimer, they inevitably end up telling their own tale, and the tale is a universal one: it is a tale of insecurity, secrets, the seeking of meaning. Each – including Oppenheimer – is pursued like Henry James’ mythical beast in the jungle, the as-yet-unknowable hunter.
Robert Oppenheimer, Louisa Hall suggests, is part of us. We are all inadvertent liars and poor witnesses to history; for example, within the book, there are several versions of Oppenheimer’s affair with Jean Tatlock and similarly, many versions of what Oppenheimer’s inner life must have been like. But more dauntingly, we are all complicit with a program that killed 129,000 people when, according to most historians, the war had already been won – choosing later to accuse him of betrayal instead of a more horrific crime.
The novel almost begs you, the reader, to examine your own beliefs about this flawed genius: did he create a weapon that ended World War II early or did he unleash Pandora’s box onto a once-innocent world? I have come to believe the latter, but each of us must decide on our own. This multi-layered and creatively-rendered novel provides fleeting glimpses – not deep dives – into Oppenheimer but its main goal is to use Oppenheimer as a mirror who reflects back to all of us. 4.5 stars.
April 11, 2019
Well, well, well, this was a treat.
"Trinity" follows the personal life and later career of J. Robert Oppenheimer, so-called father of the atomic bomb and quoter of the Bhagavad Gita ("Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"). It sketches a picture of him through the reactions of ten or so people, some of whom knew him well, others barely at all. Maybe it's because it takes place in the same heady time period as most of his oeuvre, but this book felt very influenced by Don DeLillo--the characters are all introspective, detached yet observant, somewhat unable to cope with the modern world they inhabit, unreconciled to the post-World Wars America, denuded of its galvanizing myths and thereby exposed as uglier than it thought itself.
And, as with DeLillo, the good writing was beautiful, and the best narratives (I'm thinking the reporter and the anorexic, in this book)--gripping and unforgettable.
"Trinity" follows the personal life and later career of J. Robert Oppenheimer, so-called father of the atomic bomb and quoter of the Bhagavad Gita ("Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds"). It sketches a picture of him through the reactions of ten or so people, some of whom knew him well, others barely at all. Maybe it's because it takes place in the same heady time period as most of his oeuvre, but this book felt very influenced by Don DeLillo--the characters are all introspective, detached yet observant, somewhat unable to cope with the modern world they inhabit, unreconciled to the post-World Wars America, denuded of its galvanizing myths and thereby exposed as uglier than it thought itself.
And, as with DeLillo, the good writing was beautiful, and the best narratives (I'm thinking the reporter and the anorexic, in this book)--gripping and unforgettable.
December 31, 2018
After an intriguing start, this book dropped off a cliff for me. The first few chapters were clever, fun to read and kept me interested. As the book continued however, I found the chapters less and less interesting. The last chapter made me cringe. Page after page of similar thoughts and feelings having to do with an infidelity. In fact, I skipped paragraphs (which I almost never do) in frustration. It could be my fault -- that I don't quite understand what the infidelity chapter added to Oppenheimer's story -- but even so, the rambling and repetitive nature of the book's final chapter left me shaking my head and disappointed. I would not recommend this one.
June 8, 2023
This is an interesting way to tell the story of Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. Instead of getting a straight narrative, we get testimonials of people surrounding Oppenheimer at different stages of his life.
To be clear, this is a work of fiction that draws on history. Initially, I wasn’t convinced this style of storytelling would work for me. But I grew fascinated by how the people on the periphery often had more insight to the world surrounding Oppenheimer. We understand the impact of his choices on the larger community.
If you want to read this book to learn about Oppenheimer, you won’t get that. Instead, you get a look at different people’s lives and how they exist in the world Oppenheimer created.
To be clear, this is a work of fiction that draws on history. Initially, I wasn’t convinced this style of storytelling would work for me. But I grew fascinated by how the people on the periphery often had more insight to the world surrounding Oppenheimer. We understand the impact of his choices on the larger community.
If you want to read this book to learn about Oppenheimer, you won’t get that. Instead, you get a look at different people’s lives and how they exist in the world Oppenheimer created.
August 18, 2018
Through various narrative, colleagues, friends, and acquaintances reveal through interconnected accounts the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant scientist and man behind the atomic bomb. Over multiple years, lives are compromised and destroyed in more ways than one, leaving us to ponder the phrases "a weapon to end the use of all weapons" and "a violence to end all other forms of violence". This work of historic fiction will leave readers with a great deal to contemplate.
June 4, 2019
Of all the uncertainties in this world, the most surprising is our account of our own motives. “At the time, I thought...”, “I've evolved...”, “I regret....” These seem like excuses invented in hindsight to obscure layers of self-deception. What combination of primal desire and shrewd calculation led to that particular past choice? Concede this uncertainty about what is knowable and what becomes of trust? These are questions author Louisa Hall wrestles with in Trinity.
Her seven fictional characters glimpse J. Robert Oppenheimer between 1943 and 1966. Each narrative is in first person past tense voice. Framed as “testimonies” they are meant to echo the confused stories witnesses told during House Unamerican Activities Committee hearings that ended in Oppenheimer's security clearance being revoked.
The book opens on a noirish note. FBI agent Sam Casal reports his surveillance the night Oppenheimer secretly meets with his former lover Jean Tatlock. That tryst will later be weaponized by Oppenheimer's security overseers to insure their control over him. They will leverage that report to persuade him to lie to and betray his colleagues. Casals will contemplate the import of his report when he chooses later to suppress a private secret. His estranged brother questions the veracity of things his wife May has told him during a brief visit before joining his unit. He dies in combat so there is no opportunity to confront his insinuations. Casals reflects: “These little lies she'd told at first: they'd come to stay with us like pets who require little in the way of attention.” (p.45) It's a perfect expression of the way we deal with the contradictions in our own private lives, and one version of the complacency Oppenheimer might have felt about his own private deceptions.
The voices of women permeate the book. Grace Goodman, part of the military support staff at Los Alamos, has a clandestine affair with a senior scientist. After an abortion, desire and guilt fester in a penumbra of military secrecy and alcoholic haze. This sense of incapacitation is reflected as she admits: “Lying there in the darkness, I felt like an abandoned house, wandered into by a man.” (p.77)
By 1949 Oppenheimer is a renowned celebrity. In his testimony, Andries van den Berg eagerly recounts a visit by Oppenheimer and his wife Kitty. Van den Berg was part of the Berkely millieu that worked and partied with Oppenheimer before the war. However, his communist affiliations have relegated him to academic obscurity in Paris where he lives with a young woman named Jacqueline. His memories are distorted by time and by Oppenheimer's still incandescent charm. Replying to his letter which reminisces about the “good old days,” his ex-wife Barb replies with chilly lucidity. Jean and not Kitty was at the riotous party he “recalls.” Oppenheimer has betrayed many of the students and colleagues at those parties by naming them as communists. How can Oppenheimer not feel responsible for the horrific deaths caused by two atomic bomb blasts? With icy anger she concludes: “I can't force you to remember what you don't want to. Regardless, I wish you well and hope life with the most recent graduate student is everything impossible you've always allowed yourself to believe in.” (p.126) Barb gets the last word in, a punch to the gut.
By 1963 Oppenheimer's reputation had been resurrected. His publicly assigned role is the victim of a vicious paranoid McCarthyism. A ghostly Oppenheimer occupies Tom Schmidt's testimony of Oppenheimer's appearance at his preparatory school during his senior year. That ghostly impression is supported by the memory of long-decimated elm trees and a cryptic statement Oppenheimer made: “He said — and I remember this well — that responsibility comes only with power.” (p.229) Did he mean only the powerful are responsible? Did he mean great responsibility bestows power? Or was he confused and meant the conventional phrase 'with power comes responsibility'?
My favorite chapter was “Sally Connelly, Princeton, 1954.” Again, there is the theme of impotence. She describes her mother as part of that “long line of women whose bodies were fed to their children.” (p.131) She joins that line, abandoning her ambitions of a career as a novelist to the conventionality of marriage. Her contact with Oppenheimer is complicated. As his secretary she chronicles his meltdown under the pressure of the hearings which will end in cancellation of his security clearance. The effects of the bomb are clearly imprinted in her mind. Her twin sister obsessively collected photographs of the bomb's effects and starved herself to death while Sally became obese from insatiable hunger. She imagines a turgid interpretation of their lives as re-enactments of Greek myth. Her description of her eating disorder, on the other hand, is self-deprecatingly hilarious as well as horrific.
Trinity contemplates behavior as the result of systemic forces; the random consequence of a single sequence of molecular chaos. The narrative, however, pits the intense introspection of the narrators against the unanswerable mysteries of Robert Oppenheimer. The two strands compete for attention and Oppenheimer's story is far more riveting. Hall has approached biography from an unconventional direction in order to sustain a theme of moral ambiguity. However, the approach felt lugubrious and singularly uncompelling despite some brilliant bits of prose. My reaction to this book was also influenced by Kai Bird's exhaustive biography of Oppenheimer, American Prometheus. I loved Bird's book. I loved Hall's earlier book, Speak. I simply didn't love Trinity
Her seven fictional characters glimpse J. Robert Oppenheimer between 1943 and 1966. Each narrative is in first person past tense voice. Framed as “testimonies” they are meant to echo the confused stories witnesses told during House Unamerican Activities Committee hearings that ended in Oppenheimer's security clearance being revoked.
The book opens on a noirish note. FBI agent Sam Casal reports his surveillance the night Oppenheimer secretly meets with his former lover Jean Tatlock. That tryst will later be weaponized by Oppenheimer's security overseers to insure their control over him. They will leverage that report to persuade him to lie to and betray his colleagues. Casals will contemplate the import of his report when he chooses later to suppress a private secret. His estranged brother questions the veracity of things his wife May has told him during a brief visit before joining his unit. He dies in combat so there is no opportunity to confront his insinuations. Casals reflects: “These little lies she'd told at first: they'd come to stay with us like pets who require little in the way of attention.” (p.45) It's a perfect expression of the way we deal with the contradictions in our own private lives, and one version of the complacency Oppenheimer might have felt about his own private deceptions.
The voices of women permeate the book. Grace Goodman, part of the military support staff at Los Alamos, has a clandestine affair with a senior scientist. After an abortion, desire and guilt fester in a penumbra of military secrecy and alcoholic haze. This sense of incapacitation is reflected as she admits: “Lying there in the darkness, I felt like an abandoned house, wandered into by a man.” (p.77)
By 1949 Oppenheimer is a renowned celebrity. In his testimony, Andries van den Berg eagerly recounts a visit by Oppenheimer and his wife Kitty. Van den Berg was part of the Berkely millieu that worked and partied with Oppenheimer before the war. However, his communist affiliations have relegated him to academic obscurity in Paris where he lives with a young woman named Jacqueline. His memories are distorted by time and by Oppenheimer's still incandescent charm. Replying to his letter which reminisces about the “good old days,” his ex-wife Barb replies with chilly lucidity. Jean and not Kitty was at the riotous party he “recalls.” Oppenheimer has betrayed many of the students and colleagues at those parties by naming them as communists. How can Oppenheimer not feel responsible for the horrific deaths caused by two atomic bomb blasts? With icy anger she concludes: “I can't force you to remember what you don't want to. Regardless, I wish you well and hope life with the most recent graduate student is everything impossible you've always allowed yourself to believe in.” (p.126) Barb gets the last word in, a punch to the gut.
By 1963 Oppenheimer's reputation had been resurrected. His publicly assigned role is the victim of a vicious paranoid McCarthyism. A ghostly Oppenheimer occupies Tom Schmidt's testimony of Oppenheimer's appearance at his preparatory school during his senior year. That ghostly impression is supported by the memory of long-decimated elm trees and a cryptic statement Oppenheimer made: “He said — and I remember this well — that responsibility comes only with power.” (p.229) Did he mean only the powerful are responsible? Did he mean great responsibility bestows power? Or was he confused and meant the conventional phrase 'with power comes responsibility'?
My favorite chapter was “Sally Connelly, Princeton, 1954.” Again, there is the theme of impotence. She describes her mother as part of that “long line of women whose bodies were fed to their children.” (p.131) She joins that line, abandoning her ambitions of a career as a novelist to the conventionality of marriage. Her contact with Oppenheimer is complicated. As his secretary she chronicles his meltdown under the pressure of the hearings which will end in cancellation of his security clearance. The effects of the bomb are clearly imprinted in her mind. Her twin sister obsessively collected photographs of the bomb's effects and starved herself to death while Sally became obese from insatiable hunger. She imagines a turgid interpretation of their lives as re-enactments of Greek myth. Her description of her eating disorder, on the other hand, is self-deprecatingly hilarious as well as horrific.
Trinity contemplates behavior as the result of systemic forces; the random consequence of a single sequence of molecular chaos. The narrative, however, pits the intense introspection of the narrators against the unanswerable mysteries of Robert Oppenheimer. The two strands compete for attention and Oppenheimer's story is far more riveting. Hall has approached biography from an unconventional direction in order to sustain a theme of moral ambiguity. However, the approach felt lugubrious and singularly uncompelling despite some brilliant bits of prose. My reaction to this book was also influenced by Kai Bird's exhaustive biography of Oppenheimer, American Prometheus. I loved Bird's book. I loved Hall's earlier book, Speak. I simply didn't love Trinity
January 16, 2025
I preserved with this books but I wish I hadn’t bothered
I was hoping that the testimonies would become linked in some way but it all just ended up feeling a bit disconnected.
An ok read but it didn’t enthral me.
I was hoping that the testimonies would become linked in some way but it all just ended up feeling a bit disconnected.
An ok read but it didn’t enthral me.
December 3, 2018
I had never of novelist Louisa Hall before I read her new book, "Trinity". Set in a range of places from Los Alamos to Princeton to San Francisco, the book tells the story - a story - about J Robert Oppenheim, developer of the atomic bomb. Hall does this by writing "short stories" as chapters, using narrators who often have a sketchy connection with Oppenheimer and his life. The reader soon realises that some of these narrators are less than reliable in the stories and interpretations they're giving.
Who was J Robert Oppenheimer? I'd advise reading a Wiki entry on him to get the broad outlines of his life and accomplishments. Two years ago, I read a biography of Oppenheimer, "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer", by Kai Bird. Bird's book is over 700 pages; Hall's book is about half the size. But Bird has written a straight biography, whereas Louisa Hall has written a novel - with fictional characters providing a lot of information. Is it truth or is it fantasy? Part and part? I read and enjoyed the book but still don't know how to describe it. Perhaps the best way to describe this book is to say it as much about the supplementary characters as it is about Oppenheimer.
The other question is: does Louisa Hall have an agenda in writing her book? It's very clear that she is bitterly against the development and then dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan to end WW2. She - or her characters - blame Oppenheimer for the dropping of the bombs, yet those decisions were made by President Truman, his cabinet, and the US Army. If you want to blame Robert Oppenheimer for something, blame him for taking the job offered by the government to develop the bombs. Everything Hall writes about the damages done by the bombs concern the Japanese victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who were continually affected by the radiation after the dropping of the two bombs. No where in her book, that I could find, did she write about the pluses of using the bombs - shortening the war and saving possibly millions of lives of Japanese who would have died defending the invasion of the home islands, as well as the hundreds of thousands of prisoners in China, Indo-China, and other Japanese war holdings who were treated miserably by their captors.
(I do want to say that I lived in Santa Fe for eight years and traveled often "up the mountain" to see Los Alamos, as well as taken classes and heard speeches by scientists and historians who say we needed to drop the bombs. I am a life-long liberal who hates the ideas of the bombs, but have come to the conclusion they were needed. A short but superb work of non-fiction I can recommend is "Five Days in August" by Princeton professor of history, Michael Gordin" on the subject.)
Okay, to return to Louisa Hall's novel, I can honestly say that I enjoyed it. She's an excellent writer and as long as you're not taking what she writes as gospel, "Trinity" is good reading.
Who was J Robert Oppenheimer? I'd advise reading a Wiki entry on him to get the broad outlines of his life and accomplishments. Two years ago, I read a biography of Oppenheimer, "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer", by Kai Bird. Bird's book is over 700 pages; Hall's book is about half the size. But Bird has written a straight biography, whereas Louisa Hall has written a novel - with fictional characters providing a lot of information. Is it truth or is it fantasy? Part and part? I read and enjoyed the book but still don't know how to describe it. Perhaps the best way to describe this book is to say it as much about the supplementary characters as it is about Oppenheimer.
The other question is: does Louisa Hall have an agenda in writing her book? It's very clear that she is bitterly against the development and then dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan to end WW2. She - or her characters - blame Oppenheimer for the dropping of the bombs, yet those decisions were made by President Truman, his cabinet, and the US Army. If you want to blame Robert Oppenheimer for something, blame him for taking the job offered by the government to develop the bombs. Everything Hall writes about the damages done by the bombs concern the Japanese victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who were continually affected by the radiation after the dropping of the two bombs. No where in her book, that I could find, did she write about the pluses of using the bombs - shortening the war and saving possibly millions of lives of Japanese who would have died defending the invasion of the home islands, as well as the hundreds of thousands of prisoners in China, Indo-China, and other Japanese war holdings who were treated miserably by their captors.
(I do want to say that I lived in Santa Fe for eight years and traveled often "up the mountain" to see Los Alamos, as well as taken classes and heard speeches by scientists and historians who say we needed to drop the bombs. I am a life-long liberal who hates the ideas of the bombs, but have come to the conclusion they were needed. A short but superb work of non-fiction I can recommend is "Five Days in August" by Princeton professor of history, Michael Gordin" on the subject.)
Okay, to return to Louisa Hall's novel, I can honestly say that I enjoyed it. She's an excellent writer and as long as you're not taking what she writes as gospel, "Trinity" is good reading.
February 20, 2024
this story is an absolutely brilliant telling of Oppenheimer, woven in with tales through the eyes of many others. beautiful storytelling, interesting ways of moving through time, and character building in fast-paced sectioning!
August 12, 2023
“And he told me that even despite everything he’d learned about the dreadful politics of the thing, the fact that it might have done nothing to speed up the end of the war, and the new facts revealed every day about the extent of the suffering they caused in Japan, he didn’t regret building the bomb, because he felt it was a scientist’s duty to know, and he’d acted as a scientist.”
Not the Trinity book I expected to be reading, not sure if it was me or the library that messed up the author but I read this anyway. Fitting time to read about Oppenheimer when a movie about him was just released. It’s hard to know how he felt after the wreckage that his quest for knowledge caused, but this quote I believe sums it up because in the end he was a scientist.
Not the Trinity book I expected to be reading, not sure if it was me or the library that messed up the author but I read this anyway. Fitting time to read about Oppenheimer when a movie about him was just released. It’s hard to know how he felt after the wreckage that his quest for knowledge caused, but this quote I believe sums it up because in the end he was a scientist.
December 3, 2023
I really like Louisa Hall’s writing and the perspective she takes in approaching science and scientists. She comes at them from the side through unexpected and deeply human and relatable characters.
May 29, 2025
Imagine writing this masterpiece, only to see Nolan release Oppenheimer a few years later to great critical and commercial fanfare, condemning your equally compelling, albeit, disticntly different depiction of this enigmatic man to bottom of the proverbial pile. I'd be pissed.
April 9, 2020
Finally got focused to finish this one and I found the final chapter spectacular--an elegant way of tying up what Hall's trying to do here. TBH I didn't love this the way I loved Speak, but I'll still read anything I can by her. This is a series of interviews about people's encounters with Oppenheimer, and you'll see many common themes running through them. She's such an underrated author.
June 14, 2019
Why aren't more people raving about Louisa Hall?!?!? She is such a smart and beautiful storyteller. Read this one.
August 26, 2020
Louisa Hall retrace dans ce roman entre fiction et réalité une partie de la vie d’Oppenheimer depuis 1943 jusqu’à 1966.
Au fil de 7 témoignages de personnes l’ayant côtoyé de près ou de loin, on découvre peu à peu la personnalité de ce scientifique qui a dirigé le projet Manhattan pour la conception de la bombe atomique qui sera larguée sur Hiroshima et Nagasaki.
Une personnalité complexe, un homme à la fois solaire, mystérieux, nostalgique et dépressif.
Tout au long des témoignages, entrecoupés de quelques pages sur l’essai en juillet 45 de la bombe dans le désert californien, on ne peut s’empêcher de se poser la question de la culpabilité. N’a t il fait que son travail de scientifique ou aurait-il dû prévoir les conséquences humaines de ses travaux ?
Au détour des témoignages on suit également l’évolution de la société américaine qui va passer du McCarthysme à la repentance de ces années de chasse au sorcière et une société de plus en plus violente.
Une construction intéressante même si certains témoignages se perdent un peu trop sur la vie personnelle des personnages et perdent de vue Oppenheimer.
Au fil de 7 témoignages de personnes l’ayant côtoyé de près ou de loin, on découvre peu à peu la personnalité de ce scientifique qui a dirigé le projet Manhattan pour la conception de la bombe atomique qui sera larguée sur Hiroshima et Nagasaki.
Une personnalité complexe, un homme à la fois solaire, mystérieux, nostalgique et dépressif.
Tout au long des témoignages, entrecoupés de quelques pages sur l’essai en juillet 45 de la bombe dans le désert californien, on ne peut s’empêcher de se poser la question de la culpabilité. N’a t il fait que son travail de scientifique ou aurait-il dû prévoir les conséquences humaines de ses travaux ?
Au détour des témoignages on suit également l’évolution de la société américaine qui va passer du McCarthysme à la repentance de ces années de chasse au sorcière et une société de plus en plus violente.
Une construction intéressante même si certains témoignages se perdent un peu trop sur la vie personnelle des personnages et perdent de vue Oppenheimer.
October 30, 2025
This novel, told from the point of view of seven characters who met/knew J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atomic bomb), was an interesting one. I didn't know a lot about the man behind the Manhattan Project, and this (albeit fiction tinted) portrait was an intriguing one. Through choices of viewpoints the author took in thought-provoking subjects such as the morality of the attacks on Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Cold War politics and McCarthyism.
For all this, however, the format meant that at times I felt the novel crossed over into just a series of writing exercises - for much of the first hundred pages there was a lack of something to anchor the opening two chapters to, which I found slightly frustrating. In addition, on reflection the author writes her female POVs at greater length and depth than those from a male viewpoint and due to the nature of women's roles in the mid-twentieth century there was a certain similarity about some of the chapters (and a tendency to drift away from the central themes when doing so).
For all this, however, the format meant that at times I felt the novel crossed over into just a series of writing exercises - for much of the first hundred pages there was a lack of something to anchor the opening two chapters to, which I found slightly frustrating. In addition, on reflection the author writes her female POVs at greater length and depth than those from a male viewpoint and due to the nature of women's roles in the mid-twentieth century there was a certain similarity about some of the chapters (and a tendency to drift away from the central themes when doing so).
April 18, 2019
This novel opaquely recounts the life and career of J. Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atomic bomb, through a series of first person vignettes involving people who knew him at different stages in his life. It’s an interesting approach, if not a wholly original one: Rashomon is the obvious comparison, though I’m more reminded of Howard Fast’s work, particularly Spartacus, where the protagonist is discussed, analyzed, idolized or demonized from the perspective of others without ever appearing directly. As a portrait of Oppenheimer I’m not sure that it works, as many of the chapters barely connect their protagonists to the man; the individual chapters, though, are often quite interesting: from a Secret Service agent stalking Oppenheimer around New Mexico looking for connections to Communists, to an assistant struggling with an eating disorder, a failed marriage and an unsuccessful writing career, a lesbian couple fleeing the Lavender/Red Scare to Europe, a progressive journalist eager to damn Oppenheimer for his role in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Cold War, the stories provide an interesting cross section of the postwar world: increasingly paranoid, distrusting and neurotic, patriotic heroes becoming gray-shaded villains, benign bureaucrats becoming enemies, science becoming destructive, women forced from wartime work into peacetime domesticity. On those levels, I enjoyed it; I’m just not sure why Hall chose Oppenheimer as a story hook.
Read
February 12, 2020These seven testimonials of Robert Oppenheimer are more about the people telling the stories than they are about Oppenheimer. We come to understand that the lives we lead are governed by the laws of quantum physics: that any given entity can only be defined as a function of its observer.
Oppenheimer is known only as the observations of the people he served. The questions remains: who are we beyond the observations of others? how much do those observations change who we are? depending on our power of self reflection, how free are we beyond the flow of events that surrounds us?
Each testimonial challenges us to ponder our place in this world and to evaluate our responsibilities as we move forward, blindly reacting to situations thrown before us.
Oppenheimer is known only as the observations of the people he served. The questions remains: who are we beyond the observations of others? how much do those observations change who we are? depending on our power of self reflection, how free are we beyond the flow of events that surrounds us?
Each testimonial challenges us to ponder our place in this world and to evaluate our responsibilities as we move forward, blindly reacting to situations thrown before us.
February 22, 2021
Louisa Hall’s Speak is one of my favorite books of the last ten years. This one, while an interesting look at Oppenheimer from multiple perspectives, didn’t grab me quite the same way. Had I read a biography of him beforehand, I might have taken more to the details, but quite a bit of this, atom bomb and McCarthy era aside, is too bogged down in his affairs. I wound up feeling trapped with some of the voices here without purchase on much more than the main signposts in his life.
November 10, 2018
A fictional narrative about James Oppenheimer, father of the atom bomb and how he lived his life after his role in causing so much death and destruction. But the book also hits on the McCarthyism of the time and Oppenheimer’s cheating on his wife, Kitty, which he ends up testifying to in court. Seven fictional narrators tell the story from seven different perspectives and it becomes clear that we never really know what is going on in another’s mind or what their true motives or feelings may be.
March 21, 2025
J'ai adoré ! C'est fascinant d'avoir des points de vue aussi extérieurs sur Oppenheimer ; rares sont les livres qui abordent le sujet de cette manière. L'écriture était vraiment captivante !
February 24, 2019
So as not to spoil the delight of discovering the main theme of Trinity for yourself (it’s expressly stated some two thirds into the book, by Robert Oppenheimer himself), I’d suggest not reading the reviews too closely.
It’d also be hard to explain how the character of Oppenheimer relates to the stories told in this book without leading anyone into conclusions that are best arrived at on your own.
(I realise that this is a non-review but just trust me on this.)
It’d also be hard to explain how the character of Oppenheimer relates to the stories told in this book without leading anyone into conclusions that are best arrived at on your own.
(I realise that this is a non-review but just trust me on this.)
April 12, 2019
I was drawn to this book for several reasons: a personal fascination with Oppenheimer, a lack of knowledge of his career post-1945, but even more so the approach the author took, looking at him thru the eyes of 7 people who crossed paths with him over the years.
December 4, 2019
Oppenheimer's guilt has been dealt with at length, but only a twenty-first century American woman could have created this very well written take on it.
February 28, 2025
3.5
Let’s say 3.5.
I’m glad I’d seen the film Oppenheimer.
This book is a series of stories from the point of view of people who had some kind of interaction with Oppenheimer, but a lot of the stories have nothing to do with him, and some are more interesting than others. It’s a weird approach and it doesn’t always work.
He is a fascinating character, and I really enjoyed some of the writing, but it didn’t quite all hang together for me, and I was bored by some of the stories.
Let’s say 3.5.
I’m glad I’d seen the film Oppenheimer.
This book is a series of stories from the point of view of people who had some kind of interaction with Oppenheimer, but a lot of the stories have nothing to do with him, and some are more interesting than others. It’s a weird approach and it doesn’t always work.
He is a fascinating character, and I really enjoyed some of the writing, but it didn’t quite all hang together for me, and I was bored by some of the stories.
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