A Random State

by Thomas McMahon

What was life like for the scientists working at Los Alamos? Thomas McMahon imagines this life through the wide eyes of young Tim MacLaurin, the thirteen-year-old son of an MIT physicist who, inspired by a young woman named Maryann, worked on the project. Filled with the sensuous excitement of scientific discovery and the outrageous behavior of people pushed beyond their limits, Principles of American Nuclear Chemistry is a beautifully written coming-of-age story that explores the mysterious connections between love and work, inspiration and history.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

187 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1970

Reviews

[shilpa]

loved this, obviously. (or perhaps not obviously: it's been in and out of my head ever since I came across a first edition of it in a? the? bookstore on South Congress, maybe almost exactly six years ago. I was whisked away before I could investigate anything of it beyond the title, but I am pleased to report now that it is as quaint and strange and melancholy as I had hoped.)

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just love this novel. Set at and around Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project, it combines the short time-span of the war and the rising tension of the scientists' work with a languorous, nostalgic atmosphere of sexual awakening, domestic discord, the beauty of the American Southwest, and thoughtful moral-ethical questioning by both the young protagonist and the physicists themselves - all done with a pretty light touch, for the most part. Some might claim the novel tries to tackle too much or makes missteps and fails at some of its tangents, or is too precious - there are several tones to the writing (thoughtful, sentimental, expository, pensive, angry, even crass), and it's not perfect - but I think it adds up to something wonderful. Because it's mostly a retrospective from the protagonist's present (1971 or so, which gives the telling some quaintness and lends itself to a double-nostalgia for the reader), many simple observations are weighted with interpretation (e.g., Their conversation was filled with pauses, and while it may have been that these pauses were like those articulate ones which fall between people whose thoughts outstrip their words, it is certainly true that a range of taboo subjects would have existed for each on that evening.). Nice effects of a young eyewitness's reports of his memories and overheard conversations, but overlaid with an adult's wisdom.

It's tempting and amusing to attach the real historical personas to the fictional physicists (Orr is Bohr; Ferrari is Fermi; Selina Meisner is Lise Meitner, etc.). Yet McMahon shakes them up so there is not always a one-to-one link: I was misled for awhile assuming Sandeman was Feynman, but actually he was a quasi-Oppenheimer with the "porkpie hat," and it was Feynman's wife who really died during the project (though of tb, not cancer,) so Mundi was Feynman . . . but no matter.

McMahon was a scientist himself, and wrote two other novels. He died in 1999. My edition was republished by the University of Chicago Press.

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny, bittersweet bildungsroman.

[Richard Pierse · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this book is rather misleading and might lead you to think that it is a textbook, but it isn't. (Actually, the Penguin edition that I read was retitled as A Random State, but this alternative title is hardly more informative, and the original title has the advantage of being witty, once you realise that the nuclear chemistry is personal rather than inorganic). It is a novel set in Los Alamos in WW2 at the time of the Manhattan Project. It features the main physicists on the project, Oppenheimer, Fermi, Bohr, Feinman etc., with their names changed but in rather transparent ways. However, the protagonist is a young man, the son of a chemist, and the Manhattan Project is merely the background for his coming-of-age story. This story was interesting enough but I would have been more interested to learn more about the physicists and what they were doing.

[Ingrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up completely at random and wound up loving it. McMahon does a good job of showing how childhood experiences that at the time might feel either insignificant or hugely important can carry a very different meaning when looked back on by the adult they had a hand in forming. Shifts in time, tone, and theme are largely handled well, and McMahon strikes a careful balance between nostalgia and disillusionment.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a sort of strange book. The author jumped around from 'present' day to the past between chapters and I found it to be confusing at times. The main character was clearly flawed, which was interesting, but I didn't feel like he found any resolution or grew at all by the end of the book, which was disappointing.

[Richard Kravitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really interesting book, although quite disturbing in places. The whole business with the father's secretary, the depression, etc. I know a lot about the time and the Lab, but this gave it a personal outlook I had not previously considered. I think there was some weird stuff about Oppenheimer (didn't use his name I don't think) and his mistress (Jean Tatlock) in Berkeley.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

not for me really, bit wooly