Mushroom: The Story of the A-Bomb Kid

by John Aristotle; Michaelis Phillips

Autobiographical account by a Princeton University student who designed a workable atomic bomb as a class assignment and became an overnight celebrity.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

287 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Samuel Kordik · Rating 3 out of 5]

On a rainy afternoon a few years ago, I spent some time at my favorite DFW-area coffee shop, Buon Giorno, while waiting for my flight to somewhere. I ended up spending an hour conversing with a total stranger—a grey-haired retired consultant who shared a love of books and a similarly broad range of interests. He recommended a couple good books, including this one, which I eventually found in a used book store.

This is the self-reported story of John Aristotle Phillips, who achieved national fame by designing an atomic bomb as his Junior physics project at Princeton University during the height of the Cold War. Phillips had deep philosophical concerns with the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the relatively weak safeguards around fissionable materials. Although he was a below-average physics student, he set out to design a working atomic bomb using only declassified materials and the basic knowledge available to him as an undergraduate physics student. He succeeded in this task, and the popular attention his effort got helped to achieve one of his primary aims: improving protections measures around nuclear materials.

This book is about more than just designing an atomic bomb. It is also a rollicking ride through the life of an enterprising Ivy League university student during the Seventies, and an insightful representation of the nature of sudden mass popularity and its effects on life and relationships.

I would rate this a solid 3.5/5. Although not a literary classic or an important philosophical work, Phillips and co-author Michaelis produce a fun retelling of an important footnote in the history of nuclear weapons non-proliferation as well as a great almost-too-good-to-be-true story of a college kid in the 1970’s caught up in his own fame and popularity.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very funny, intelligent book. Sends a clear message about nuclear proliferation without being too serious. Some of the dialogue seems too perfect, but it's funny enough to sustain a willful suspension of disbelief. The introduction of Michaelis (the co-author and best friend) is also unintentionally hilarious. Would recommend to anyone.

[Brett · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gets off on the wrong foot very badly and struggles to recover. The story is intriguing enough in its outline: an undergraduate student undertakes to make a working schematic for an atomic bomb based solely on materials he can obtain in the public domain or can acquire without any credential except as a Princeton student.

It's not much of a spoiler to tell you that he does in fact succeed in this mission. He does not have nuclear material, so he cannot actually build a bomb, but he is able to make a design for a bomb that experts indicate would work. Pretty scary story, and evidently something of a media sensation at the time.

That part of the story, however, is only a small part of the book, which is cluttered with extraneous asides and events that the reader is simply not invested in. I cannot find it within myself to care about his roommate situation or his girlfriend. His participation in a student theater production does not require my attention. Why do I have to read about how hard it is to share writing credit for this book???

In addition, just as prominent in the text as the stuff about the implications of the bomb design is a sort-of media criticism about being thrust suddenly into the spotlight and how it distorts your personal life to become a quasi-celebrity. This material is again simply not what I am coming to this text for; it feels like filler.

The style of the writing itself is often over-the-top and demanding of attention in an off-putting way, as if it were a tell-all about a Broadway star instead of a meditation on nuclear proliferation.

The actual event that caused this book to exist is something that I do find fascinating and worthy of study, but this product that purports to chronicle the event is deeply lacking in insight and a disappointment.

[Stephen Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting look at a little-remembered media event in American history when a college student designed an atom bomb that would require only materials from the local hardware store and a dash of plutonium to build, and then became the target of a media blitz and even international governments looking for an easy entry into the nuclear arms race. Sounds like a potentially riveting spy thriller, but it's not. The book was entertaining for the most part, but felt like a highlight reel of the true story rather than an in-depth experience of the events from the perspective of the young man who lived it. It's also meant to be somewhat of a cautionary tale about how the media can latch onto anybody and make them a celebrity for fifteen minutes before forgetting about them again, but the book never quite realizes its goal of showing this to be a transformative, negative experience. This is mainly because Phillips portrays himself as being self-aware of the dangers of such an experience right from the beginning, so he never looks bad or makes any big mistakes, doesn't have real emotional reactions to anything that's happening, and most of the time he makes himself out to be the only sane person in every given situation. A simple Google/Wikipedia search for the author would be a faster way to learn about this intriguing event.

[Sami · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Mushroom" is a good book, written in a very humorous fashion. Despite the large amount of banter, it does not fail to show the reader how information can be misused by any person (given they have enough "passion" and common sense).

[Sidney CB]

follow your heart's desire...listen to the voice within.