The Atomic Weight of Love

I loved this book. Church does first-person the way it’s meant to be done, moving readers deeply into the main character’s experience. Meridian is a wonderful character, and the milieu she finds herself swept up in is one that I personally haven’t seen another writer tackle: the Manhattan Project – the research and building of the bomb that ended WWII, and the wives of Los Alamos. But more interesting and more importantly, Church shows a woman of the times who has her own intellect, and the struggle she suffers, wedded to an older man she admires, but a union which, in accordance with the time's social conventions, requires her to give up her dreams and follow her husband and support him in his endeavors – which means life in show more an out of the way desert town where getting her Phd proves impossible. Her life slides out of her hands in slow, inexorable increments, and she’s in her forties before she realizes how much she has given up, and what she has (and continues) to sacrifice for her marriage.
The end was a little sad, and I found myself wanting more. But I understand publishing puts restraints on wordcounts in this genre, and so the writer probably had to keep the novel within those. I would definitely read another book by her. show less

This book was frustrating for a number of reasons but it's also uplifting and inspirational. It's about a promising young ornithologist who gives up her own academic pursuits for her husband’s career at Los Alamos in the early years of the atomic age. If you think that sounds like an unhappy wife/unhappy life situation, you would be right and you would also be very wrong. That’s how things were for most women back then, yet it didn’t necessarily dampen their intellectual curiosity or make their lives any less worthy of reflection and dignity. In spite of the stifling limitations of the time it's set in, this was an emotionally rich story filled with sorrow and joy, close friendships, and love. As a bonus the book's depiction of show more its New Mexico setting had the ring of authenticity and the audiobook narrator's pronunciation of southwestern terms was spot-on. show less

For me, a sure sign of a good book is that I can't stop reading it at bedtime even though I know it will keep me up late. That's what happened with The Atomic Weight of Love. I had at least 100 pages to go when I settled down in bed last night but I kept reading. I just couldn't stop; I had to know how this story ended.

Meridian is an only child whose father died when she was ten. The Christmas before his death he gave her The Burgess Bird Book for Children and started Meri on her lifelong passion for ornithology. Meri's mother worked hard to be able to send her to university and so, in September of 1941, she started working on a biology degree at the University of Chicago with a view to doing graduate work in ornithology. When she sat show more in on a physics lecture given by Dr. Alden Whetstone to hear about the physics of flight she was captivated. Soon Meri and Alden were an item and then Alden got called away for a secret war project. Of course, we can guess now that the project was the Manhattan Project, the building of the atomic bomb. Alden asked Meri to marry him just before he left and she said yes. Their letters to each other were heavily censored but they did manage to make wedding plans and Alden got a few days to come back east for the wedding. Then he was off again working on something he could not discuss but Meridian understands that. When the first bomb is dropped on Hiroshima Meri knows that is what Alden was working on. She has continued to work on her degree and as she nears completion she sends out applications to graduate school. Cornell University (probably the preeminent place to study ornighology) accepts her but Alden asks her to move back to New Mexico with him as he has accepted a job with the Atomic Energy Commission in Los Alamos. When she first agrees she thinks it will be just temporary but as the years go by she has to give up her dream of graduate school. She continues to observe birds, particularly a flock of crows in a canyon near Los Alamos, but otherwise Meri's days are spent on housework, cooking and appeasing her husband. She doesn't have children and eventually she and Alden grow apart. Alden no longer discusses science or anything else with her and he makes no effort to participate in her interests. While observing her crows one day Meri sees a young man climbing the canyon wall opposite her. The next day he turns up at her observation post and soon, despite their age difference, they are lovers. Meri is torn between her love for these two very different men and also conflicted about following her own passions. It was at this point that I just had to keep reading. Although I came to maturity after some of the women's rights fights had been won there were enough things I recognized about Meri's life to make me want her to succeed. There are still equality battles to be fought but we have come a long way. This book reminded me of that fact. show less

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

What drew me to this title was the mentions of the Manhattan Project. As an atomic junkie, I love anything that brings atomic history into historical fiction. Even though Alden's atomic work is never described in detail, I found I didn't miss it.
Throughout the book, I kept finding myself growing frustrated with Meri and the choices she makes in her life. Each time I started to roll my eyes, I had to stop and remind myself that Meri is a victim of the times in which she lives. I kept wondering how many of my female relatives had sacrificed a career or talent for the sake of marriage and family. My grandmother would have been just a few years younger show more than Meri, and I couldn't help but wondering how much she had given up for her husband, then my mom and uncle.
I found Meri's study of the crows to be fascinating. I had no idea that crows were so intelligent and social. I never really liked Alden at all. Even when he did something fairly redeeming, he would follow it up with another jerk move that made me dislike him again. I didn't really like Clay either. Both of them used Meri in different ways, and I resented them for it. It wasn't til the end of the book, when Meri is finally free of the influence of men in her life, that she is able to spread her wings and finally begin to live her life.
I did enjoy the book for its perspective on women's choices in the 40's, 50's and 60's. It really made me think about my family and how much women everywhere have sacrificed in the name of marriage. show less

This engrossing book is about a would-be ornithologist in the 1940’s, Meridian (“Meri”) Wallace, who, while a student, meets physicist Alden Whetstone at the University of Chicago (twenty years Meri’s senior), and agrees to give up her dreams to follow his. By no means an uncommon decision at that time, we follow Meri through the years as she struggles with balancing the needs of her own identity with living the life Alden has chosen for them.

Each chapter begins with ornithological terms of venery that mirror the chapters’ developments, and allow us to understand the characters by the behavior of the birds Meridian studies.

Discussion: The writing is exceptional. One of my favorite examples is when Meri first sleeps with show more Alden:

“That single careful gesture - the controlled placement of his pants. It told me something I refused to acknowledge: Alden would always be too careful. There would be no transport for me, not with a man who was that precise in the face of impending passion. Passion walks the edge of control, teasing. It looks down at the rocks in a canyon and contemplates plunging, taking one fatal step to the right. It soars, having released the weight of consciousness of all but the moment.”

As we go through the years with Meri and with other women at Los Alamos, where she and Alden settle, we see the different ways in which relationships change over time. Some “die a slow, incremental death of boredom resentment, and lassitude.” Some, though “solid and unwavering” are nevertheless devoid of passion. And some continue to provide enduring and lasting happiness even in spite of relationships with others.

Evaluation: This is a story that at turns is lovely, tragic, uplifting, defeating, inspiring, and above all, perhaps, stimulating, both in terms of intellectual content and thought-provoking characterizations. This book will have you considering the weight of love and choices long after finishing the book. In short, perfect for book clubs. show less

The Atomic Weight of Love -
Elizabeth Church
5 stars

It begins in 1941 as 17 year-old Meridian heads off to university with ambitions for an academic career in ornithology. The war begins. Meri is attracted to Alden Whetstone, a divorced, physics professor. Alden heads to Los Alamos to lend his support to a super secret war effort. Meridian completes her degree, defers her graduate school admission and follows Alden to New Mexico and marriage. (I wanted to reach into the book. Oh, Meri, can’t you see what you are doing? Of course she couldn’t. It was 1944.) I said the book begins in 1941, but there is actually a prologue from the first decade of the 21st century. This is Meridian’s memoir. She ends the prologue, “This is my show more story, the story of a woman who accompanied the bomb’s birth and tried to fly in its aftermath.”

It’s a bit depressing to watch Meridian try to fly, because marriage has effectively clipped her wings. She tries to keep her intellectual life alive with the systematic observation of a flock of crows. She tries to follow conventional advice to keep her marriage afloat with attention to the customary chores of the housewife. Not much is working for her until she encounters an attractive young Viet Nam vet in the decade of change.

Earlier this year I read The Summer Before the War, which is about another intelligent young woman just before WW1. These two books have similar feminist themes, but very different styles. The Simonson book used early 20th century gender discrimination as a plot device, creating sympathy for the main protagonist. It felt contrived. There is nothing contrived in Church’s fictional memoir. Meridian Whetstone comes across as a completely believable human being, like Alma in The Signature of All Things. She is a deep thinker. Her memoir combines her observations of the natural world with her reflections about her own relationships, her own growth. She reminded me that whatever sweeping changes took place legally and culturally between the mid 20th century and the present day, every woman has to make a personal journey.

I’m not sure why this book hasn’t gotten more attention. Is it that female author bias again? I know that I put it down several times at the beginning. It made me so angry to see this girl throwing her potential away, I had to stop reading. But, I came of age in the 1970’s and some things were different for me. A bit different in some ways; in others, not so much. show less

A book that explains my own life events like no other

This story, beautifully told, is the story of so many women brought up in the patriarchal social order that was taken for granted at one time, and is threatening to be imposed again in 2017 America. I want to sit quietly now with what I read, examine the ways in which I was culpable in the stifling of my intellect for so many years, my acquiescence because that was easier. A novel that makes me examine myself does not come along that often, so I say, brava!