Children of Usher: Growing Up in Los Alamos [Paperback]

Glenn Fishbine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 14, 2004

Most treatments of the cold war attempt to assess the political and scientific impacts of the nuclear age and the horrors of weapons of mass destruction. While there are dramatic stories in the history and science of nuclear power, one often overlooked aspect is that entire communities were created to support the development of nuclear power. These communities not only included scientists and engineers, but husbands, wives and children. The children grew up as children everywhere do, trying to be just like their parents. The games these children played reflected their upbringing and resulted in sometimes sad and sometimes outrageously funny consequences. This is a collection of true stories of children coming to age under the routine threat of global annihilation and how they routinely coped with thinking about the unthinkable.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: GOM Publishing (May 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972919740
• ISBN-13: 978-0972919746
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #950,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Children of Usher, July 27, 2004

By 

R. Christensen (Palm Beach, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Children of Usher: Growing Up in Los Alamos (Paperback)

Once you open this book, plan on finishing it in one sitting. It is a facinating collection of stories that will encourage a smile. The book addresses an adolescent of the 70's telling of the life in Los Alamos during the peak of childhood development. Most of the stories will make you laugh, some will make you ponder. A very entertaining read!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful surprise, July 23, 2004

By 

Mary (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Children of Usher: Growing Up in Los Alamos (Paperback)

My husband and I plan to retire to New Mexico. I am an avid reader of anything about New Mexico. When I came across this book, I couldn't resist. It was waaay different from what I was expecting. This is a collection of stories written about a time in the years before 1970 telling about what it was like to grow up in Los Alamos. I never knew that this city was so much like Oz in the middle of what I have come to think of as a quaint southwestern culture. The author tells some truly fascinating and remarkable stories about a most famous place, but from a unique and funny and sometimes heartwrenching perspective. There were times when I wanted to reach out to that little boy and hug him, and there were times when I wanted to spank him. All in all, I couldn't put it down until I was finished. At first I thought about giving it four stars, because when I finished, I wanted there to be more. But I kept thinking about the book for days, and when a book does that for me, it really deserves five. It's concise, well written, it's like balancing between heaven and hell and it will leave you thinking for days afterwards.

4.0 out of 5 stars Children of scientists in a small town, August 13, 2011

By 

John E. Vidale "conventional Earth scientist" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Children of Usher: Growing Up in Los Alamos (Kindle Edition)

This book was of great interest to me from attending high school in Los Alamos in the late 1970s, and having scientific interests.

There are about 10 anecdotes of adventures of restless high-school age kids, which are priceless. Some show ingenuity, some foolishness, some teach the parents, teacher and police lessons, but none are less than highly entertaining. The author swears they are all true.

A few minor complaints - the strategy of telling each story in the first person, even though many different people were actually involved, is confusing and lessens the believability of the narrative. Also, attempts to teach a lesson with the adventures, as he waxes poetic in the beginning and end, don't have much point. I have trouble connecting the moral dilemmas from building bombs with the deeds and misdeeds. Finally, the theme in the beginning that LA children despair of matching their parents' jobs ring hollow - there are many levels of jobs in town, and anyway next the book extols the extremely clever kids fooling numerous adults.

I recommend this books to anyone who grew up in LA, and also to people interested in the behavior of restless teenagers, more or less rebel young technologists without a cause.