Customer Reviews

A Message from God in the Atomic Age: A Memoir

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The story reads very much like J.D. Salinger's Catcher in theRye, except that JD's was a work of fiction and Vilar's is a true andheart wrenching account of her own experience. From a literaryperspective, it is obvious that Vilar is young. But this work holds the promise of greater literary works by Vilar. Vilar's talent is in her ability to drag you in to her story and aid you in understanding it without too much of a fuss. The books makes great reading for HS students. It is valuable in terms of it's linkage to contemporary historical facts about which HS students may just be learning. The books biggest benefit is in its telling in the intimate way only an insider can about the aftermath of political actions of the 1950's.

The book did not draw my interest at all and really only felt like I was being tortured trying to read it. I forced myself to read through the whole book hoping that eventually I would find something of value that would then hold my attention but that wasn't the case. The author's words a lot of the time were just "mumbo jumbo" put together. You do get a little history on Lolita Lebron but you might as well go on Wikipedia which will give you more: in the author's words, she didn't know her grandmother well. Also it was only at the end that I realized why the book was titled "A Message from God in the Atomic Age" due to the fact that there was no mention earlier in the book and personally not knowing the history of Lolita Lebron. Throughout my reading, I could not make sense of the title since she does not reference God in any way. Wouldn't recommend it...waste of time.