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Laddar... An Atomic Romance: A Novel (urspr publ 2005; utgåvan 2005)av Bobbie Ann Mason
VerksinformationAn Atomic Romance av Bobbie Ann Mason (2005)
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Gå med i LibraryThing för att få reda på om du skulle tycka om den här boken. Det finns inga diskussioner på LibraryThing om den här boken. the lead character was always mishearing people into a joke. funny? i didn't really like him. i also don't like men writing as women characters and vice versa. i don't pretend to know what men are thinking. it's pretentious. reader was pretty good. the mother's character was interesting. ( ) Atomic Romance is a good novel. A really good novel, in many ways. Engaging and beautifully written and observed. But it's also missing something important. This is the story of Reed Futrell, a guy in his forties, divorced, with two grown children. He's got a mother who made a lifetime out of independent quirkiness; he's got an on-again-off-again girlfriend with whom he shares a consuming interest in quantum mechanics and the Hubble telescope; he has worked for twenty years as an engineer making repairs at a uranium enrichment plant. As is always the case, this story moves along on the power of conflict. Big conflicts, both present and past, small and large. Reed's mother is sick and approaching the end of her life; he's in love with Julia but they are always at odds about his job; and there's the nuclear power plant that killed his father in a chemical accident, and is now constantly in the news because old sins are rising to the surface. Beyond the expected contaminated soil and slag heaps, it seems as though the company Reed chose to trust may not have deserved his loyalty. Through the papers the workers learn about beryllium and plutonium exposure. In a small Kentucky town dependent on the plant at the center of its economy, this news is more than unsettling. Here's the thing. Reed is a very engaging character. He's likeable and interesting. As the novel opens, he's lethargic. Alternately fascinated by science, and unwilling to really think about what's wrong at the plant, and what repercussions he might personally be facing. Julia is outraged and worried, and he skates along trying to pretend everything is all right. Mason obviously knows a huge amount about these power plants and how they work. I like novels that look closely at the relationship between a mind and the tasks it takes on, and this novel does that in a very closely observed way: "Powerful electric motors sent the gas spinning and shooting through hundreds of axial-flow compressors and into converters, where barriers with tiny holes filtered out the heavier isotopes. . . . This was the system, his friend and his enemy." The problem is that in spite of the richness of characterization and the conflicts which are set up so carefully, the novel meanders. A lot of it simply takes place in Reed's head, and key scenes between characters are summarized or left out. I like Reed and his thoughts, but I needed more movement. Even when the parallel crises come to a head (what's going on at the plant, and his relationship with Julia) there's little energy here. There's so little energy that the resolution sputters unconvincingly, and in fact it felt as if Mason were looking for a neat way to tie up loose ends. Which is unusual for her, and a disappointment as far as this novel is concerned. And oddly, I'd still recommend this. I'd be curious to know what other people thought about it. inga recensioner | lägg till en recension
This provocative, rollicking story is the much-anticipated new novel-the first in over a decade-from acclaimed author Bobbie Ann Mason. In An Atomic Romance we meet Reed Futrell, a sexy, thoughtful hero who grapples with radioactive contamination, a midlife crisis, and string theory-all while falling in love. Reed is an engineer at a uranium-enrichment plant near a riverside city in heartland America. He has deep roots in this community: He was raised there; his father worked at the very same plant before him. And it was here that Reed met, married, and then divorced his wife. Reed spends countless nights camping at a local wildlife preserve, gazing at the stars, fishing and hunting-that is, until deformed frogs are discovered at the site. Though his father was killed in a tragic accident at the atomic plant years ago, Reed stays on, proud to perform demanding and dangerous work for the benefit of the nation. As for the radioactive "incidents" he has endured, Reed prefers to think about other things-Hubble photographs of distant galaxies, Albert Einstein, his dog. Reed's casual attitude toward danger infuriates his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Julia, as much as his quirky mind and muscular body intrigue her. Julia, a biologist, is truly Reed's match-or maybe more than his match. They both are witty, curious, and fascinated by science. Indeed, their courtship began with banter about Stephen Hawking's theories of space-time, and ever since it has been an up-and-down adventure of sexual attraction, intellectual game-playing, and long silences when Julia refuses to return Reed's calls. When news reports reveal evidence of radioactive pollution in the land surrounding the plant, Reed and Julia's relationship faces an unprecedented challenge. In An Atomic Romance, Bobbie Ann Mason delivers a brilliant novel set against a backdrop of atomic power: a love story between a motorcycle-riding loner and an independent, strong-minded biologist; between the peaceful present in a typical American community and the nation's violent nuclear past; and, finally, between a good man and the work he takes pride in, though it may be putting his life in danger. Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
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Google Books — Laddar... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Klassifikation enligt LCBetygMedelbetyg:
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