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“Canaday’s book is divided into three parts. One part is poems about the pre-war situation, the lead-up to World War Two and the early nuclear physics experiments. Then the main part of the book is poems about the activities at Los Alamos, largely. The last part is about the lead-up to and consequences of Trinity, the first test of a nuclear weapon. What’s fascinating about these poems is every poem is named for a person, and the poem is written in that person’s voice. For example, J. Robert Oppenheimer appears three times. Einstein twice. Kitty Oppenheimer four times, Edward Teller five times. There are many others as well who appear two or three times in the book as the names of poems, and then they’re speaking…it’s just a fascinating, fascinating look at the Manhattan Project from a poet’s point of view.” Read more...
Richard Wolfson, Scientist
