Atomic Paradise - Paperback

by Jules Nyquist (Author)

Atomic Paradise explores the nuclear history and the dawn of the atomic age. This collection of poems focus on the author's experiences living in New Mexico, a land of incredible beauty, that is in the heart of the nuclear military/industrial complex. Atomic Paradise takes us from the author's experience growing up in the Cold War, to reflections on the Manhattan Project, and poet/physicist Dr. Robert Oppenheimer. These poems also explore Hiroshima and the dropping of the bomb, the spread of nuclear weapons throughout the world and nuclear tourism, and the fallout of the nuclear industry in New Mexico. The Japanese internment camps in Santa Fe and the Trinity Site are included along with nuclear waste and the environment in the Southwest. Throughout are the author's personal observations to make this huge topic of the nuclear war and the resulting nuclear industry a bit more human, and very relevant. "For those of us raised in the shadow of nuclear annihilation - and that is everyone born after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima - this reality is a terrifying and inescapable one. Jules Nyquist investigates this terrain with imagination and compassion. Of the Titan Missiles, she sees how "normalcy" has replaced the Cold War: "Tourists line up for tickets/ at the museum silo on the highway/ that runs down to Mexico." Robert Oppenheimer is here, in his atomic Promethean role, as is Trinity Site. So much of this history happened in New Mexico that it benefits from the insights of a New Mexican writer. Important material, beautifully expressed."- Miriam Sagan, Santa Fe, NM