The Green Glass Sea: A Novel

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Klages, Ellen. 2006. The Green Glass Sea: A Novel. New York: Viking. ISBN 0670061344

PLOT SUMMARY

In 1942, ten-year-old Dewey Kerrigan is sent to live in New Mexico to live with her father, a scientist working on the Manhattan Project.  Klages focuses the story on what it is like for the children living in a secret community and the implications that come with that lifestyle.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The plot of this story is authentic to the time period.  Small details like the adults constantly smoking demonstrate the difference between the 1940s and the present.  Dewey and her friend, Suze, both have parents working on “the gadget” which we later learn is the nuclear bomb.  The characters are completely believable.  Dewey and Suze are left in the dark regarding the details surrounding the secret work that is happening in their town.  Dewey is an unusual character.  As a girl, she is more into math and science than typical “girly” things.  She walks with a leg brace and is the kind of character that never really fits in.  Dewey has a loving relationship with her father, which makes later events in the book more meaningful.  At first, Suze and Dewey do not get along at all.  The story really becomes about their evolving friendship.

Although this story takes place during WWII, the war is secondary to the girls’ lives.  Klages focuses less on the actual war and more on what life was like for the children whose parents were working on The Mahattan Project.  The war is more of a backdrop to the plot than the center of it. 

Klages excels at recreating 1940s New Mexico for the reader.  She gives details throughout the story that allow the reader to visualize the setting.  For example, she writes: “The air smelled like sawdust and pine resin. Off to the south they could hear the pounding of hammers and the whine of motors. New people moved to the Hill almost every week, and the army was busy building more apartments and bigger labs” (63).  In addition to giving the reader a visual image of the scene, the reader also gets the impression of the enormity of the scope of the project that is happening in the labs.  Klages is able to slip these details into the story without overwhelming the reader with unnecessary minutiae.

The theme of this story focuses on the struggle between deciding between right and wrong.  The children confront this (Suze and her bullying, for example) and the adults are forced to reconcile their jobs with the destruction that they might be bringing on others.

The importance and later effects of the atomic bomb are only alluded to in the text.  The effects on Hiroshima are not explored and readers must bring that knowledge to their reading of the book.  Understanding the implications of the atomic bomb is crucial to getting the most out of this story.  Readers who do not have a good understanding of WWII will still enjoy the book, as it is very well-written, but their experience may be less powerful than that of readers who can place The Green Glass Sea in its correct historical context.  For readers interested in learning more about the events in the book, Klages has included a bibliography at the end.  This also lends further credibility to her work.

Overall, Klages did a wonderful job of creating a fictional story that is entirely believable.  Vivid descriptions and historical facts work seamlessly together to form this engaging story.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

School Library Journal: “After the atomic bomb test succeeds, ethical concerns of both youngsters and adults intensify as the characters learn how it is ultimately used. Many readers will know as little about the true nature of the project as the girls do, so the gradual revelation of facts is especially effective, while those who already know about Los Alamos's historical significance will experience the story in a different, but equally powerful, way.”

Starred review in Publishers Weekly: “Klages makes an impressive debut with an ambitious, meticulously researched novel set during WWII. Writing from the points of view of two displaced children, she successfully recreates life at Los Alamos Camp, where scientists and mathematicians converge with their families to construct and test the first nuclear bomb.”

CONNECTIONS

Readers who enjoyed The Green Glass Sea: A Novel might want to explore what happens next in the sequel:

Klages, Ellen. White Sands, Red Menace. ISBN 0142415189

Several books have been published about WWII, but readers interested in learning more about the atomic bomb might like:

Sheinkin, Steve. Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon. ISBN 1596434872