This compelling read is set mostly at the beginning of the atomic era when the United States sought to create the first A-bomb. Drawing on the conflict and stress during World War II and its immediate aftermath, the moot threat of communist infiltration, and the real menace of J. Edgar Hoover-approved espionage, Streshinsky (Audubon: Life and Art in the American Wilderness) and Klaus (formerly 20th-century British history, Yale Univ.) reveal the brilliant life and career of Robert Oppenheimer and his intensely rich relationships with three women. These women, all exceptional in their own right, led lives exemplifying the avenues that were opening up for women in the mid-20th century in terms of marriage and family, sexuality, higher education, and careers, as well as political involvement. Rumored to have had an affair with Oppenheimer, Ruth Sherman Tolman established her own successful career as a psychologist. Leftist intellectual and psychiatrist Jean Tatlock represented the great, even tragic, love of Oppenheimer's life, though he eventually married the stormy Katherine "Kitty" Puening, a former Communist Party member. VERDICT By bringing these three women to the forefront of Oppenheimer's story, this title shows the influence each wielded in shaping the life and career trajectory of the father of the atomic bomb. Though the details provided are sometimes not so much compelling as overwhelming, this work remains a significant addition to the Oppenheimer narrative and the collective story of the atomic era's birth. Recommended for history of science collections.—Faye Chadwell, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis