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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Nuclear Family: A Memoir of the Atomic West by Ty Bannerman is a memoir that leans into Los Alamos and how generations of the Bannermans worked inside the nuclear weapons program. That inheritance drives him back to New Mexico ground, marked by the first atomic detonation. He studies how official records defined exposure after July 16, 1945, while nearby residents lived beneath fallout. Bannerman places his relatives inside a system of security hearings that governed private conduct within a closed town. He then turns inward toward a medical history shaped by radiation-based care that traces back to atomic research. The book follows one investigation that treats the nuclear industry as a force that entered daily life through ordinary labor. Bannerman writes as a participant whose family work became a condition.
Ty Bannerman’s Nuclear Family is a beautifully written and haunting family memoir, and probably one of the most incredible testaments to actual, physical, generational trauma I have ever come across. This goes so far beyond what I was expecting, and the perfect balance of heartening and jarring moments is often shared as metaphors for each other. The most striking is how Bannerman's radiation therapy after cancer diagnosis contrasts with documented prison experiments that exposed incarcerated men to X-rays, showing care in one setting, and harm in another. Bannerman lays out difficult material with the steady hand of a skilled writer. His decision to end contact with the Ratliff descendants shows respect for privacy, and his return to Los Alamos with his uncle shows patience while listening to family history long left unspoken. Overall, this is a memoir that is a truly perfect read. Very highly recommended.
