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August 20, 2020
Jennie Fields' Playlist for Her Novel "Atomic Love"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others.
Jennie Fields' novel Atomic Love is a compelling novel of espionage and love.
Ann Patchett wrote of the book:
"Atomic Love is a novel of science, love, espionage, beautiful writing, and a heroine who carves a strong path in the world of men. As far as I'm concerned there is nothing left to want."
In her own words, here is Jennie Fields' Book Notes music playlist for her novel Atomic Love:
Imagine it’s the summer of 1950. Chicago. The war’s been over for less than five years. America’s doing its best to return to normal. But GIs have come home with PTSD and married their sweethearts who reluctantly and sometimes resentfully had to give up jobs they loved for the returning men. Babies are being born to what everyone expects will be a better life. Except, there’s a new and existential threat. in 1949, the Russians unexpectedly tested their own atomic bomb and atomic annihilation is on the wind.
This is the world of my novel, Atomic Love. And as hard as everyone tries to pretend American life is all roses, it’s also a time of secrets and sorrow. My main character, Rosalind Porter, once a key physicist on the Manhattan Project, is haunted by guilt for having helped create the atomic bomb. Betrayed by the man she loved, a fellow scientist, she lost her job and is relegated to selling jewelry at Marshall Field’s Department Store.
Now, the very man who betrayed her, Thomas Weaver, is asking to see her again. She’s reluctant. But then she’s approached by an FBI agent, Charlie Szydlo who wants her to spy on Weaver because they think he’s selling atomic secrets to the Russians.
Atomic. Love. You’ll see both thoughts in this playlist.
"Someone To Watch Over Me" - Ella Fitzgerald
I want to start this playlist with a song that draws you in, and for me, Ella Fitzgerald does that better than anyone. This Gershwin song was recorded in 1950 and captures the longing felt by people who didn’t have partners after the war, like Rosalind. Even strong women (or men) can long for someone to watch over them, as FBI agent Charlie Szydlo ends up watching over Rosalind. I often listen to Ella Fitzgerald and lose myself in her clear voice and honest emotion. For me, the less produced the song is, the more Ella shines.
"Atomic Sermon" – Billy Hughes and the Buckaroos
Rosalind loves science but hates the bomb she helped to create. She’s haunted by guilt that ‘her’ bombs were dropped on innocent people in Japan. With the Russians in possession of the bomb, now atomic threat hangs over America as well. In this song, Billy Hughes and the Buckaroos warn the world:
You better stop them scientists from researchin’
Cause they done gone too far
They got these boys flyin’ faster than sound
And the whole world’s in a war…
Man, that a-tomic energy sure scares me
Cause if it will do what they claim
You better start thinkin’ about savin’ your soul
Or Sam Johnson ain’t my name…
Even though she’s a scientist, this song would speak to her.
"Atom Bomb Baby" – The Five Stars
After the dire warning of Atomic Sermon, we need to lighten up, and this 1957 song should do the trick. Atom Bomb Baby by the Five Stars takes all the tropes of atomic energy and applies them to hot and sexy love. Atomic Love is also hot and sexy, so this feels just right.
"Laura" - Charlie Parker with Strings album
It’s hard to find a more noir cut than this one. This album was released in 1950 and in Atomic Love, FBI agent, Charlie Szydlo listens to it when he’s alone in his basement apartment. Emotionally and physically injured in the war, he’s a man seeking balance, needing to heal. He finds solace in Parker’s sensuous saxophone.
Bet you never thought there were so many songs about atom bombs out there. In fact there are so many it would take ten playlists to include them. This one uses a little Texas swing to make us laugh about nuclear proliferation. People had to laugh about so dire a threat.
"Bewitched" – Mel Tormé (the May 1950 version)
Mel Tormé’s version of this classic song came out in May 1950. You may snicker at the corny backup singers. But it’s still a terrific tune about what unexpected love does to a person. Bewitched by Weaver during the war, Rosalind Porter allowed for inconsistencies in his behavior, never imagined what he was doing in secret.
"Atomic Nightmare" – Talbot Brothers of Bermuda
What better way to celebrate the end of the world with a little Calypso music? Even on an island paradise, nuclear threat loomed.
"Russia, Russia (Lay That Missile Down)" - Prescott Reed
The tune of this song has a Russian folk dance feel. The lyrics will make you laugh out loud. There’s such innocence (and ignorance) in the assumption that if only the Russians would visit our hometowns and take part in our movies and ball games, they’d love our way of life and we’d all be friends. ‘Eat our wienies. Don’t be meanies’ might win a prize for hilarious naiveté.
"My Foolish Heart" – Billy Eckstine 1950
Billy Eckstine’s soulful version of this beautiful song was tremendously popular in 1950, and I can easily imagine it playing on the radio as Charlie, the FBI agent stares out at his sister’s starlit back yard waiting to join Rosalind. He’s learned Russians agents have wired her apartment with listening devices and he’s promised to go there after the Soviets think she’s gone to bed to debug it. A veteran who spent years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, Charlie has tried to suppress his emotions. Yet, his feelings are awakened by this female scientist who is also battered by the war. Two wounded birds drawn to each other.
"Watch World War III on Pay TV" - Sherman & Larsen
Considering we have all managed to live with the threat of nuclear annihilation for the last seventy-five years, it makes sense to me to end on the absurd. This marching, rousing tune asks us to watch the war on TV until our ‘televisions melt away’!
Jennie Fields received an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is the author of the novels Lily Beach, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, The Middle Ages, and The Age of Desire. A Chicago native, Fields was inspired by her own mother's work as a University of Chicago-trained biochemist in the 1950s. Fields now lives with her husband in Nashville, Tennessee.
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