The Housewives of Atomic Lane
Set near the Washington Hanford Nuclear Reservation in 1957, this Cold War fiction introduces three neighbours on Atomic Lane: Betty has health issues and insomnia, Winnie is testing her freedom by learning to drive, and Sandra is a young mum with two rambunctious girls and a baby. Newton presents a government town full of secrets, housing an exclusively male workforce, where exciting diversions for the wives consist of the local baking contest. When the three become accidental recipients of murmurings about a safe with deadly contents missing from the nuclear station, they suspect the picture-perfect Elizabeth, who has just moved in across the street with her husband. Despite the friendship, the wives take up with Elizabeth—genuinely trying to like her—and Betty witnesses some curious goings-on during her sleepless nights. The doctor prescribes “mothers’ little helper.”
Newton’s novel explores, perhaps inadvertently, behaviour practices that contemporary women are being coaxed back to after more than a half-century of progress— a ‘June Cleaver’ patriarchy where men speak for the household and women clean house and change nappies. Betty, Sandra and Winnie gossip and smoke and share life. They bake and watch out of windows and soon get entangled in a conspiracy partly of their making.
Fortunately, Newton’s plot rarely lacks forward momentum, because many incidents stretch credulity. Along with some silly close calls, I found the novel’s events somewhat implausible. The uncertainty then spoils a deeper dive into what could be a good story. However, the novel does achieve a somewhat outlandish but satisfactory resolution. The most intriguing part is the exploration of the unlikeable and singularly peculiar Elizabeth; and the wives are eminently likeable. Newton’s energetic story pauses at a precarious time in history, offering three affectionate friends some well-deserved autonomy.
