The Longest Night

Williams’s debut opens boldly with the story’s climax—an apparent accident at a government-run nuclear reactor—then moves back and forth through a young couple’s uneasy marriage to arrive at the fateful event. When Paul Collier takes an army posting in Idaho in the late 1950s to operate a nuclear reactor, he’s hoping for a career opportunity and stability for his young family. But he sees firsthand that the reactor is problematic and dangerous, and he immediately suspects that his superiors are not following protocol. Paul’s wife, Nat, a free-spirited Californian, tries to fit in with the conservative military-centered social life, while their marriage starts to unravel amid work stress, jealousy, boredom, loneliness, temptation, and immaturity. Master Sergeant Richards, Paul’s troublesome supervisor, and his scheming wife are central to their distress; Richards is demeaning to Paul and flirts audaciously with Nat, provoking Paul into a confrontation that has devastating consequences. Williams’s austere Idaho setting with small-town diners, jukeboxes, and cowboys is appealing , and her characters’ clothing, cars, food, and conventional gender roles provide a time stamp of the era. Although the narrative occasionally trudges along and Nat can be opaque, the simultaneous breakdown of nuclear reactor and marriage provides satisfying symmetry. (Jan.)