By Sadie Jones.
Published earlier this month (on June 3rd) by Hutchinson Heinemann, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid’s latest novel about our protagonist Joan, a woman with a passion for the stars, as she signs up to join NASA’s Space Shuttle programme.
Well, the first thing to say is: “Wow!”. And the second thing to say is: “5 stars!”.
So, for context, I am an astrophysicist, who grew up wanting to be an astronaut… so you may think it’s a given that I would really like this book. And I’ll admit, as a Taylor Jenkins Reid fan, I was absolutely elated to find out that the heroine in her new book, Joan Goodwin, was not only a woman astronaut, but also an Astronomy Lecturer at a University, just like me. It is also set in 1984, which is my year of birth, so this was all very exciting. Needless to say, I pre-ordered this book so I could be one of the first people to read it.
However, my giving Atmosphere 5 stars was definitely earned. If I am struggling to read a book, if it isn’t engaging me and making me feel something, then I put it down. I’m not one of these people who force myself to finish a book before I can go onto read the next one; for example, I am ‘currently reading’ ten different books. Actually, it was eleven, but I started and finished a non-fiction book (The Hidden Human Labour Powering AI by James Muldoon) in between reading Jenkins Reid’s newest novel – just so that Atmosphere would be in my life for longer.
I simply didn’t want this book to end, didn’t want to leave the characters behind. I even drove all the way to Lepe so I could complete my reading of this book on the beach, looking out on the vastness of the sea and sky. I just felt this book deserved to be finished in a more picturesque setting than my small flat. I didn’t want to say goodbye to Joan, or Vanessa, or Frances. I wanted to stay in their world, even though it was scary and raw and uncomfortable sometimes. And I did cry on that beach, throughout those last few chapters. Both happy tears, and sad.
Now, despite me being excited about all the space-feminism in Atmosphere, I was slightly worried about its full title being Atmosphere – A Love Story, because I am definitely not a fan of romance novels. Love is a lie! But, honestly, the book goes so much further than just being about romantic love. It’s about love in many different forms and, I won’t spoil it, but it’s very sweet. You will root for the friendships in this book, between the astronauts Griff, Lydia, Hank and Donna. I really enjoyed the familial love story between Auntie Joan and her niece, Frances, too. I think this is what Taylor Jenkins Reid does so well. She writes her characters as complex and flawed, and that is what makes them feel so real, and makes you feel part of their world. And you don’t want to leave them.
So, even though I was very excited about the astronomy, I was also a bit concerned. Like, what if she explained the Orion constellation or the ‘Summer Triangle’ incorrectly? That might be game over for my reading of this highly anticipated book. But, just like in Carrie Soto is Back, where I fully believed I was reading about a tennis professional, Jenkins Reid has done it again. I couldn’t find any fault with the astronomy or space science content, this author clearly does extensive research, and I even found myself writing down facts mentioned in the book to look up for my astronomy module teaching next year. Just awesome.
I really liked the overall sentiment of this book too. She brilliantly captured the human aspect of space travel, with an overarching message similar to books by actual astronauts like Chris Hadfield. These astronauts are training intensively for many years of their lives, and they only spend a short time in space. But they do it because as humans it is in our nature to explore further, we want to test the boundaries of technology and test ourselves as humans. How far can we go? What is the limit?
But ultimately for the few people who do get to go into space, the most important lesson does not seem to be learned from the experiments run on the space station. It is not found by looking out through the cupola into the vastness of our Universe, with its 200 billion galaxies, each containing at least 100 billion stars. It is found instead by looking right back at our Earth. Realising how lucky we are.
Our Earth, it is our home. Where all the people we love are.
Most of us won’t get to be astronauts like Vanessa. We won’t focus our whole lives on a dream, to be the first woman to fly the space shuttle. We won’t get to travel all that way, just to look back at the Earth, seemingly hovering in the void, only to feel in our hearts that we already had everything we needed. It was right there.
It was on Earth all along.
What I learned from this book is that people can come into your life, and change up what you think you have always wanted. I’ve also learned that when a book is written well it can truly transport you. For a few days, I escaped with some bad-ass women into space and, in a way, I got my childhood dream to be an astronaut. You too can go on that journey.
Houston, we are go for launch!
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