Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma

The nuclear physicist most responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, was a genius both scientifically and otherwise. In Jeremy Bernstein's intensely interesting biographical memoir, Oppenheimer emerges as a man unsure of his identity and captive to an element of self-destructiveness in his makeup. As a former colleague of Oppenheimer's, Bernstein has composed a book that is both personal and historical, bringing the reader close to the life and workings of an extraordinary and controversial man.