A message from God in the atomic age
By: Irene Vilar; translated from the Spanish by Gregory Rabassa.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 324
Subjects: Vilar, Irene, 1969-  -- Mental health; Lebrón, Lolita, 1919-  -- Mental health; Mentally ill women -- Biography; Puerto Rican women -- Biography; Mentally ill -- Family relationships -- Case studies; Mendez, Gladys -- Mental health
Description: A Message from God in the Atomic Age is a razor-sharp memoir about the allure of suicide for three generations of women in one Puerto Rican family. March 1, 1954: Lolita Lebron, a young Puerto Rican nationalist, opens fire on the United States House of Representatives, proclaiming, "I did not come here to kill, I came here to die." She is sentenced to life in prison.

March 1, 1977: After attending her son's wedding in Puerto Rico on February 27th, Gladys Mendez (Lebron's daughter) leaps from a speeding car driven by her husband, despite her eight-year-old daughter's desperate attempts to restrain her. She dies two days later, without ever regaining consciousness.

February 1, 1988: Recently arrived from Puerto Rico to attend Syracuse University, Irene Vilar (granddaughter of Lebron and daughter of Mendez) is committed to Hutchings Psychiatric Hospital following a suicide attempt.

Alternating between Vilar's notes from the psychiatric ward and her recounting of her family history, A Message from God in the Atomic Age is an urgent, richly evocative meditation on family. Vilar unravels the fantastical myths and delves into the frightening secrets that have haunted a grandmother, mother, and daughter.