Well said Kbschaffer! I think Power, Secrecy, Isolation Meridian experiences as a wife in Los Alamos could not be experienced to that degree anywhere else in the country at that time. I think it mirrors the major issue-themes of her life, from being powerless and poor and isolated by her intellect as a youth to the isolation of not being in a sorority in college, and the isolation she felt from the other wives who held post graduate degrees and were mothers, to the 'secret' of sexual satisfaction, to her lack of power even though she was a milionaire! By the completion of her life, she enjoyed long-term friendships, experienced the value and power of helping young women, and gifted her solitary science journals to others. What a triumph!