Growing up poor and Black in Mississippi, James Plummer Jr. knew he loved science, but he never thought he'd become a renowned astrophysicist. His memoir, A Quantum Life (published under the name Plummer chose for himself, Hakeem Oluseyi), tells the story of his peripatetic childhood, his contradictory persona of "gangsta nerd," his eventual journey to graduate school at Stanford and the addiction to crack cocaine that almost pulled him all the way down.
Oluseyi vividly recounts his chaotic growing-up years: bouncing among multiple relatives' houses in different states; devouring the entire set of encyclopedias his mom bought from a salesman; falling behind in school because he moved so much. He won prizes at science fairs but had to act tough to survive in dangerous neighborhoods; later, he experimented with drugs but managed to graduate from college and get into Stanford. He charts his scientific journey and eventual work building telescopes under renowned Black solar physicist Art Walker, and admits his constant struggle to "keep up" in a world of privileged white scientists. Oluseyi is skilled at translating high-level science into understandable terms, but the true power of his memoir lies in his candid, vulnerable exploration of his inner journey. He makes mistakes and even falls into self-sabotage at times, but eventually learns to deal with the long-term effects of trauma and become the physicist--and man--he dreams of being.
Written in an easy conversational style, A Quantum Life mixes fascinating science with one man's struggle to reach for the (literal and metaphorical) stars. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams