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A review by readerette
The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The story is depressing, given a woman in a 'man's world' of study falling in love with one of those men and having the relationship, and life, take unfortunate turns. It's a good story, just emotionally taxing to read.
The writing is good, though the rumination gets to be a bit much at times. I like the incorporation of Mitza and Albert's cultural backgrounds because it lends historical regional context to the story.
This may not be true for you, but most of the historical fiction I've enjoyed has been about characters loosely inspired by real people (e.g., some characters in historical romances), or about people for whom there is a lot of data to reference so minimal embellishment is required (e.g., the wives/lovers of some kings), so that might explain the following concern I have with this book:
Per the author's summary at the end, many of Mitza's relationships as described in the book are made up or nearly totally embellished, and her contributions to the work commonly attributed to Albert can only be guessed at because there's no hard evidence, only suggestion (even from Mitza's firsthand documents). So the book feels like a personal and professional indictment of Albert Einstein through Mitza's experience, but it's only based on oblique references in letters and the barest of biographic data about Mitza and her family and friends. It is classified as fiction, but it skewers a well-known, recent historical and scientific public figure in ways that feel eminently real with little call to do so.
Edit: another reviewer shared a blog post that seems to describe most of the facts we know about Mitza and offers some interpretations of her and Albert's surviving letters and what family members and friends are recorded as saying happened. In my reading, the basic facts match, but anything else is truly open for interpretation; there are no "lost drafts" or public statements or news articles or anything like that to suggest evidentiary basis for the book's claims (or quite frankly, the blog post's) of Albert's aloofness toward his wife or how much of his success he owed to her scientific and mathematical mind. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-forgotten-life-of-einsteins-first-wife/
The writing is good, though the rumination gets to be a bit much at times. I like the incorporation of Mitza and Albert's cultural backgrounds because it lends historical regional context to the story.
This may not be true for you, but most of the historical fiction I've enjoyed has been about characters loosely inspired by real people (e.g., some characters in historical romances), or about people for whom there is a lot of data to reference so minimal embellishment is required (e.g., the wives/lovers of some kings), so that might explain the following concern I have with this book:
Per the author's summary at the end, many of Mitza's relationships as described in the book are made up or nearly totally embellished, and her contributions to the work commonly attributed to Albert can only be guessed at because there's no hard evidence, only suggestion (even from Mitza's firsthand documents). So the book feels like a personal and professional indictment of Albert Einstein through Mitza's experience, but it's only based on oblique references in letters and the barest of biographic data about Mitza and her family and friends. It is classified as fiction, but it skewers a well-known, recent historical and scientific public figure in ways that feel eminently real with little call to do so.
Edit: another reviewer shared a blog post that seems to describe most of the facts we know about Mitza and offers some interpretations of her and Albert's surviving letters and what family members and friends are recorded as saying happened. In my reading, the basic facts match, but anything else is truly open for interpretation; there are no "lost drafts" or public statements or news articles or anything like that to suggest evidentiary basis for the book's claims (or quite frankly, the blog post's) of Albert's aloofness toward his wife or how much of his success he owed to her scientific and mathematical mind. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-forgotten-life-of-einsteins-first-wife/
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Terminal illness, and Infidelity
Minor: Pregnancy