Susan's Reviews > The Other Einstein

I didn't like this book at all. I hate books that have potentially interesting stories to tell and then just wreck them. It could have been quite edifying as Mileva Maric was Albert Einstein's first wife and a noted scientist in her own right. She was the only female student at an elite university in Zurich in 1896. She lives in a pension with other bright female students. It must have been exciting to be on your own for the first time and discovering there are other people like yourself who like to learn.

So we discover any of this? No. The four females are jealous of each other when one of them dates. Are there wonderful conversations between Einstein and Maric? There were but there were so many more talks where he thinks up pet names like Dollie, ragamuffin, beloved sorceress, little escapee. Gag me with a stick. This is nothing more than a glorified romance novel.

There are claims that Maric is responsible for some of Einstein's work. It fits into a new theory going around that women were responsible for everything. I think she had input into his work but she was certainly no Marie Curie. As the book goes along she becomes more and more subservient. I found this difficult to believe that a well educated woman would suddenly change to this degree. Also, she had a limp. I think the first 9000 times this was mentioned was sufficient for me to understand that she had a limp that she blamed everything in her life on. Put please quit hitting me over the head with it.

I have to admit my bias here. I had just finished a wonderful book that shook me, moved me and made me think. It was a historical fiction too but on such a different level that it was like comparing Charles Dickens to a children's book. But then I'd have to call it historical fiction instead of what it is, a badly written romance novel.

There are so many great books and so little time, why would you waste a second on this drivel?