I do believe in the couple as a teamand am fortunate enough to experience it on a daily basis (to the point that I plan to have my next book not just with me as the author, but co-authored by my husband), so I could feel the hurt when Albert renegaded on the collaborationhe had promised in their studies and work together. Mileva’s discovery of another face of Einstein, his moodinessand his maneuveringto keep her in the shadows (while benefiting from her genius gifts in maths) to be himself exclusively under the spotlight was so well done, that I often wanted to slap the guy, even though I’m not an ardent feminist. It was also neat seeing her develop from a serious and rather shy girl to a young woman trusting enough in her intelligence to mix with male students for passionate discussions on physics and maths in the cafés of the city, an activity almost exclusively male at the time. She was stuck between her feelings, slowly warming towards Albert, and her fear that being married and starting a family would put a stop to what had been her unique goal in life. Fortunately, she finds three friends at her pension, all equally smart, ambitious, and ridiculed! I really enjoyed how the author portrayed Mileva’s inner struggle as Einstein started flirting with her. But Mileva, emboldened by her father for whom educationwas essential, is determined to master physics and mathematics. So the reaction of her exclusively male classmates and teachers are not that surprising for her. Her short size and limping did not help, at a time when this slight handicap was enough to make it difficult to find a spouse. Back in Serbia, her homeland, Mileva has already had to suffer from classmates, male and female, when they realized her difference and the scope of her ambition. The retelling of Mileva’s life opens on her first day at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic University, in Zürich, one of the few universities in Europe to grant womendegrees in 1896. Her aim then became to “tell the story of a brilliant woman whose light has been lost in Albert’s enormous shadow.” And she does it beautifully, in a first person narrative, the most appropriate for this goal in mind. It’s funny how some authors find a topic, or rather a topic finds them: while helping her son with a book report on Einstein, she discovered his wife Mileva Marić and was intrigued. So it was a book I was really looking forward to diving into.
She seemed to be very deep and simple at the same time, and very articulate. I also heard the author Marie Benedict talk in a panel. The Other Einstein was a big hype at BEA 2016. Follow Sourcebooks on Twitter, Facebook and on Pinterest MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS BOOK
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