The Other Einstein

This book is about Albert Einstein 's first wife, Mileva "Mitza" Maric, a Serbian woman with a limp whose parents didn't believe she had any hopes of a future with a husband but was rather brilliant with math and science and could possibly have a future as a professor and doing research. Switzerland was a progressive country that was allowing women into its colleges and universities and Mileva was accepted into Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich. She took up lodging at Engelbrecht Pension an all-girl boarding house where she became friends with Milana, Ruzica, and most especially Helena who also had a limp. She had never had friends before.as.She was always teased and ridiculed. In class, Dr. Weber was particularly hard on her because she was a woman and because she was Serbian. One student reaches out to.her and that student was Albert Einstein. He flirted shamefully with her and she turned him down. Her friend Ruzica talked her into going into one of the cafes where Einstein and his friends were having an intellectual discussion on science and she found herself drawn into the discussion. When Einstein found out about the women's playing music after dinner he showed up uninvited with his violin to play with Milena. The other women don't much care for him, though. Helena and Milena have made a pact to not have a man in their lives and to focus on their careers. But soon, Helena has found a man to love and has broken the pact. So, Milena doesn't see why she has to keep the pact too, especially when her mother is encouraging her to pursue romance even though her father is against it. Einstein and Milena have talked about marriage and while Einstein has graduated now and is looking for work, which is hard because his teachers aren't giving him good recommendations due to his absentees from class and his disrespect toward them. Milena took a semester off her second year in order to cool off her feelings for him and got behind in school which meant that she had to wait another year before she could take the test. Einstein talks her into taking a vacation at Lake Como where they can make love before they get married. Milena comes back pregnant and Einstein won't marry her without a steady job. She flunks the exams due to her pregnancy and he refuses to come to her home to talk to her parents about the pregnancy. He has a lead on a job in the Patent Office but for now, he's tutoring. She takes the train up to the next stop to see him but he refuses to take the train up to the next stop to see her. Eventually, her money runs out and she must go back home furious at him for not seeing her. She has a baby girl that he asks her to leave with her parents six months later because he got the patent office job and he listed himself as unmarried and he can't show up with a child in tow. So she does for now. On a paper they worked on together he asks that she take her name off of it in order for him to get better job prospects when he shows it to a friend. A year later their daughter comes down with scarlet fever and dies. On the way home riding the train, she comes up with the Theory of Relativity. The year 1905 was known as Einstein's Year of Wonder. He published four groundbreaking papers. Milena's name was supposed to be on them but he took her name off of them. She was furious. This cracked their marriage. Not to mention the infidelity. Einstein was a real bastard. While this book plays a little fast and loose with the facts in that no one really knows what really happened and the author is imagining what she thinks happened, it is indeed a possibility. You really feel sorry for Milena who loses everything in her association with Einstein. This was a really good book that tells an incredible story. I give it five out of five stars. Quotes I had become the embodiment of the old Serbian phrase the house doesn’t rest on the earth but on the woman. -Marie Benedict (The Other Einstein p 175)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! One of my favorite book styles is to take a lesser known character or event from history and develop a story around it. I enjoy an in-depth researched story, whether it is fiction or non-fiction. The Other Einstein is historical fiction. Warning: if you are a major fan of Albert Einstein, he is not very appealing in this book. Actually, he is portrayed as quite an ass! This book follows the life and career of Mileva Maric, who will eventually become Mrs. Einstein. She is a Serbian girl who has great skill in mathematics and physics. Her father encourages her education, partly because she was born with a limp and the family believes no one will marry her. With her father's help and encouragement, she is accepted at university in Zurich Switzerland. She lives in a pension with three other brilliant girls who are in the city to attend universities. She is the only female in her physics class and the professor does not hide his contempt. Mileva works hard and excels beyond her male peers. Albert Einstein is one of her classmates and he is clearly smitten with her. She resists at first because she wants to be taken seriously as a scholar and because she does not want to derail her education. Albert wears her down, despite the warnings of her best friend Helene. Also, Helene meets and eventually marries a man, thus breaking their pact to remain single and career focused. Albert and Mileva have a wonderful courtship and he treats her as an intellectual equal. They work together. He also pressures her to adopt a Bohemian lifestyle. By Bohemian, he means have sex out of wedlock. She becomes pregnant and has a daughter. She is unable to graduate and does not earn her degree. At this point their relationship slowly disintegrates. Albert is unable to find work, partly due to his arrogant attitude. He refuses to meet his daughter and she dies very young. The death deeply affects Mileva. Albert later marries her, despite the opposition of his family and they have two sons. The relationship sours further. The premise of this story is that Mileva is the one who actually discovered and articulated the Theory of Relativity while she was mourning for her daughter. Albert and Mileva co-write the paper, though he removes her name without her knowledge. He publishes all their work under his name and gives her no credit. He also becomes an increasingly bitter, nasty, egotistical, and vindictive man. Mileva wants a divorce, but that is not an easy thing in the early 1900's. Mileva's real role in the Theory of Relativity is unknown. Among scientists and scholars, some believe she was a sounding board for Albert, others believe that she did the mathematical equations for his theories, and some believe she is the author. I enjoyed this book because I learned about science at the turn of the 20th century. I was enraged at the treatment of women, especially the way that intelligent women were belittled and looked upon with suspicion. There were several times when I was internally screaming at Mileva to grow a spine or at least bash Albert in the head with a book! In other words, the characters and the story evoked strong feelings for me. And that is a sign of a good book!

Fascinating book!

April 2021 has been a month of firsts for me as far as authors. The Other Einstein was my first Marie Benedict book, and I so wanted to love it. I expected something akin to The Paris Library, which I did enjoy very much. And in fact, Marie Benedict does a lot of things well in The Other Einstein. For me, the novel's biggest draw was main character Mileva "Mitza" Maric. I adored her and considered her a fictional sister from our first meeting. From her scholarly bent to her mild disability, I felt like Mileva and I were almost twins from different eras. My heart broke for her as she was marginalized based on disability and sex, but I cheered for her gumption, determination, and intelligence. Better, Mileva is a three-dimensional and fully human character. She is not an "inspiration" just because she happens to be a disabled woman in a time period inhospitable to both those distinctions. Although I will admit, to a person with a literature brain instead of a science brain, Mileva certainly inspired me with her acumen for and dedication to physics. I also loved the scenes with Ruzica, Milana, and especially Helene. They are the kinds of friends I wish I'd had growing up and while pursuing advanced degrees. And while I knew the point of The Other Einstein was to take a look at well, Einstein's wife, I kind of rooted for the quartet to somehow stay "together," single and pursuing their careers in an early twentieth-century example of feminism. But if I couldn't have that, the friendships and dialogue are wonderful enough. Mileva's relationship with Helene is particularly interesting, feminine without being silly and sometimes painful without being full of angst. I also applaud Marie for delving, at least somewhat, into the social climate of Germany, Switzerland, and the Austro-Hungarian empire of the time. I wasn't familiar with Eastern European culture before reading this book, and while I knew a little of the prejudice ethnic groups like Serbians faced, I didn't know much about that, either. Marie taught me a lot without being pedantic or dry, and without driving it into my head that bigotry was a huge obstacle for the Einsteins. In fact, the constant presence and "normality" of anti-Serbian attitudes, anti-Semitism, anti-feminism and the rest made it all the more jarring. I even caught glimpses of what Germany, Austria, and fellow countries would face in the ensuing half-century. Finally, I appreciate Marie's work in delving into a character, a real person, about whom history tells us almost nothing. Under her hand, Mileva Maric Einstein becomes relatable. She enjoys the same things modern women do, like hanging out at coffee houses or visiting beautiful forest haunts, with her own spin on that enjoyment thanks to her prodigy status. She looks for God in science and science in God, and has to struggle to form her own identity and philosophy after being told, "You can only do certain things, fit into certain places, accomplish what is approved." Not only Mileva herself, but the people and settings around her, written with such detail, carried the story for me. Okay, so what's the problem? Well, "problem" kind of depends on who you ask. For me, about halfway through and even before that, The Other Einstein became tediously slow. Mileva was growing, events were happening...and yet she always seemed acted upon, not like a self-determined person. Part of that is probably her time period; no such thing as politically correct history, after all. But also, her character voice became bogged down. Telling over showing, a hazard of first-person POV, eventually became a problem, as did some obvious and sensory phrases. For example, during a scene where Mileva is infuriated, she straight up says, "I felt rage." Additionally, it seems odd, but I didn't like the presence of Einstein in this story. I don't know much about him personally, so Marie's portrait may well have been accurate. That wasn't my issue. My issue was that I could see where his and Mileva's relationship was going a mile away, and thus, what the lesson or point of the book would be. Combine that with the ever-slowing pace, and I got bored and disappointed. With this said, the things I didn't like about The Other Einstein were probably down to Marie's stylistic choices. If you're a fan of her writing style, you'll probably love the book, and as noted, there's a lot to like regardless. I'm disappointed The Other Einstein wasn't a favorite, but willing to try more like it and recommend it to particular audiences. My recommendation is stronger if, like me, you enjoy stories of smart or prodigy women, or women with unusual talents or circumstances, making their way in what was and sometimes still is a man's world.

While debate remains about the contributions Albert Einstein’s first wife made to his work, this is an excellent story! I enjoyed how the characters were developed and a number of important topics were covered- the role of women (at the time) in higher education, the role of a wife in the family and how various ethnic groups were treated. History is easier to understand, I believe, when told through books like this one.

3.5 stars Brilliant, sheltered young woman gets played and played and played again. A deformed hip let Mileva pursue an education in a man’s field–physics right at the dawn of the 20th Century. In her cohort was the young Albert Einstein who takes an interest in Mileva from the get-go. While Mileva has made a pact with other girls to pursue science and live the life of a professional, Einstein continues his efforts to ingratiate himself. As feelings ripen, Mileva takes the BFF pact with the girls very seriously and flees to another University. When she gives up and returns to Switzerland, the girls and Einstein love finally triumphs. Until it doesn’t. She should have trusted her gut reactions. But, woman believe what the want in any day and age. (Been there myself, got the t-shirt and the divorce). Idealistic, sheltered. Sadly it often adds up to gullible and manipulable. Since time began men have used smart women to advance their careers. In the early 20th Century it was considered a good move to marry the boss’s daughter or similar. After all, marriage made them “one.” Many a woman has contributed far, far more than we’ll ever know to a famous man’s career. Remember Harry Truman’s saying? “Behind every successful man is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law.” But in Albert Einstein’s early career it was an outraged wife and a surprised mother-in-law. But that outraged wife was savvy–way savvier than her using rat of a hubby. This book is well written and believable. The author gives a full account of what is fact and what is fiction which helps. But even acknowledging that Mileva was very, very well educated and therefore would have come into contact with progressive views on women-probably even going so far as to read the early feminists. Add that Albert made the so-called Bohemian life seem so romantic (hardly the first time a man’s pulled that ruse, either be it a lifestyle on the extreme left or the extreme right), I found some of her outrage a bit too 21st Century. While, I doubt another woman was duped to the point of a Nobel Prize, I just think at that time and place she’d have gone on accepting the lies. The pleasant surprise was how she negotiated the end. Brilliant move. But, did she really clearly see that Berlin saw East Europeans so badly then? Antisemitism was clearly present in Kaiser Wilhelm II’s reign and in his court, but the East European discrimination, I’m not sure. Finally, I found it very odd that she didn’t have at least a maid of all work. In the end I did not like Milvena-she was full of herself. But if I disliked her, I loathed Albert Einstein.

I love reading anything by Marie Benedict! Have ready them all! Beautifully written and fabulous stories about intelligent women! Great books for club discussions.

Despite the fact that this book gets off to a very slow start, about a third of the way in, it gets very absorbing. It tells the story of a brilliant woman whose light is nearly extinguished in the presence of an equally brilliant man at time when university educations and careers for women in the traditional mens’ fields of science and mathematics were practically unheard of. Despite the background of science and mathematics, it is an intensely human story and that for me, is the appeal of this novel. Kudos to the author for making the references to incredibly complex scientific principles manageable for the average reader. These references are necessary to the story but easily navigable. Bottom line: you will likely experience a change in whatever perspectives you may have regarding Albert Einstein. You may find him to be both more and less than what you thought before.