Driving Mr. Albert : A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain

by Michael Paterniti

Release Date: 05 June, 2001

Edition: Paperback

Price:

More Info

Relative Review 84

I personally enjoyed this story of 2 unlikely road trip companions who travel across America with Albert Einstein's brain in the trunk of their rented Buick. I think some of the people reviewing it here on Amazon take it and themselves a little too seriously.

It was quirky and fun and sweet all at the same time. Included is a light biography of Einstein and the bizarre events that took place after his death concerning his brain. Even a little Relativity is thrown in. This is not a serious book and shouldn't be approached as one. I don't think it is one of the great books of our time, but it did provide an interesting escape.

I started readng it, thinking it was fiction, only to discover it is for the most part a factual account. I found it to be the perfect read while I was cruising around the Caribbean on my honeymoon. Anyone who is interested in this subject matter and doesn't already know much about it should pretty much feel the same way. Enjoy!

A Melancholy Memoir

Here's an ultimate meta-book: a memoir about driving across country with the man whose fame rests on having removed and kept the brain of Albert Einstein. The glow of the glow of the glow!

Thomas Harvey, the physician who performed the autopsy on Einstein, is himself, as sketched here, a somewhat melancholy character, and Paterniti himself is trying to find some meaning for his existence, which he achieves by marrying his long-time love Sara and by writing the memoir itself.

Along the way we get a fragmented thumbnail sketch of Einstein's life and loves, descriptions of Americana from Dodge City to Las Vegas to San Jose, and a meeting with Einstein's granddaughter.

The book is a meditation on fame and the meaning of life in post-Einstein, post-nuclear-bomb America. It sports some lovely poetic prose, poignant ironies, and memorable images.

I hope Michael Paterniti continues his meditations and next gives us a memoir about life in Portland, Maine.