The Other Einstein
Ratings13
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings13
Average rating3.5
The Other Einstein offers us a window into a brilliant, fascinating woman whose light was lost in Einstein's enormous shadow. It is the story of Einstein's wife, a brilliant physicist in her own right, whose contribution to the special theory of relativity is hotly debated and may have been inspired by her own profound and very personal insight. Mitza Maric has always been a little different from other girls. Most twenty-year-olds are wives by now, not studying physics at an elite Zurich university with only male students trying to outdo her clever calculations. But Mitza is smart enough to know that, for her, math is an easier path than marriage. And then fellow student Albert Einstein takes an interest in her, and the world turns sideways. Theirs becomes a partnership of the mind and of the heart, but there might not be room for more than one genius in a marriage.
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Mileva was a real person, but this is a fictional account of how it all happened. And wow what a story. Einstein was a genius and it is generally hard to live with a genius. That is so true in this book! Mileva works hard to overcome physical issues as well as society's judgmental attitudes. She is overcoming them and finding love, then Einstein happens and she is never the same. In the end, he doesn't live up to any of his promises. He may have been a genius in physics, but he sucks at real life relationships, at least that's how this story tells it.
This book felt a bit slow to start for me, but looking back it was definitely necessary to truly set the scene. It tells the all too familiar story of a woman (and in this case an incredibly brilliant one) putting her life goals and aspirations aside to take place behind her male partner who in the end loses site of all of her sacrifices.
I had to dig further after finishing this read to see how much truth there is behind Mileva Marić being the brains/ theorist behind or at least in conjunction with many of Einstein's biggest theories and work. Although we may never truly know to what extent this was the case, it has been an all too common occurrence in history for women to not be recognized for their genius work. It does seem irrefutable that Mileva was brilliant and paved the way for schooling and involvement in science and math for many other women to come.
This was a heart wrenching but also really important story. Highly recommend!
