Review: The Other Einstein

The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Other Einstein, in the same realm as The Paris Wife and The Aviator's Wife, explores Albert Einstein's first marriage with Mileva Maric. Besides basic background biographical information not much is actually known about Maric, specifically her marriage, so Benedict set out to fill in the gaps with a fictional telling of her life.

As a woman currently in graduate school for chemistry, I love stories about the first females in science. It's much easier today, but most scientific fields are still male dominated. Mileva faced the worst of the discrimination, first in school and then even eventually from her own husband. She is a strong heroine and I related strongly with her ability to face challenges head on. If she was a modern woman I have no doubt she would never have even married Einstein and chosen to raise their daughter on her own. Instead, she's trapped in a loveless relationship that only speaks to the challenges of her time.

I do feel like Benedict took too much artistic freedom, specifically when it came to Albert. Although I have no doubt he was a not a nice person, he was painted in a fantastically bad light here. It serves a purpose, but Maric's torment as a housewife instead of a scientist could have been achieved with a less severe portrayal of her husband.

I also would have liked to here a little more about Mileva's later studies, as those were rushed through once she started seeing Einstein, and a little more focus on the end of the marriage. The book trudged through the few months where the couple was courting and then zoomed through the rest of their lives together. This is a book about being a wife, but I would've liked more focus as her as a person independent from her marriage.

The Other Einstein was a great book, though. Although much of the minutia is more or less based on the few hypotheses about Mileva's life and is more or less made up, it is a work of fiction and it makes for a great read. A great addition to the 'wives' novels.

Thanks NetGalley for a copy to review!

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