Einstein in Love

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 3 JAN 2000

Of the many recent and imminent books on Einstein, Overbye's (Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos) may have the most compelling title and most fulfilling approach. An accomplished science writer, Overbye, deputy science editor of the New York Times, tells the story of Einstein's early years, when he cultivated his image as the shaggy and sloppy, garrulous and brilliant bad boy of physics and committed himself to twin passions: revolutionizing our understanding of the universe, starting with light, gravity and time; and living the bohemian life with the woman he'd eventually marry, Mileva Maric, a superior mathematician in her own right. At first, it seemed that Mileva and Albert would make the world together, but Albert's passion for physics proved the stronger. As Einstein's fame grew and his theories - the development of which Overbye explains brilliantly - gained adherents, he escaped the drudgery of work in the patent office for a series of university appointments, while his wife and their children faded into the background. He took up with other women, which, as the reader learns, was even sadder than it may at first appear, because of all that Maric gave up to be with him, including their first child, Lieserl, born out of wedlock and sent away so that she wouldn't hinder Einstein's career. Overbye's aim - which he accomplishes with the precision of a scientist and the ear of a musician - is to portray Einstein the man, not the myth ("no picture of Einstein can be complete that does not explore both disparate strains of his life, both the sacred and the profane"). In the end, the reader may come to like Einstein less but appreciate his achievements even more.