Carol’s Comments May
2019
Hello Everyone! Welcome to another issue of Carol’s
Comments. When Spring approached, I wanted to immerse myself in
historical novels focusing on famous, but often overlooked women as well as sample
some fanciful literary fiction.
I first selected The Other Einstein by
Marie Benedict. Published in 2016, Benedict’s compelling novel centers on
Mileva Maric, Albert Einstein’s first wife who also was a brilliant physicist
and mathematician.
Told through the perspective of the book’s central
character, Mileva (also known as “Mitza”) recalls how she met Albert Einstein
for the first time on October 20, 1896 while attending Zurich’s Swiss Federal
Polytechnic to study physics and mathematics. Originally from Zagreb, Croatia,
Mileva has many obstacles to overcome: her ethnic background, being a woman
scientist in a male dominated profession and a physical disability.
As the months pass, Mileva’s friendship with
Einstein soon develops into a romantic relationship. She also feels very exhilarated
discussing scientific topics at Zurich’s Café Metropole with Einstein and his scholarly
friends. As their relationship intensifies, Einstein wants them to lead an unconventional,
bohemian life together.
However, after returning from a romantic rendezvous at
Lake Como, Mileva discovers she is pregnant. Einstein promises to marry her but
continuously delays the marriage due to lack of job prospects. So Mileva
returns to her parents’ home in Serbia to give birth to her daughter Lieserl.
Unfortunately, Albert selfishly never allows her to bring their daughter to
live with them in Bern,Switzerland or
ever shows any real interest in her even when Lieserl contracts scarlet fever
and dies in Serbia.
Devastated by her daughter’s death, Mileva finally
marries Einstein in Bern on January 6, 1903. Despite having two sons - Hans
Albert shortly after their marriage and Edward in 1910, their marriage deteriorates
basically because Einstein never gives Mileva credit for developing the theory
of relativity. According to Benedict’s novel, when the relativity article
entitled “Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” was published in the scholarly
journal Annalen der Physik in 1905, only Einstein’s name appeared on
the work. Apparently, Einstein had asked the journal editors to remove her name
from the article. Furious and feeling utterly betrayed, Mileva could do nothing
to correct this blatant error.
After several attempts to save their marriage, it
completely collapses on Einstein’s birthday, March 14, 1913 when Mileva
accidently discovers a note that he is having an affair with his cousin Elsa in
Berlin. Finally in July 1914, on the eve of World War I, Mileva leaves Albert
forever going back to Zurich with their two sons after completely rejecting her
husband’s untenable and extremely cruel demands for continuing the marriage.
After the divorce and until her death in 1948, Mileva
Maric Einstein tutored and mentored promising female scientists- partially
restoring the exceptional scientific career she truly deserved.
For further information about Albert Einstein’s
tumultuous first marriage, I highly recommend watching the excellent 2017
miniseries Genius: Einstein which originally aired on the National
Geographic Channel. Based on Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography Einstein:
His Life and Universe and produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, the
film stars Johnny Flynn and Geoffrey Rush as the young and older Einstein
respectively.
When picking up books at the River Park Branch
Library on March 8 (which coincidentally was International Women’s Day), I
spotted the new children’s book by New York senator and Democratic presidential
candidate Kirsten Gillibrand Bold
and Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right To Vote on a Women’s
History Month display. I knew I had to snatch it up because it contained
illustrations by my favorite artist Maira Kalman.
The picture book features ten short biographies on
the following women’s rights pioneers: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B.
Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Jovita Idar, Alice Paul, Inez
Milholland, Ida B. Wells, Mary Church Terrell and Lucy Burns. Kalman’s
appealing drawings accentuate each woman’s contribution to American women’s
fight for suffrage.
Gillibrand also includes a section that discusses
when the 19th Amendment was passed by Congress in 1919 and later
ratified on August 18, 1920.
My favorite chapter in this book is Gillibrand’s own
personal recollections about how important women’s rights were to her own
great-grandmother Mimi, her grandmother Polly and her mother Penny. Kalman’s
whimsical art especially enhances this section. Finally Gillibrand also provides
a glossary at the end of the book that highlights other people and milestones that
contributed to American women’s suffrage and equal rights such as Frances
Perkins, Billie Jean King, Shirley Chisholm, Sandra Day O’Connor, Maya Lin and
the Women’s Liberation Movement.
This delightful and informative book will appeal to
adults as well as children age 6 and older. I highly recommend it especially to
readers who enjoy American women’s history and biography.
About six months ago, a friend suggested that I
might enjoy reading Amor Towles’ 2016 bestselling novel A Gentleman in Moscow. The book sounded very interesting because I especially like fiction set in 20th
century Russia. I quickly added it to my Books to Read list. Then while
watching CBS Sunday Morning in late March, I learned that Towles’ novel
would soon be adapted into a film. I knew I definitely wanted to review it for
this blog- especially because the book had just been released in paperback
debuting at #1 on the New York Times Trade Paperback
Bestseller List.
Towles’ imaginative novel begins on June 21, 1922
when 32 year old Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced to house arrest by a Bolshevik
tribunal for writing a supposedly subversive poem entitled “Where is It Now” in 1913. He must never
leave his humble quarters at the Metropol Hotel located directly across from
the Kremlin or he will be shot.
Living in his sparse attic room, Count Rostov observes
the turbulent years of Soviet history rush past by befriending many of the
hotel’s guests and staff specifically 9 year old Nina Kulikova who resides with
her family in the Count’s former luxurious Suite 317 where he lived for four
years when he returned to Russia from Paris in 1918. Also on the first
anniversary of his house arrest, he meets the alluringly seductive Russian
movie actress Anna Urbanova. He immediately becomes so captivated with her that
they quickly start a romantic relationship lasting many years.
Throughout his thirty year "imprisonment" at the Metropol,
the Count often recalls his former aristocratic life in pre-Revolutionary
Russia. For instance, the reader learns about his beloved younger sister Helena
who died from scarlet fever in 1916 and his modern thinking unconventional
grandmother who lived an idyllic life with him at the family country estate
Idlehour in Nizhny Novgorod until the Russian Revolution altered their lives
forever.
The plot then fast forwards to 1938, when the Count’s
young friend Nina returns to the hotel with her 5 year old daughter Sofia. She
pleads with Rostov to watch over Sofia while she travels to Siberia to be near her
husband who has been imprisoned there. Sadly, Nina never returns to claim her
daughter so Rostov essentially becomes Sofia’s doting adoptive father.
By the time Sofia reaches her 17th
birthday in June 1950, Rostov feels grateful that a near tragic event four
years earlier didn’t jeopardize either of their lives. At this point, he
believes that his confinement at the Metropol has ironically shielded him from
the political turmoil outside its walls.
Then in June 1954, the narrative takes a pivotal
turn for Count Rostov when Sofia, now an accomplished pianist travels to Paris
to perform in a piano competition. Her enterprising actions create a very
unexpected and satisfying ending not only for Count Rostov, but for other
Metropol hotel residents as well.
Filled with much humor, poignancy and many memorable
multifaceted characters, Towles’ marvelous modern fable skillfully blends
historical fiction with magical realism. I recommend it to readers who
especially like inventive literary fiction. A Gentleman in Moscow will
surely become a contemporary classic.
The books reviewed in this blog can be found at most
local public libraries. My readers in
St. Joseph County, Indiana can visit the St. Joseph County Public Library’s web
site at sjcpl.lib.in.us for additional information. Thanks for reading! Happy
Memorial Day and see you all next time!
