Adelaide Einstein: A Novel By April L. Hamilton [Paperback]

April L. Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 22, 2008

Adelaide Binchley is probably the only fortysomething housewife and junior college dropout ever to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics, and she's certainly the only one whose career was launched by a bedpan. When Addie meets Physics professor Jakob Pankowicz, she discovers that having just one person see a greater potential in her, and believe in her even when she doesn't believe in herself, is all she needs to escape her self-imposed limits. In this hilarious and touching novel, as she navigates the rough territory created by her teenage-feminist daughter, borderline delinquent son, philandering husband, and the friends in her embroidery circle, Addie finds when one person selflessly reaches out to another, that gesture has the power to change the world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

NPR’s Science Fridays. On the surface, Adelaide, 46, has the life she envisioned when she dropped out of college and got married—a family, a volunteer position, and a great husband. The husband, however, is cheating with her best friend Gwynnie. When Adelaide meets terminally ill physics professor Jakob Pankowicz in a hospice center, new worlds literally begin unfolding as she takes classes and he takes her under his wing and (a little more) in the laboratory. As if these plots twists weren’t clichéd enough, both of her children, Patty and Eric have also started to stray from the straight and narrow. Patty is having sex (gasp!) and Eric is getting kicked out of camp among other places. And, of course, Addie who has always deferred to her husband, must take matters into her own hands and discover what it’s like to carve out her own life. It is not necessarily the story here that makes Adelaide’s worries so utterly unconvincing, it’s that she seems like a a blank canvas that the artist cannot decide how to fill. Overall, the writing is clean and consistent, but the story itself has very little soul. -- manuscript review by Publishers Weekly, an independent organization

What really works for me with this excerpt is the way Adelaide herself is crafted-- we learn a great deal about her with a very few actions, rather than endless description. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case with the plot, but that's nothing a quick revision wouldn't take care of. It's quite obvious that the author really feels for Adelaide (and as all those writing books tell you, if you don't cry when a character's dog dies, you're not doing it right), and has the skills to make the reader do so as well. I like this one a lot. -- Amazon Top Reviewer

About the Author

April L. Hamilton lives in Southern California with her two children and entirely too many pets. When she's not writing, kid-wrangling or pursuing her grandiose and hopeless dream of a neat and orderly household, she can generally be found reading, reclaiming the domestic arts (aka "crafting") or taking in a movie.

Product Details

• Paperback: 310 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace (February 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1434890414
• ISBN-13: 978-1434890412
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,992,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

April L. Hamilton is an author, blogger, Technorati BlogCritic, speaker and essayist on issues related to self-publishing and indie authorship. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Authors, and is the founder and Editor In Chief of Publetariat: the premier online news hub and community for indie authors and small imprints.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

123 of 126 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Adelaide, Adelaide, ever lovin' Adelaide...', January 31, 2008

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

April Hamilton bursts onto the scene with a sparkling little excerpt for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest with Chapter One of ADELAIDE EPSTEIN, and if character development has as much to do with the judging as it should, this entry should be a winner. Hamilton has apparently written a 'comic fiction' and in the best sense of that term this opener tests the reader's ability to judge between what is comedy and what is daily dull routine in the life of a housewife. When the author can induce laughs from introspective observations rather that pratfalls, then the reader can be assured that the story will develop well.

Adelaide is a housewife who gave up finishing college to get married and raise two children and who now faces the void of 'family out of the house' syndrome and tries to fill that sense of lack of purpose and importance by volunteering at the local hospital: she is assigned the 'bedpan brigade' type chores that are below the nurses and is repeatedly making judgment errors as well as committing faux pas situations that lead to her being fired - try being fired from a volunteer job! Depressed with her life and her station she leaves her volunteer blunder job and returns home to soak in a tub, trying to forget that she is a forty-six year old woman with excessive body tissue. While relaxing in her perfumed yet depressing tub, in pops her daughter unexpectedly, accompanied with her boyfriend - the two obviously planning an afternoon's 'diversion' in the empty house. How Adelaide is confronted by the nude couple in the bathroom and what transpires among the three is hilarious (and touching), and when she tries to share her life problems with her best friend Gywnnie (gorgeous, free spirited etc), she discovers that her husband is in flagrante in Gywnnie's bed. And the wheels start to spin on in this page-turner novel.

No doubt there are more beautifully drawn characters that will populate the following pages. Hamilton has a real gift for drawing credible people who have equal potential for being hilarious and tragic. She makes what some would find as an ordinary day into something that leaps into the extraordinary. Can't wait to see how Adelaide et al are worked out here! Grady Harp, January 08

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bad day for Addie..., January 15, 2008

By 

Lexi "Lexi Revellian" (London) - See all my reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed this. The characters are believable and engaging, one wants to find out what happens next, and best of all the author has a great sense of humour.

The bath scene made me laugh out loud several times. (I'd say there was a tad too much description of the bath products to start with). Poor Addie, in her consolatory bath, when the front door goes - isn't this always the way - then things get rapidly much worse. And Addie's choices of how to react are spot on. I did think the daughter would have been alerted the moment she opened the bathroom door by the scented steam, but this is a minor cavil.

The relationship Addie has with Patty is so authentic. The bit where Patty is defending her right to make her own decisions, then exchanges glances with her mother as Todd makes his feeble excuse is so true to life. Surely all mothers of teenagers have been there. It feels real.

The surprise development with Bob - well - it surprised me! I felt the author has plenty of interesting plot developments up her sleeve.

The prose is good, with nice observation; for instance, `that slightly condescending tone so typical of younger people who occupy positions of authority over the middle-aged'. Occasionally, you tell things that might be better shown; for instance, `In reality, both women had an idealized view of the other's life and each daydreamed about what it must be like to be the other from time to time.' This is both `tell' and authorial intrusion, and perhaps the information could be better conveyed through the women's dialogue.

An assured, easy and engaging read. Well done.

Lexi

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful caterpillar to butterfly story., February 23, 2008

By 

Garry Buck (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Adelaide Einstein: A Novel By April L. Hamilton (Kindle Edition)

This is the story of Adelaide (Addie), a middle aged woman who is living her dream. Addie's a stay-at-home mom, 2 kids, successful husband, house in the 'burbs, who does charitable volunteer work and hosts a lady's sewing circle. What could be more wonderful? But if she's living her idyllic girlhood dream, why it it so unsatisfying? Perhaps the fact that her son is a delinquent, her daughter thinks she's a dinosaur, her husband is a patronizing jerk, and she just got fired from her volunteer work has something to do with it. And the lady's sewing circle friends, well they're a whole 'nother can of worms.

The story traces Addie's path to growth and redemption. I don't want to say more and give away the plot, but the story is smart, funny and poignant.

This is the second book I've read by April L. Hamilton. There's something about her writing style that I find deeply engaging. With other works of fiction I feel like a voyeur, like I'm peering through a window observing someone else's life at a distance. With Ms. Hamilton's first book Snowball, and again with Adelaide Einstein, it's as if I'm in the room, inside the character's skin, seeing her world through her eyes and actually living her experience.

This is the sort of book that I didn't want to put down because I wanted to know how it ended, and was sad when it ended because I wanted it to go on forever.