Customer Reviews

Einstein's Daughter: The Search for Lieserl

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Albert and Mileva Einstein had premarital sex and as a result, Mileva got pregnant. She had a girl, born in 1902. This was considered a big disgrace in those days in her country, and little is known about the child and her fate. The author sets to find out what happened to Lieserl. This book is easy to read, in general, although the abundant number of people interviewed makes it a bit confusing at times. Fortunately, the author did not forget to include a genealogical tree in the first few pages, to which i referred constantly.

Just a few points:

· The author stretches facts quite a bit. For example, on page 175, Einstein is supposed to have written to his ex-wife: "But the heredity of our own children is not without blemish", and the author affirms that Einstein "was ostensibly including Lieserl". Really? People speak like this all the time and are not necessarily referring to a love child. The front cover photo is another example. Zackheim says, "This may be the only existing image of Lieserl", and the blur she is referring to can also pass as a goat, a fence post or a dahlia. There are many other examples of these might-or-might-not situations, and the problem is that the author draws too many conclusions from them.

· While i was reading this book I could not help but think that her research did not differ all that much from what journalists do when writing an exposé on a modern day celebrity. They usually do not have to travel to Central Europe to do so, and do not get financial support from the NEA, but in substance they do the same job. Zackheim speculates whether Einstein and Mileva had sex after their divorce, whether Einstein's syphilis is what caused his children's ailments and all this speculation becomes slightly sordid after a while.

· When Woody Allen became tabloid fodder a few years ago, i was very disappointed. I like what he creates but do not like him as a person. Same thing with Einstein after reading this book. He was a genius who revolutionized the way we do science today, but as a human being he was a self-centered, tyrannical, arrogant, miserly,...(and you can add your own list of pejorative adjectives here). If only half of what Zackheim says is true, he was truly evil, especially to his children.

· Zackheim spent a lot of time in Serbia, and her accounts about the war and the difficulties she observed are some of the best writing in the book. However, she writes about Serbs as an American (and who can blame her? that's what she is). There is a slight condescending tone whenever she refers to Serbian culture, especially more blatant when talking about any of the male relatives of Mileva (alive and interviewed by her, or long dead).

In summary, this is a passable book about an unsolved mystery. It is entertaining, fast, provides some good information on life in Central Europe from the late 1800's to present, but when you get to the back cover it leaves you dissatisfied. Ultimately, it did not deliver.

This book was a fascinating read .... Other problems: The book bogged down in names and is hindered by a lack of an index. So when my head was swimming with names, I couldn't check the book's first mention of that person to be reminded who it was. Zackheim was repeatedly careless with pronouns, so a "she" or "her" in a sentence could refer to more than one woman.

Zackheim speculated too much, such as who knew whom, and what motivated people. She speculated on small things, such as whether Einstein and his ex-wife resumed sexual relations. She speculated on big things - such as what happened to Lieserl.

I was originally engrossed in the book. I dreamed about it one night, and the next day, I had to read the last 100 pages to find out what happened to Lieserl. Zackheim doesn't know. I felt let down.

The author put five years of her life into writing this book, and it shows. This is a thoroughly researched book about a little-known event that happened 100 years ago. The conclusion is, of course, speculative but entirely convincing. What is even more revealing is what she tells us about the character of Einstein. For this information she draws on her extensive bibliography. She didn't make any of it up. The quotations are from letters that Einstein wrote. He was a philandering cad who cared for nobody around him. I would not have liked to be related to him in any way. In addition, the letters indicate that Mileva may have played a significant role in his work of 1902-1906. So much for the myth of Einstein, genius, humanitarian, etc.

Michele Zackheim's "Einstein's Daughter", a riveting mystery adventure set in contemporary Eastern Europe, is a gripping story of disappearance and search, an array of interesting and colorful informants, and an analysis of a famed marriage sleuthed through actual medical/psychiatric history. The reader is instantly caught in the intrigue of the investigative process as the author is buoyed by promising leads only to encounter dead ends and oblique twists. Suspense grows as one wonders how she will come to any conclusion as she sifts through tangled history and her own often conflicting exploration. But Zackheim does come to a conclusion which certainly makes sense as a golden thread of psychological veracity emerges. When she ends the book with the discovered underlinings in the "Sexual Question", she provides an emotional weight which combines Freud and Hitchcock into one muffled AHA!

Zackheim's style is certainly readable, but her conclusions leave something to be desired. She provides the reader with too much irrelevant or misleading detail and too many of her own strong opinions. I also found her explanation of Lieserl's ultimate fate to be unconvincing. To her credit, she has told a story that should be known, and provided a number of wonderful photos. In my opinion, two of the photos depict an extremely plausible candidate for an adult Lieserl.

Zackeim has taken on a difficult topic. There is a paucity of hard evidence on Leiserl (though her existence is a fact) and author must engage in considerable speculation. Unfortunately, she does not treat it as speculation. In my opinion, the book would be better "research" if the topic was tackled more from a "disinterested third party" point of view.
For example, Zackheim clearly has it in for Einstein. The book makes no bones about that, and this causes it to veer off of Lieserl and what happened to her. Einstein was, obviously, an imperfect husband and father. But so too was Mileva as a mother. Speculations about Mileva having thought up Einstein's theories have been thoroughly disputed - the 'revolutionary' ideas were his, not her, brilliance.
The book builds up to a conclusion that leaves the reader feeling let down. This could have been avoided by somehow using the "BLUF" technique - "Bottom Line Up Front" - so the reader knows that ultimately, Lieserl's fate is still unknown. (as an aside, if her fate is ever proven, it could completely invalidate Zackheim's effort).
Its an entertaining book; not a hard read, although names and people can get tedious. Ultimately, the book should not be taken too seriously...

Update: I'm reading the book a 2nd time, with a view to thinking through the issues a bit more. Even more than the 1st time, I cannot escape the conclusion that the author has a distinct bias.
She mentions more than once that the Maric family are local aristocracy, but decribes Mileva's mother in terms of a working class family - strong, calloused hands, sensible shoes, etc, that leaves a distinct feeling of contradiction for anyone reading for the detail.
In Part 2, she states Einstein had "no patience and very little respect for women" other than perhaps Curie. And the Curie exception is offered grudgingly. But this is false - Einstein knew and respected Lise Meitner, the brilliant Austria physicist; and had dealings with female scientists and students all through his career. Interestingly, Meitner is not mentioned in the book/glossary.
I my second reading, I'm again hit by the lean references. Reader has to constantly refer back to the endnotes in hopes of matching topics to references, since they are not enumerated in the text. This makes for a difficult scholarly read, and suggests poor scholarship and a tilt toward personal opinion. And the feminist slant is obvious.
Einstein was certainly a poor husband - but no more so than Maric was a nagging, or at least troubled, wife. These two people were developing in different directions, which is no one's 'fault'. Husbands or wives outgrowing one another is a common human occurence.
Too much use is made of quotation marks to indicate doubt or cast aspersions on Einstein's words; this is a distasteful technique however unintentional it might be....
Again, do not take this book too seriously.

I read this book with great interest because the author spent a lot of time on the ground in Serbia seeking new material. Her principal conclusions on Lieserl's mysterious fate have credibility but in the absence of specific documents it's hard to know what really happened. Did Lieserl die of Scarlet Fever? Was she mentally-handicapped?
The standard theories are: i) she died of Scarlet Fever in September 1903. ii)She was put in a home for mentally-handicapped infants. iii) She was adopted by the Savic family. After two years' research I have concluded she was born mentally-handicapped and at the age of 21 months, just after contracting Scarlet Fever, she was mercy-killed and secretly buried in Kac. My 'fourth theory' points to Albert Einstein instigating this action and probably Milos Maric carrying it out.

Well-researched, well put together. Easy, pleasant reading. Nothing stunning or dramatic. On the plus side: Voyeuristic insights give reader access to the mysterious lives of Mileva and Albert. Letters and interviews bring them to life. Engaging description of the author's tracks in the mystical Voijvodina, Yugoslavia. On the minus side, two observations: (1) Regarding Lieserl, there are no new conclusions. The infant dies of scarlet fever, removing the shame and burden of an illegitimate child from Mileva, Albert, and their families. (2) Regarding Albert, the revelations about his coldness are not new. He is a man of another world, of unparalleled genius. Rating him by our human standards is impossible. Unfortunately for Mileva, she fell in love with him.

Elaborate, profound and deeply felt. Here's the wit of Michele Zackheim, whose sharp eye caught details on Serbian culture, on women's feelings one hundred years ago. This book is not only about Lieserl--it's a treasury of cultural practices, women's thoughts and determination.