EINSTEIN IN KAFKALAND

A graphic biography of the intersection of Einstein and Kafka in Prague during 1911-1912, a fertile period for both men.

Writer and cartoonist Krimstein, author of The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt, When I Grow Up, and Kvetch as Kvetch Can, engagingly chronicles a significant time period for both cultural giants. When the year began, neither Einstein nor Kafka was the legendary figure he would become. As the author writes, Einstein was “a financially strapped 32-year-old father of three who’s had to drag his family here to double his salary, save his marriage, and, most important, to salvage his foundering scientific legacy.” Meanwhile, Kafka was “far from the cockroach-crowned, hooded-eyed ‘prophet of modern literature’ whose very name has become a byword for mechanized ennui and the robotic futility of modern life.” In Prague, Einstein began to understand that treating space as simple emptiness didn’t work, but allowing it physical qualities, such as the ability to bend and twist, opened up dazzling possibilities—although this theory required that time become a dimension as real as length, height, and depth. All this made matters vastly more complicated—the mathematics were daunting, and a mathematician friend later helped him with the equations—so he considered this period as extraordinarily stressful. Readers looking for an explanation of relativity should consult Krimstein’s superb, opinionated bibliography; the lively timeline is also helpful. Euclid makes an appearance to denounce adding a dimension to his immortal three. Kafka does not receive as much attention as Einstein, but mostly lurks about wondering if he and Einstein are simpatico. Perhaps to introduce conflict, Krimstein gives a prominent role to Max Abraham, a rare contemporary who rejected relativity. In reality, almost every physicist who read his papers thought he was on to something.

A fun, amusing fantasy about an important year in two icons’ lives.