An ill-digested mix, although not without its felicities.
Here’s an urban legend that turns out to be true: the pathologist who autopsied Albert Einstein kept his brain, and magazine journalist Paterniti spent a nutty couple of weeks with him, ferrying it to California.
Dr. Thomas Harvey was a pathologist at Princeton Hospital who had a slight acquaintance with the world-renowned physicist; when he performed the autopsy on Einstein after his death in 1955, Harvey removed the famed brain and just kept it. Nearly 45 years later, he decided to show it to Evelyn Einstein, the great man’s granddaughter. The only problem was that she lived in San Francisco, while Harvey was in New Jersey. Enter Paterniti, who realized the journalistic potential—the existential potential!—of a road trip cross-country with the brain of the most famous scientist of the 20th century. The tone of the book is established right away: Paterniti is a bit of a smartass, a would-be Hunter Thompson in search of a guru of gonzo, and what better guru than the man who saved Einstein’s brain? Throughout their journey, Paterniti keeps shifting his focus from the historical and cultural significance of Einstein, a topic on which he is quite intelligent, to larger, more ponderous meanderings on time, space, love, and loss. The journey is not really enriched by a chapter-long visit to William Burroughs, a sort of obligatory but unnecessary bow to the Beats. Along the way, Paterniti juggles his complex emotions at being separated from his girlfriend and their dog, his increasingly mixed feelings toward Harvey, who seems to treat him as a glorified chauffeur rather than an accomplice in some delicious stunt, and his growing unease amidst the detritus of American road culture. Harvey is inscrutable, which doesn’t help the story but rings true. The result is a readable but sloppy mixture of cultural and scientific history, road book, and rather obvious personal memoir.
An ill-digested mix, although not without its felicities.Pub Date: July 18, 2000
ISBN: 0-385-33300-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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