I read the first five chapters of this last night and have decided to stop. Not only is it not very interesting or engaging, it's also really crude. I mean, there are plenty of people alive now who remember Einstein---he has several living relatives. Just because he was famous doesn't mean we all have a right to him---or that anyone does---and to be so flippant about the illegal desecration of his body is beyond quirky. It's just plain poor taste. These guys should have been arrested. I find nothing redeeming about what I've read. I do not recommend. Ew. ( )

An odd little story about an odd piece of history. ( )

I read this entire book thinking it was fiction! I just realized it is a true story.

Wow. Well, how I write the review is now going to be a little bit different.

The author took a road trip across the USA in the 90's with Einstein's brain in Tupperware in the trunk. I thought it would be a humorous book (see, I thought it was fiction!) but it's actually a relatively slow-paced story about a rather emo guy chauffeuring an old guy (former pathologist) across the states to give the brain to Einstein's granddaughter.

Now that I know these are true people in this story, I'm blown away. Okay, they really did go see William Burroughs in Lawrence, KS! And I'm so glad the redheaded Sara with green eyes really exists. I'm still trying to process the fact that these are real people in the book. This also means the creepy Hollywood lawyer for dead star's likenesses really exists. Yikes.

It's amazing that everyone seemed to know that Dr. Thomas Harvey kept Einstein's brain in his basement for 40 some years and no one really did anything about it. He hadn't broken any laws. He was the guy that did the autopsy on Einstein. Wow. And he is quite a character. (Apparently, not a made up character.) He is hard to figure out. A lot is going on up there in his head. His conversations often make no sense but he seems to be in his right mind. The author, Michael Paterniti, loses patience with him and his odd way of communicating at times, but he toughs it out because, after all, this is really interesting. This is a road trip we would all do if we had the chance, eccentric character be damned.

So! Not the book I was expecting. Still interesting as a road trip novel, circa 1998. It's not edge of your seat exciting, but that's okay once you settle into the pace. ( )

An entertaining yet insightful story about a trip across country with Einstein's brain in the trunk.

The author meets the brain's keeper, the pathologist Dr. Thomas Harvey, through a casual remark by his landlord, Steven Lowe*, while Paterniti lived in New Mexico. Intrigued by the opportunity to see the brain, Michael later travels to meet Dr. Harvey.

Harvey was the pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Einstein in 1955. As part of that procedure, he removed the brain and took it with him. He insists that he had permission from Einstein's son, by telephone, but the validity of that permission was questioned over the decades Harvey kept the brain.

Paterniti found Harvey to be eccentric and likable. Harvey didn't always answer Paterniti's questions fully, so it seemed that he was being a little disingenuous. Nevertheless, the two seemed to take to each other, at least to an extent. When Harvey mentioned he was going to travel from the east coast to the west to visit Albert Einstein's granddaughter Evelyn, Paterniti responded by saying he would drive. The impulsive remark set the whole thing in motion.

Interspersed with odd visits the pair make along the way are details of Einstein's life. Initially I got the impression that Paterniti saw Einstein as a cheerful fellow, a bit absent-minded but well-meaning. From my own reading I knew Einstein was far more complex and not the friendly father-figure we see in the memes. As the book progresses, though, his character is filled in and I became more satisfied with it.

This is the type book that I have generally become tired of - a kind of memoir with a theme. "One year doing X" or "overcoming grief by falconing". It covers a short period in Paterniti's life, all focused on the brain. There is a kind of formula for filling in the blanks in this type memoir. Nevertheless, I liked it. Paterniti has a light touch and is not overly full of himself. His integrity drew me in.

* It happens I knew Steven Lowe. He was a warm, lovely person I met in relation to his purchase of a motel designed by my father. I came to know him better over the short time he operated the motel, until his tragic death. Interestingly, he was a great teller of tales and had lived quite a life. He would be a great subject for a book himself, had he only lasted a bit longer. ( )

DNF - This book is a non-fiction account of Paterniti's meeting and getting to know the doctor who had Einstein's brain (from the autopsy). I found it dry and boring - I didn't care about the characters or what happened to the brain or even how he got the brain.....couldn't finish. ( )