Fifteen years, I’ve been with Mr Girlwhogotoverit, and still, he comes home with books for me that “sound like something [I’ll] like.” He’s never been right, but I appreciate the attempt to meet me where I live.
This is one for Mum and Nan, the literary equivalent of the sort of wine my family calls a “quaffer” – something that you can get through at pace, but which leaves no lasting impression.
Pros:
- Well paced
- Seamlessly inserts main characters into historical settings
- Does exactly what it says on the cover – spans 40+ years
Cons:
- Protagonist’s peril is set up over an entire chapter but resolved in a paragraph
- Will make you want to hit all men in the head with a hardcover copy
- Plays silly buggers with fonts to denote flashes back/forward and different characters
That last con is what will prevent me from recommending it to anyone looking for an airplane read or something to smash through while simultaneously babysitting and watching the Superbowl. Instead of finding it intriguing or clever, I found it unnecessary and an imposition (I understand Reilly has also published a novel with different colour fonts?! I could NEVER).
We first meet Hannah at her own funeral (foreshadowing The Silly Buggers to come, clearly), attended by the titular Einstein himself. As we flash back and forward in time, we learn that Hannah was formerly a physics student in her native Germany, before moving to the US and becoming a secretary to various luminaries across the (epic) years.
It’s a well-researched book, effortlessly twining fiction and non fiction to produce a compelling story, if you’re into that (I am not, Mr Girlwhogotoverit, FTR)(clearly, he doesn’t read these). For me, character depth was sacrificed for pace and dramatic set pieces – so even the things that were supposed to have emotional impact did not hit home.