Albert Einstein Speaking by R.J. Gadney

Albert Einstein Speaking

R.J. Gadney

Canongate Books

US Publication Date: June 4, 2019

Mimi Beaufort dials the telephone and accidentally reaches a man on his 75th birthday. This day and until the day this famous man dies Mimi Beaufort and her sister engage in a lovely friendship with the world renown physicist Albert Einstein.  This is their story and Mimi's high school project about Mr. Einstein, Jewish scientist, immigrated German to the States, and for a while the most famous and hated man on the planet.

The late R.J. Gadney, died May 1, 2018,  has written an endearing book about Albert Einstein that blew my socks off.  Who knew that Albert Einstein was so personable?  As an Icon in history, we tend to write our icons as geniuses, with dry wit and larger than life unattainable characteristics, or the opposite with low-level characteristics which makes them seem mad. This book humanized Mr. Einstein. His humor was not dry, his personality, although quirky, reminded me more of Samuel Clemens than say, what has been portrayed of Einstein in the past. This book is pure historical fiction and yet, reads like an autobiography. I enjoyed R.J. Gadney's writing style. It is what makes the book fun to read.

The history of the Atomic Bomb and Albert Einstein's role in its use on Japan; the people Albert was friends with; the acquaintances he had and the women who kept him in line, mostly his wife; his live-in secretary and housekeeper, Helen Dukas. All these people weren't read as if they were just background characters in Albert's life but as flesh and bone, people who mattered. This story approaches a brief history of Albert's early life however the main telling is based on a few years at the tail end of his physical existence. This is a brilliant Fictionalized Biography which uses many of Einstein's own words to round out Albert Einstein Speaking.

I laughed while reading this book, I cried at the tenderness that is shown by Albert Einstein towards those he was leaving behind in Germany. I cried at the life his children had without him and with him. I felt as if I was sitting in his living room listening to his great stories while the classical music he loved played in the background. This book is a doozy. It is a must read. It will help you see a side of a man who is so well known that he has been glossed over in the here and now. Today's antidotes are about how he was not a smart child but was a brilliant genius adult. We don't tell the stories of what he created, besides E=MC2, we forget his talent for playing the violin and we forget what a great storyteller he was. This book is a reminder of all that he was and all that he did and I for one am grateful for this gift that R.J. Gadney gave to us before he passed away and that I was able to read it.

Thank you, Canongate Book via Netgalley for allowing me to read in lieu of my honest review.

I give this book 5 stars. I will read it again!