Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain

by Michael Paterniti

Part travelogue, part memoir, part history, part biography, and part meditation - one of the most unique road trips in modern literature.

Albert Einstein's brain floats in formaldehyde in a Tupperware® bowl in a gray duffel bag in the trunk of a Buick Skylark barreling across America. Driving the car is Michael Paterniti, a young journalist from Maine. Sitting next to him is an eighty-four-year-old pathologist named Thomas Harvey who performed the autopsy on Einstein in 1955--and simply removed the brain and took it home. And kept it for over forty years.

On a cold February day, the two men and the brain leave New Jersey and light out on I-70 for sunny California, where Einstein's perplexed granddaughter, Evelyn, awaits. And riding along as the imaginary fourth passenger is Einstein himself, an id-driven genius, the original galactic slacker with his head in the stars.

Part travelogue, part memoir, part history, part biography, and part meditation, Driving Mr. Albert is one of the most unique road trips in modern literature. With the brain as both cargo and talisman, Paterniti perceives every motel, truck-stop diner, and roadside attraction as a weigh station for the American dream in the wake of the scientist's mind-blowing legacy. Finally, inspired by the man who gave a skeptical world a glimpse of its cosmic origins, this extraordinary writer weaves his own unified field theory of time, love, and the power to believe, once again, in eternity.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel, Science, History, Biography, Biography Memoir

211 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Michael Paterniti won the 1998 National Magazine Award for his article "Driving Mr. Albert," which was first published in Harper's Magazine. A former executive editor of Outside, his work has appeared in Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, Details, and Esquire, where he is writer-at-large. He lives in Portland, Maine, with his wife and son.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 2 out of 5]

A road trip written with a 20-something sensibility. Not a work of genius. I enjoyed the writer’s use of language but found the tale, overall, rather tedious. It sounds wonderful in anticipation, but it did not sparkle for me. The author seeks out a fellow who had been present at Einstein’s autopsy, and who made off with Einstein’s brain. Paterniti befriends the codger—in his eighties—and they set off cross-country to California where the codger intends to leave the remnants with one of Einstein’s descendants. They have some amusing interludes while on the road, but I would skip this one. I expect that this writer will produce something of value eventually. If not, his considerable gift for language will have been wasted.

[Mac · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has two bad stinks wafting around it. First, it has the stink of a puffed-up magazine article that an editor somewhere decided could be a book. (I checked, and it was originally in “Harper’s” in 1997).

Second, and worse, it has the stink of a writer finding something unusual to do in order to write a book about it. Horse/cart problems.

But both of these are, at times, forgivable – good magazine articles can indeed become great books, particularly when the subject is far from exhausted at the end of the piece. And plenty of writers have built estimable careers by tossing themselves into stupid situations with the narcissistic mantra of “this will be so great to write about” rattling around the back of their heads. Bloat and phoniness can, indeed, be overcome.

Not here, sadly. Like any book with a wacky event at its center, particularly a road trip, the one-sentence description of said event tends to be much more entertaining than the 200-page version. “Dude, I drove Einstein’s brain across the country with the doctor who took it out of his head,” is an interesting sentence, but the inevitable “how’s that?” that comes after it does not necessarily have a book’s worth of interesting attached to its response. Bring on the bloat: instead of succinct entertainment and enlightenment (its apparent goal), we have weakly connected narratives about relationships, America, etc., stuffed in poultry-like, and the whole project feels unnecessary and a little bit lazy.

Look, I’m not going to begrudge anyone making a living. If I wrote an article that won a National Magazine Award and the publishers came calling, I’d be signing those checks in a heartbeat and finding ways to fill out my word-count minimum like nobody’s business. But I wouldn’t want to read the finished product, and I can’t say I particularly enjoyed reading this one either.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book should have a lot going for it; a cross country journey, a potentially nutty doctor as a passenger, and the brain of one of the most important people of the 20th century. Instead this book is tedious, ponderous, repetitive, boring, often nauseating as well. If I cared enough about this book I'd go get my dictionary to find more words to describe how boring it is. Boring writer (BW) takes a trip with an elderly doctor with questionable standards of morality and has a tedious trip cross country with him and aforementioned brain. Should have known it was not going to turn out well when BW has to describe in detail the music he plans on taking with him on the journey should the doctor fall asleep. Of course he's going to fall asleep, you're so boring anyone would fall asleep! BW makes no connection with the doctor at all, actually seemed to look forward to when the doctor would be asleep so he could listen to his special music. BW has a strange obsession with 'touching the brain of Einstein', very odd, and it actually make me queasy to read these passages. He even manages to make an encounter with William S Burroughs boring! This really should have been a long magazine article, not a book. Don't waste your time!

[Jennuineglass · Rating 3 out of 5]

The oddest little book I've read in quite some time. I think many would find this book enjoyable as long as they come to it with no expectations. At 200 pages that should be easy enough, you aren't locked into much.

The premise is that a journalist, questioning his own place in life, offers to drive Dr Harvey across America, from coast to coast, so that he may meet the granddaughter of Albert Einstein. And oh, Dr. Harvey is the man who "stole" Einstein's brain during an autoposy where for the last 40 years it has floated in a tupperware container in his basement. But now that brain is dusted off, placed lovingly in a duffel bag and thrown into the trunk of a car for its transcontinental journey.

This book has been around for a long time, not sure how I missed it, but it feel like an older book. Cellphones don't exist. Neither does Skype. If they did...this journey may never have happened. But thankfully for me it did.

The book is a rambling homage to the roadtrip genre, equal parts random stories, quiet moments, scenery and science all mashed together and presented at a rate of about 85 miles an hour. A lot of people gave this book one star because they were clearly hoping to be impressed and educated in the life of the iconic Mr. Einstein. Instead their elitist appettite was forced to belly up to a sagebrush diner to be served meatloaf and gravy with a side of relativity theory. It makes no apologies that it gives equal weight to the contents of the car and Einstein's history. In fact, this book almost feels like a feeder for "other things I want to know about". Several pages were tagged with notes that said, "go find out more about this". I finished one book that has led me to want to read about 3 others. If you were looking for a full history of Einstein then it would be best to read any one of the many books out there that are devoted to his life and works.
That said, this book reads as if the writer is expecting you to be well read or versed in basic history. It doesn't shy away from a big word now and then, and if you don't know what he's referencing in a story he isn't going to stop and backfill for you (hence the notes to self to go find out about things). I liked that. I liked most everything about this book. If you are willing to take a chance and have a quirky quick read that is apropos of nothing, making no great statements about the plight of humanity, that simply captures a week of two men's lives...then read this book.

I couldn't quite bring myself to give it four stars, but its a strong 3, 3.5. Tentatively put in a few people I recommend this for, but take it with a grain of salt. :)

Enjoy.

[Robert Isenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

For years, I eagerly waited to read "Driving Mr. Albert." I loved the idea of a road trip with Einstein's brain, and my enthusiasm psyched me out. By the time I actually tackled it, the book was destined to disappoint me -- but it was not for any reason I could have anticipated. The problem is not the book itself, which is a perfectly decent read. The problem is the time it was published, the year 2000.

Michael Paterniti was clearly writing as a late-90s author, and a straight male one to boot. You can picture him in flannel shirt and cargo pants and curtained haircut. Paterniti writes with the over-the-top poeticism of a Grunge-era seeker. Everything he describes is so thoroughly *felt*, as if even the foliage on the trees ruffles with significance. He ponders life and death, God and the universe, and he does so predominately in Western diners and motels. The whole thing feels like a John Cusack movie, an intellectual journey for the everyman, a "deep" story about genius and averageness and just how hard it is to keep a girlfriend.

Thirteen years later (and even longer after the book's events take place), Paterniti's prose sounds kind of melodramatic. He plays the familiar part of a hopeless dreamer, and all the comic possibilities of chauffeuring a dismembered brain feel squandered. With a title like "Driving Mr. Albert," you'd expect a humorous romp across America, but Paterniti does the opposite; his book is brooding and somber, like a postcard you'd write from rehab, if you were both really eloquent and obsessed with mix-tapes. His characterizations rely on very old pop culture, of the Elvis-and-Marilyn era, as did much of 90s media. Everything feels dated and strange -- not because the book is bad, but because I am no longer 20, and Aqua is no longer on the radio.

I'm grateful to have finally read "Driving Mr. Albert," and Paterniti is a very skilled write. I'm happy he finally published his debut, and it was wildly successful. But I don't know if I could read his sequel about cheese making. I just can't imagine sticking with his style for a whole second book. But I wish him well. The research is solid and the voice is his own. He deserves some volumes more.

[Mitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

The weird premise of this book- that there are two guys traveling across America with the brain of Einstein in the trunk- is what drew me in in the first place. It would be difficult to find something quirkier; how could it not be interesting?

What you actually get is a view into the lives of the two living and one long-dead passenger.

It was a plus to learn something of the life of Albert Einstein. Like everyone else, I associate him with genius, know he E=MC 2'ed, and that's about it.

It turns out he peaked early on by writing three groundbreaking papers, then rode the fame horse and struggled inside an intellectual cul-de-sac for the rest of his days. He was not a good husband or father and he professed himself a pacifist even though he worked with the Navy on explosives for the war.

No Albert Schweitzer, our renowned genius.

The man who just happened to come away and preserve Einstein's brain wasn't either. The way Thomas Harvey evaded questions, Bogarted the brain, broke several of his marriages and homes, and rode in on secondhand fame made me dislike him quite a bit.

But all this pales before the strange phenomena of the brain itself. Because it was living Einstein's, it has been raised to and regarded as some kind of scientific relic. The author craves to see and/or handle it, sleeps with it once on a pillow next to his...and even fantasizes briefly about eating it.

Sorry, was that a spoiler? It sure spoiled things for me.

The book circles around gelid, sliced-up lumps of preserved brain, people. Macabre doesn't begin to cover it, even though formaldehyde does.

Weird also that some scientists have created a revered relic in much the same way as some Catholics have with dried-up body parts of saints.

Weird, and unsettling.

[Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really weird book. If it sounds appealing to you, take it to the beach or somewhere relaxing, it will provide an easy read and a topic for discussion.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw a review of this odd book when it came out but only recently a copy of the book itself. Wanting a light read and intrigued by the story, I made it the bedtime book for a few nights. It's hard to classify. I selected 'travel' as it tells the tale of Paterniti's journey across America, Atlantic to Pacific, with the pathologist who autopsied Albert Einstein and retained his brain for more than four decades. It's also, of course, a snippet of both the pathologist's and the author's lives, a few backward glances at Einstein's as well--a series of short essays following the highways across the continent, all well written.

[Alec · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't actually remember whether I thought this book deserved 2 or 3 stars when I finished it a few months ago, but since my main memory of the book is what a listless bore it was, I suppose that's a good sign I should go with the lesser. Driving Mr. Albert is another of the dreaded "road trip" novels, to which self-indulgent authors are so hopelessly drawn...and for some unknown reason appeal to me in the aisles of the book store, despite the way they continue to disappoint. In this installment, the author takes a trip across America with a quirky, but dreadfully boring doctor who performed the autopsy on Albert Einstein and apparently stole his preserved brain in the process. How could it miss, right?

I was hoping for some completely absurd story about a lunatic who was talking to a fake Einstein while gallivanting across America like some sort of popped up lunatic. What I got was your garden variety collection of "oh wow, look at this interesting stuff in middle America," "that sunset on the highway is gorgeous," and "this time on the road transformed me" sort of nonsense that any/every young twentysomething with a 6 beer buzz feels and thinks will help him/her write the next great American novel. I guess this is mostly a memoir (thought that wasn't really clear), and the author was largely confined by what happened in his (admittedly unique) adventure...so I guess good job by him on the journalistic integrity front. I, for one, would have appreciated some embellishment. Or maybe a single character I cared about...or whose name I could remember. I guess I remember Einstein, but the formaldehyde had regrettably dulled his wit.

It's very possible that I was a little more appreciative of the book when I finished reading it, but time tends to blind me to nuance of feeling, so now all I'm left with is a poor taste in my mouth. My apologies, Michael Paterniti, as my review tardiness might have robbed you of a star. Then again, the fact that I am apparently incapable of giving one star might have gifted you an extra, so let's call it even.

[Joe Cummings · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, Albert Einstein was one of the two dead celebrities/ heroes that we all knew. He was the guy who looks like a eccentric but lovable great uncle who was super-intelligent because he used a greater percentage of his brain than the rest of us mortals. Everyone admired Albert Einstein.

Michael Paterniti's "Driving Mr. Albert" [2000] is an examination of the cost and curse of celebrity. The book focuses around Professor Albert Einstein and Doctor Thomas Harvey-the Princeton pathologist who performed the autopsy on Einstein in 1955. As a part of the procedure, he removed Einstein's brain from the skull to weigh and measure it. Afterwards, he took Einstein's brain home with him for further research. Decades later, he still had it. For Paterniti, the pathologist is an “uberpilgrim” who is nearing the end of his peregrination.

Basically this is an account of the strange road trip that the author and Harvey made in a Buick Skylark from Princeton, New Jersey, to the Bay Area in California with Einstein's brain stashed in truck sloshing around in a Tupperware container. It is also a meditation on the lives of Einstein, Harvey and the author. Paternity also makes some interesting observations on the nature of celebrity and the 21st Century world which Einstein helped shape. This was a fun book to read, and I recommend this slightly macabre but humorous tale.

[Eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did you ever read a book that started off really well and then at about page 75 you realize that you can reasonably enjoy about 25 more pages only to discover that you're reading a 211 page book!?
So disappointing.
It's an interesting book but I think maybe the author found himself with less material than he'd been hoping for and tried to beef up the book with extra, un-necessary story lines?
This book is, for the author, a love-story and a book about finding himself.
For the reader, it would be much better left as a book about Einstein's brain!
Good writer.
Overly long book.

[Mariam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about two men driving Einstein's brain across the United States. It sounds like it is going to be a legendary story, only it is a very simple roadtrip story. But I really liked how simple and humorous it sounded, I cracked up at several points during the book. and I liked the weirdness of Thomas Harvey, the guy who supposedly stole Einstein's brain after doing the autopsy.
But there's nothing grand there about Einstein's life... This is not a biography of him. But it was fun reading it.

[dejah_thoris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another case of truth being stranger than fiction. Read an audiobook in the car, which I recommend because it's very peripatetic and the narrative is so compelling your mind won't wander. Harvey is an odd duck, however, so there are frustrating moments on the trip including bouts of jealousy when Harvey decides to show the brain to someone he's just met. Definitely worth reading though if you like odd memoirs.

[Jason Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a good road trip. And, Einstein is an interesting character; that is not up for debate. Unfortunately, this book and it's adventures feel suspiciously contrived, especially the meeting with William S. Burroughs. Don't be taken in by the cool title like I was.

[Donna LaValley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would describe this book more as a travelogue across the United States than a story with customary beginning, middle, and end. The author has a talent for picking out telling details of a town, stretch of road, or general terrain, and he lists them in what soon became, for me, an endless display of increasingly trivial bits.

The book begins with a short history of Albert Einstein which is the more interesting part of the book. However, anyone choosing this title no doubt has already read a biography of Albert Einstein and can quote him. There are no surprises in the bio, but many omissions, especially of those occasions when Einstein used, borrowed, or stole ideas and answers to complex problems from his also-brilliant friends, cousin and spouses (all females in these instances). That was not unusual for the times, as many famous men published work by women as their own. Later in his life he praised a few by name for their intelligence.

After Einstein’s death in 1955, an autopsy was performed by Dr. Thomas Harvey, a Princeton university pathologist. He decided to remove Einstein’s brain, thinking it would be valuable for research to many other people and to himself. This turned out to be controversial action, and the brain became “lost.” Dr. Harvey was quite a character in the book, a talkative, illusive, inventive fellow. When the author interviewed him in the late 1990’s, Dr. Harvey, now elderly, wanted to take the brain (which it is supposed he had all the time) to Einstein’s granddaughter, in Berkeley, California. Hence the travelogue and the book premise.

The brain is currently back on the East Coast.

Two quotes: (1) By Einstein, on the death of a close friend “Now he has preceded me a little by parting from this strange world. This means nothing. To us believing physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future has only the significance of a stubborn illness. (p. 8)
(2) By the author: “I feel something I can’t quite put my finger on, something euphoric but deeply unsayable. Is it love or just not hate? Is it joy or just not sadness? For a moment, all of time seems to flow through…” p. 198.

[Susan Emmet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never heard of this small book nor of its author.
Grabbed it at a recent library sale.
Man from Maine drives man from New Jersey to California to meet Albert Einstein's granddaughter. They are accompanied by a Tupperware bowl full of Einstein's brain which is guarded by Thomas Harvey, once chief pathologist at the Princeton NJ morgue where Einstein's body ended up.
I didn't understand the interweaving of truth and speculation until a few chapters in. I found so much that was hilarious, so much sad, and so much to think about regarding genius, the gap between reputation and the real self and how quickly people are forgotten who once were celebrated. Also thought alot about blame and misinterpreting motive when examining people's actions and their consequences.
I wonder why Paterniti decided to re-publish this 2000 book nearly 25 years after its first appearance.
Or did I misunderstand that, too?
I may reread this book and look for the original magazine story that gave birth to it. I don't know...I'm just fascinated by the story's premise.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not really sure what to say. This is a bit of a strange duck of a book, part travelogue, part biography, part history. While it had a lot of interesting content, and I can't say that I didn't like it, I'm still not really sure what my overall reaction to it really is. What I can say is that this is well written. Which is probably why I actually finished the book. Had this been poorly written, I'm not sure that I would have found the content compelling enough to sustain my interest all the way to the end. I'm not really sure what I hoped or expected to happen along this trip, but in the end, I'm feeling a bit disappointed, even if I can't clearly articulate why. While I don't regret reading this, it isn't something I'm going to feel any need to revisit.

[Dainon Moody · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best nonfiction reads are so fantastic, they may as well be made up tales. Parts of this crazy story really do shimmer and shine. Really really enjoyed it.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️ per la storia incredibile che racconta, altrimenti non se ne sarebbe meritare più di 2.5⭐️

[Thomas Mosher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story - the author drives Einstein's autopsy pathologist (and Einstein's brain) across the country. Lots to learn about Einstein!

[May Ling · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's more of a 3.5 and an excellent book to take on a vacation. Paterniti is a good writer. I can even see a movie made out of this. I struggled and settled on a 3 good, but it could have been a 4excellent.

The story is novel and the characters seem quite real. There are some interesting settings that are believable and interesting, such as the bar/casino scene. I'm down. Just not enough to add a star.

[bookyeti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Driving Mr. Albert one is one of those unique works that elude interpretive hyperboles a ‘magnum opus’. You don’t describe it you experience it.

The weighty equation E=mc2 and the theory of relativity, conjure up images of a wiry-haired wrinkled genius known to the world as Albert Einstein. The author, Paterniti, mixes his own equation with words. The result? More than just a relative success, Driving Mr. Albert is a light and amiable concoction of humor, eccentricity, wit, poignancy, as well as raw and often highly amusing observation. The ever-curious journalist (Paterniti) researches and finally meets Dr. Harvey, the mortician who performed the autopsy on Einstein in 1955. Scandal ensued when Harvey absconded and ultimately “disappeared” with the brain of the genius himself, claiming to be doing scientific studies to assertain if there were any unique facets to it. As Paterniti and Harvey’s worlds collide, the result is far from prosaic.

Paterniti writes with such a personal flourish of his own, I was instantly captivated and found myself a passenger aboard his eccentric cross-country pilgrimage with Dr. Harvey and their third “passenger”, Einstein’s brain (bobbing in a formaldehyde-filled Tupperware container stowed in the trunk).

Driving Mr. Albert is the embodiment of the cliché: it’s not the destination, but the journey that counts. As Paterniti and Harvey bomb towards California in a rented Skylark to rendezvous with Einstein’s granddaughter, Evelyn, the author not only ascertains much about the contradictory persona of Einstein, and Dr. Harvey’s fascinating life, but also about his own existence. The words I absorbed enraptured me in laughter, had me strolling down my own memory lane, and brought me near to tears during unexpected poignant scenes.

[Lemar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Paterniti gives us an account of traveling across country with Einstein's brain in the trunk and the man who became Keeper of the Brain in the passenger seat. Along the way he explores the psychology of fetishism, of relic worshiping and of the collector. From the Romans who ran forward to dip their hands in the blood of the assassinated Julius Caesar to those that make pilgrimages to worship at an altar containing a finger bone of a revered Saint, this psychology has been with us in many cultures since the dawn of civilization. Is this practice actually a return to that dawn, leaving the intellectual advancements of science behind. Yes it is. But still. When Paterniti describes his growing impatience to see the brain for himself our pulses quicken with his at the possibility.
His voice as the admittedly human narrator on this strange odyssey stuck me as honest and insightful. As the American grandchild of Swabian Jewish refugees the same generation as Einstein's I felt a kinship with Paterniti as he describes the duality of feeling that emerged riding with the brain. He understands that European no nonsense dismissal of any power to be derived from what is simply preserved human tissue and yet, dang, I'd kinda like to get a look at that sucker for myself.

[Hank Stuever · Rating 3 out of 5]

My enthusiasm for this book has waned over the years -- I perhaps loved it more as a magazine piece than the disproportionate epic that became the book. But back when I read it (first as an article, then, in 2000, as a book), I remember admiring the language and loopiness; the meandering, inquisitive nature. Later on, I think, I started to regard work like "Driving Mr. Albert" with more of an editor's critical eye, wary of anything that just lays it all on a little too thick. This is not a book for readers who have an aversion to writers in love with the sound of their own words; but it is a book for writers who understand the narrative impulses it employs. I still like to see what a writer of this caliber can do with a story that hinges on his own involvement in it, that can't be told without including the journey that gets us to the telling.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

How do you not check out a book about a road trip across the country in a Buick Skylark with Albert Einstein's brain in a Tupperware container as a passenger? I was hooked after reading a description of the book and I'm glad that I threw it into the pile that I hauled to the checkout desk. This is the situation in which Michael Paterniti, a journalist, found himself. It seems that Thomas Harvey, a pathologist who was 84 years old at the time of the cross-country odyssey, performed the autopsy on Albert Einstein after his death in 1955 and Harvey took Einstein's brain home with him after the procedure was completed. Now it's time to drive the brain to California to deliver it to Einstein's granddaughter. It's quite the journey that mixes history and an amazing travelogue. I'm so glad that they didn't decided to simply let the brain fly coach.

[Stef Newman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has been on my radar for a long time, so I picked it when I hosted my book club. The subject matter is fascinating - I had no idea of the background story, nor did I believe it was true. And while the author taking a road trip with Einstein's brain and the man that may or may not have stolen it so many years ago piqued my interest, the book was kind of all over the map (no pun intended). There are some great facts about Einstein and his inner circle, and it definitely made me want to read the biography of Einstein that came out last year. I think, however, the story would have been better left a magazine article, which it was originally.

I would recommend it simply for the outrageousness of the story, but you may get bored towards the middle of the book.

[Melissa McCauley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written, entertaining, but unfocused read – this could have been a magazine article, it frequently felt like one which had been expanded to book length with numerous digressions and asides. (The author includes numerous references to famous body parts and corpses throughout history, informing the reader as to their final disposition at the time of publication.)

I am a lover of the unusual and absurd, but I must admit I was losing patience with this travelogue/biography well before the halfway point and frequently skimmed over descriptions of meals and encounters with other motorists.

[Chelsea]

Boring and self indulgent. I fell asleep reading this one - and since (as my mother would gladly tell you), I've been a borderline insomniac since before I could talk, that's even worse than you might think.

More specifically - I'm much more interested in Albert Einstein (and his brain) than I the relationship woes of the author. So guess which one was dissected in more detail?

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

is nothing sacred in this country? Who knew Einstein's brain took a voyage without his torso.