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Rating: 
Summary: A thesis on conjecture
Review: Albert and Mileva Einstein had premarital sex and as a result, Mileva got pregnant. She had a girl, born in 1902. This was considered a big disgrace in those days in her country, and little is known about the child and her fate. The author sets to find out what happened to Lieserl. This book is easy to read, in general, although the abundant number of people interviewed makes it a bit confusing at times. Fortunately, the author did not forget to include a genealogical tree in the first few pages, to which i referred constantly. Just a few points: · The author stretches facts quite a bit. For example, on page 175, Einstein is supposed to have written to his ex-wife: "But the heredity of our own children is not without blemish", and the author affirms that Einstein "was ostensibly including Lieserl". Really? People speak like this all the time and are not necessarily referring to a love child. The front cover photo is another example. Zackheim says, "This may be the only existing image of Lieserl", and the blur she is referring to can also pass as a goat, a fence post or a dahlia. There are many other examples of these might-or-might-not situations, and the problem is that the author draws too many conclusions from them. · While i was reading this book I could not help but think that her research did not differ all that much from what journalists do when writing an exposé on a modern day celebrity. They usually do not have to travel to Central Europe to do so, and do not get financial support from the NEA, but in substance they do the same job. Zackheim speculates whether Einstein and Mileva had sex after their divorce, whether Einstein's syphilis is what caused his children's ailments and all this speculation becomes slightly sordid after a while. · When Woody Allen became tabloid fodder a few years ago, i was very disappointed. I like what he creates but do not like him as a person. Same thing with Einstein after reading this book. He was a genius who revolutionized the way we do science today, but as a human being he was a self-centered, tyrannical, arrogant, miserly,...(and you can add your own list of pejorative adjectives here). If only half of what Zackheim says is true, he was truly evil, especially to his children. · Zackheim spent a lot of time in Serbia, and her accounts about the war and the difficulties she observed are some of the best writing in the book. However, she writes about Serbs as an American (and who can blame her? that's what she is). There is a slight condescending tone whenever she refers to Serbian culture, especially more blatant when talking about any of the male relatives of Mileva (alive and interviewed by her, or long dead). In summary, this is a passable book about an unsolved mystery. It is entertaining, fast, provides some good information on life in Central Europe from the late 1800's to present, but when you get to the back cover it leaves you dissatisfied. Ultimately, it did not deliver.
Rating:
Summary: A thesis on conjecture
Review: Albert and Mileva Einstein had premarital sex and as a result, Mileva got pregnant. She had a girl, born in 1902. This was considered a big disgrace in those days in her country, and little is known about the child and her fate. The author sets to find out what happened to Lieserl. This book is easy to read, in general, although the abundant number of people interviewed makes it a bit confusing at times. Fortunately, the author did not forget to include a genealogical tree in the first few pages, to which i referred constantly. Just a few points: · The author stretches facts quite a bit. For example, on page 175, Einstein is supposed to have written to his ex-wife: "But the heredity of our own children is not without blemish", and the author affirms that Einstein "was ostensibly including Lieserl". Really? People speak like this all the time and are not necessarily referring to a love child. The front cover photo is another example. Zackheim says, "This may be the only existing image of Lieserl", and the blur she is referring to can also pass as a goat, a fence post or a dahlia. There are many other examples of these might-or-might-not situations, and the problem is that the author draws too many conclusions from them. · While i was reading this book I could not help but think that her research did not differ all that much from what journalists do when writing an exposé on a modern day celebrity. They usually do not have to travel to Central Europe to do so, and do not get financial support from the NEA, but in substance they do the same job. Zackheim speculates whether Einstein and Mileva had sex after their divorce, whether Einstein's syphilis is what caused his children's ailments and all this speculation becomes slightly sordid after a while. · When Woody Allen became tabloid fodder a few years ago, i was very disappointed. I like what he creates but do not like him as a person. Same thing with Einstein after reading this book. He was a genius who revolutionized the way we do science today, but as a human being he was a self-centered, tyrannical, arrogant, miserly,...(and you can add your own list of pejorative adjectives here). If only half of what Zackheim says is true, he was truly evil, especially to his children. · Zackheim spent a lot of time in Serbia, and her accounts about the war and the difficulties she observed are some of the best writing in the book. However, she writes about Serbs as an American (and who can blame her? that's what she is). There is a slight condescending tone whenever she refers to Serbian culture, especially more blatant when talking about any of the male relatives of Mileva (alive and interviewed by her, or long dead). In summary, this is a passable book about an unsolved mystery. It is entertaining, fast, provides some good information on life in Central Europe from the late 1800's to present, but when you get to the back cover it leaves you dissatisfied. Ultimately, it did not deliver.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Novel
Review: Elaborate, profound and deeply felt. Here's the wit of Michele Zackheim, whose sharp eye caught details on Serbian culture, on women's feelings one hundred years ago. This book is not only about Lieserl--it's a treasury of cultural practices, women's thoughts and determination.
Rating:
Summary: Freud and Hitchcock in One Muffled AHA!
Review: Michele Zackheim's "Einstein's Daughter", a riveting mystery adventure set in contemporary Eastern Europe, is a gripping story of disappearance and search, an array of interesting and colorful informants, and an analysis of a famed marriage sleuthed through actual medical/psychiatric history. The reader is instantly caught in the intrigue of the investigative process as the author is buoyed by promising leads only to encounter dead ends and oblique twists. Suspense grows as one wonders how she will come to any conclusion as she sifts through tangled history and her own often conflicting exploration. But Zackheim does come to a conclusion which certainly makes sense as a golden thread of psychological veracity emerges. When she ends the book with the discovered underlinings in the "Sexual Question", she provides an emotional weight which combines Freud and Hitchcock into one muffled AHA!
Rating:
Summary: Very informative
Review: The author put five years of her life into writing this book, and it shows. This is a thoroughly researched book about a little-known event that happened 100 years ago. The conclusion is, of course, speculative but entirely convincing. What is even more revealing is what she tells us about the character of Einstein. For this information she draws on her extensive bibliography. She didn't make any of it up. The quotations are from letters that Einstein wrote. He was a philandering cad who cared for nobody around him. I would not have liked to be related to him in any way. In addition, the letters indicate that Mileva may have played a significant role in his work of 1902-1906. So much for the myth of Einstein, genius, humanitarian, etc.
Rating:
Summary: Very informative
Review: The author put five years of her life into writing this book, and it shows. This is a thoroughly researched book about a little-known event that happened 100 years ago. The conclusion is, of course, speculative but entirely convincing. What is even more revealing is what she tells us about the character of Einstein. For this information she draws on her extensive bibliography. She didn't make any of it up. The quotations are from letters that Einstein wrote. He was a philandering cad who cared for nobody around him. I would not have liked to be related to him in any way. In addition, the letters indicate that Mileva may have played a significant role in his work of 1902-1906. So much for the myth of Einstein, genius, humanitarian, etc.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad
Review: Well-researched, well put together. Easy, pleasant reading. Nothing stunning or dramatic. On the plus side: Voyeuristic insights give reader access to the mysterious lives of Mileva and Albert. Letters and interviews bring them to life. Engaging description of the author's tracks in the mystical Voijvodina, Yugoslavia. On the minus side, two observations: (1) Regarding Lieserl, there are no new conclusions. The infant dies of scarlet fever, removing the shame and burden of an illegitimate child from Mileva, Albert, and their families. (2) Regarding Albert, the revelations about his coldness are not new. He is a man of another world, of unparalleled genius. Rating him by our human standards is impossible. Unfortunately for Mileva, she fell in love with him.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: Well-researched, well put together. Easy, pleasant reading. Nothing stunning or dramatic. On the plus side: Voyeuristic insights give reader access to the mysterious lives of Mileva and Albert. Letters and interviews bring them to life. Engaging description of the author's tracks in the mystical Voijvodina, Yugoslavia. On the minus side, two observations: (1) Regarding Lieserl, there are no new conclusions. The infant dies of scarlet fever, removing the shame and burden of an illegitimate child from Mileva, Albert, and their families. (2) Regarding Albert, the revelations about his coldness are not new. He is a man of another world, of unparalleled genius. Rating him by our human standards is impossible. Unfortunately for Mileva, she fell in love with him.
Rating:
Summary: The Futile Search for Einstein's Daughter
Review: Zackheim's style is certainly readable, but her conclusions leave something to be desired. She provides the reader with too much irrelevant or misleading detail and too many of her own strong opinions. I also found her explanation of Lieserl's ultimate fate to be unconvincing. To her credit, she has told a story that should be known, and provided a number of wonderful photos. In my opinion, two of the photos depict an extremely plausible candidate for an adult Lieserl.
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