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Sunday, February 14, 1999
Einstein's Dreams
Copyright 1993 by Alan Lightman
Warner Books
ISBN 0-446-67011-1
(Novel)
If you're at all familiar with Einstein's work, even in the most perfunctory way, much of this novel will seem familiar. The framework is Einstein in 1905, working on his "Theory of Time". The dreams take the form of speculations.
If travelling faster slowed down time, might houses and buildings be mounted on wheels, with engines to propel them down the roads, so as to age more slowly?
If people had memories that lasted only hours, they would have to live their lives consulting notebooks, lives that would be very different. "Without memory, each night is the first night, each morning is the first morning, each kiss and touch are the first."
This is a very short book, not really a full legnth novel but well worth reading. The dry theories of a physicist are brought alive, most romantically, by an MIT professor who sees no dichotomy in presenting scenarios that are mere exxagerations alongside those that are patently impossible; it is left up for the reader to judge, which is the more fantastic.
Review by Neil Fein
Edison, NJ, 14 February 1999
Review Copyright 1999 by Neil Fein
Review written 14 February 1999, posted on 28 Apr 2004
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