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Summary: A provocative, readable study of the 4th dimension-time
Review: It was a delightful view of Einstein's development of his ideas concerning time-the 4th dimension. Taking a personal style during Einstein's tenure as a patent clerk in switzerland, Lightman humanizes the various effects of changing the limits of time in relation to the speed of light. He uses analogous human situations-Einsteins life and life in Switzerland at that time -to bring us the variations of the " time" theory. A very romantic but incisive look at the overall affect of "time"
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Summary: Claptrap! Psychobabble.
Review: Sadly, we learn nothing of Einstein's dreams from the point of view of a physicist trained and teacher of writing (the author), and if one is to be informed by this book, read only the Prologue for information about the young Einstein's work day at the patent office. Otherwise, this book has lots of Freudian physique - sex and slithering - but neither physics nor metaphysics. This book drools, and is a sad testament to uninspired writing and starry-eyed sentiment. Pity the author can't take it back.
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Summary: Quite able to put it down
Review: As you've no doubt noticed by the swells of four and five stars that this book has received, I seem to be in the minority by feeling that this book has NOT changed my life one bit. A good friend went on and on about it over dinner one night: enough so that I picked up a copy the next time I encountered one. Upon sitting down, I found an intriguing concept quite poorly executed. It seems to me that the aim of this book is to examine the various hypotheses that Einstein could have mulled over while coming up with his theories on time. Now, the fact that I'm not sure whether these concepts are based on history or are pure speculation of the author tells you that I am no scientific mind. However, I did not find the tales mind expanding or bustling with complex and engaging theory and instead committed to skimming through great sections of tedious "explaination" as though I was reading banal eighth grade busy work. I give the book three stars because I liked the concept and set up, but I hated the execution and writing style. Unfortunately for me, it certainly fell short of it's hype.
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Summary: Dreams you can't remember, but you know you had them.
Review: A short, curious, little book that I almost read in one sitting. But, reading in one sitting is too fast for this. You need to read each chapter, put the book down, and spend some time thinking about it. As interesting as this is, it made me a bit ill at ease. What is really true? What is real? The different universes protrayed could all exist, I suppose. Einstein is said to have remarked that, "The universe as we know it, could be an entirely local phenomenon." Perhaps this would be a good book for those who do not quite comprehend the poetry and meaning of science. It might be a good book for anybody who is thinking about majoring in physics. I think it would be.
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Summary: Poetry of Science
Review: As a physicist and Einstein fan, I bought this book as soon as I heard of it. I was expecting to find a scientific presentation of the works in Einstein's brain while he was doing his science. But certainly this is not what the book is all about. This unique book is a delicious, thought-provoking poetic speculation and analysis of all the possible dreams Einstein might have when trying to resolve the puzzle that is the nature of time. Its delightful descriptions of independent, unrelated and complementary conceptions of time and its effects in the world is absolutely worth reading. The best poetry of science I have ever had in my hands.
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Summary: Sept. 18, 2000
Review: I found it particularly clever that although Lightman was trying to deconstruct time with this novel, he started each of the chapters with the date of the dream - just a reminder I suppose.
Rating:
Summary: Like truffles, each one is a delicious gem
Review: While working as a patent clerk in Switzerland in 1905, Einstein submitted his first paper on what would eventually become his Theory of Relativity. Its implications for our everyday understanding of time were very deep, and it overturned some of our most fundamental beliefs about we interact in the universe. In this book, Einstein himself figures only marginally. Rather, the book explores through an imaginative series of fictional vignettes how our lives would be different if time did not work the way we experience it.The prose is sparse, but the images rich and evocative. Like in an impressionist painting, characters are a blur, and we know them only through bright but general descriptions. Time is the only featured player, and the book's strength is how it exhibits the way each of time's facets orders the universe. We cannot help but take from the book an appreciation for how profound Einstein's discovery was, and also how completely our experience of time colors our lives.
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Summary: A delight!
Review: This book comprises a series of vignetts, each presented as the dream of a napping Einstein, about what life would be like if the nature of time were different. For instance, what if time ran backwards? What if effect preceded cause? etc... Reading the book made me realize how central the concept of time is to the way in which we perceive the world. Lightman's writing style is phiolosophical, clean, and poetic. The stories, which illustrate how different the world would be if the nature of time was altered, leave the reader with much to ponder and discuss. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would reccommend it highly to everyone.
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Summary: if you have not stared into the distance.....
Review: simply the best book i've ever read, a luccid dream like state, weaves you in and out, of these differnt worlds that are the same ones at the same time, giving you a new and differnt perspective on each... too much and too hard to put into words, it was a late birthday present from a friend, who's girlfriend had to read it for a univeristy course, he said "this book is all about being punk" every time i read it i get closer to undersatnding what Joe meant by that. it sets you down in a grey almost sad, still place, that you come to realize is the way we live our lives every day.....
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Summary: Delightful fun
Review: I have enjoyed Calvino's Invisible Cities, Kalfus' short story Invisible Malls (in Thirst) and Tabucchi's Dreams of Dreams; hence, as logic would have it, I enjoyed Einstein's Dreams which purports to be a record of Einstein's dreams in 1905. Each dream is a tableau of life in a world where time behaves in a different manner e.g. 20 May 1905 is time without memory - a market in which customers must carry maps and notebooks, where the butcher each time cuts meat for the first time ... 17 June 1905 is discreet, unconnected time ... 24 April 1905 has two times - a rigid mechanical time and a capricous body time ... The language is economical and provocative, a perfect fit for the text. There are occasional pen and ink drawings which serve as a pleasant surprise. Einstein's Dreams is of sufficient quality that I am checking out additional works by the author.
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