Rating: 
Summary: In the words of Sybil Fawlty, "Pretentious, moi?"
Review: As another reviewer has pointed out, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" this book ain't. The writer's understanding of even basic physics seems very limited (this is evident from how confused his physics based metaphors are), let alone whether he understands anything at all about relativity. If you are tempted to read this book because you think that it will offer a readable introduction to relativity - don't because it won't. The reviewers who have said that the book offers an introduction to relativity must be as confused as the writer is. I have the suspicion that the number of stars given by the reviewer is inversely proportional to the amount of physics which the reviewer understands. The main flaw of this book however is how contrived it is. In this respect it is deeply disappointing, as the further I got into the book, the deeper was my feeling of hurt at being conned by this writer. Persevering with reading the book is like persevering with cultivating a relationship with an absolute liar and is deeply upsetting in this regard. You feel like reaching out to grab them and implore them, "Just tell the truth." I know nothing about writing, and have not attended graduate school in creative writing as has the author, but surely the first thing that a writer must do is develop his own voice which is an honest voice, and not a phony voice. Most of the incidents relayed in the book appear to be manufactured merely for inclusion in a book about travelling across America with Einstein's brain in the trunk - to be quirky and to boost sales. The most enjoyable and least phony passages are towards the beginning of the book concerning the author's time spent at graduate school where he met Sara and his trips across country as a teenager and a 23 year old. After this, the mask comes up in front of his face and we step into the realm of "contrived quirkiness," presumably in the interests of sales. Perhaps "zany" sells, and it is probably easier to sell books by fooling the customer than by actually writing something of some enduring value. The many good reviews on this web site seem to me to be a testament to this fact. All of this is to say nothing about the despicable act which the physician Harvey committed in stealing the brain out of a corpse. To employ my own physics based metaphor, there is a certain wave-particle duality between the dishonesty exhibited by Harvey in his actions (whatever his intentions were) and the actions of getting a magazine contract, then a book contract, then going on the trip (in a car paid for by the publishers) and then pushing the manuscript on those unsuspecting readers out there across America, who are waiting to lap up "zany" (whatever the intentions of the writer were.) I'm with the school kid who asked the physician Harvey, "What's the point?" Ultimately, an exercise in pretentious and dishonest babbling, and I will be glad to be finished with the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Relative Review 84
Review: I personally enjoyed this story of 2 unlikely road trip companions who travel across America with Albert Einstein's brain in the trunk of their rented Buick. I think some of the people reviewing it here on Amazon take it and themselves a little too seriously. It was quirky and fun and sweet all at the same time. Included is a light biography of Einstein and the bizarre events that took place after his death concerning his brain. Even a little Relativity is thrown in. This is not a serious book and shouldn't be approached as one. I don't think it is one of the great books of our time, but it did provide an interesting escape. I started readng it, thinking it was fiction, only to discover it is for the most part a factual account. I found it to be the perfect read while I was cruising around the Caribbean on my honeymoon. Anyone who is interested in this subject matter and doesn't already know much about it should pretty much feel the same way. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: You can tell he writes for Esquire
Review: This book is just one long-winded Esquire article...a topic with a catchy enough premise to suck you in, words that are put together well enough that you don't put it down immediately after picking it up, but in the end, it goes absolutely nowhere. There's no attempt to get to the heart of ANYTHING...the "brain keeper" his acquaintances, or the author's relationship with his wife, Sara.
Rating: 
Summary: Just another book about a guy with a brain in his trunk
Review: Michael Paterniti came upon a great idea, to write about his cross-country trip with Thomas Harvey, the man who autopsied Albert Einstein and then stole his brain, keeping it in his basement for fifty years. Much of this book is entertaining: meeting up with Harvey's various lady friends, visiting the bizarre William S. Burroughs months before his death, eating in truck stops, Paterniti rambling to strangers having Einstein's brain in the back of his Buick Skylark. DRIVING MR. ALBERT is no ON THE ROAD, however. This book is a long-winded magazine article, stuffed with sidetrips and a light biography of Albert Einstein. Paterniti never truly has a meeting of minds with Harvey; he does not develop a friendship or any kind of trust. Paterniti is merely the driver, Harvey a spectacularly unusual character along for the ride. Paterniti thanks a friend in his acknowledgments for pulling him back from precipices of metaphor, though it's obvious the friend didn't pull at him enough -- Paterniti still goes over the edge a few times, sprinkling the text with phrases such as "big as the cosmos" and "we drove down the highway like neurons racing through the brain." Pacing is a problem as well. The backstory of Einstein's life is not well integrated into the book, taking us on day trips to nowhere. Paterniti has obviously researched this book well, but has merely inserted others' paraphrased words wholesale. I love road trips, especially with cerebral passengers, but I was ready to bail on this one somewhere between Lawrence, Kansas, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Rating: 
Summary: You don¿t describe it¿you experience it.
Review: "Driving Mr. Albert" 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 old genius known to the world as 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. The story and the intriguingly vivid characters, coupled with Paterniti's descriptive rhetoric made for an utterly arresting read. It's also makes for wonderful light weekend reading, as it's mere 211 pages will attest, and can be finished in a few sittings. With a plethora of these factors in its favor, I would not hesitate recommending "Driving Mr. Albert" to anyone who enjoys a truly entertaining anecdote, both deep and humorous.
Rating:
Summary: Not great
Review: The book is just OK. A friend told me that inspired by the success of this project, the author got a job as a Federal Baggage Screener to write an expose of this profession (although he claims that he just wanted to be a Federal Baggage Screener), and has been doing the rounds of TV interviews (CNN, FOXNews(unfair and biased), Nickelodeon, etc) to boost sales. He's been attacked by some of the interviewers for not being straight about his intentions to write an expose (but he claims that he just wanted to be a Federal Baggage Screener.) Does anyone else know if this is correct?
Rating:
Summary: In the words of Sybil Fawlty, "Pretentious, moi?"
Review: As another reviewer has pointed out, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" this book ain't. The writer's understanding of even basic physics seems very limited (this is evident from how confused his physics based metaphors are), let alone whether he understands anything at all about relativity. If you are tempted to read this book because you think that it will offer a readable introduction to relativity - don't because it won't. The reviewers who have said that the book offers an introduction to relativity must be as confused as the writer is. I have the suspicion that the number of stars given by the reviewer is inversely proportional to the amount of physics which the reviewer understands. The main flaw of this book however is how contrived it is. In this respect it is deeply disappointing, as the further I got into the book, the deeper was my feeling of hurt at being conned by this writer. Persevering with reading the book is like persevering with cultivating a relationship with an absolute liar and is deeply upsetting in this regard. You feel like reaching out to grab them and implore them, "Just tell the truth." I know nothing about writing, and have not attended graduate school in creative writing as has the author, but surely the first thing that a writer must do is develop his own voice which is an honest voice, and not a phony voice. Most of the incidents relayed in the book appear to be manufactured merely for inclusion in a book about travelling across America with Einstein's brain in the trunk - to be quirky and to boost sales. The most enjoyable and least phony passages are towards the beginning of the book concerning the author's time spent at graduate school where he met Sara and his trips across country as a teenager and a 23 year old. After this, the mask comes up in front of his face and we step into the realm of "contrived quirkiness," presumably in the interests of sales. Perhaps "zany" sells, and it is probably easier to sell books by fooling the customer than by actually writing something of some enduring value. The many good reviews on this web site seem to me to be a testament to this fact. All of this is to say nothing about the despicable act which the physician Harvey committed in stealing the brain out of a corpse. To employ my own physics based metaphor, there is a certain wave-particle duality between the dishonesty exhibited by Harvey in his actions (whatever his intentions were) and the actions of getting a magazine contract, then a book contract, then going on the trip (in a car paid for by the publishers) and then pushing the manuscript on those unsuspecting readers out there across America, who are waiting to lap up "zany" (whatever the intentions of the writer were.) I'm with the school kid who asked the physician Harvey, "What's the point?" Ultimately, an exercise in pretentious and dishonest babbling, and I will be glad to be finished with the book.
Rating:
Summary: a truly entertaining anecdote
Review: The weighty equation E=mc2 and the theory of relativity, conjure up images of a wiry-haired wrinkled old genius known to the world as 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. The story and the intriguingly vivid characters, coupled with Paterniti's descriptive rhetoric made for an utterly arresting read. It's also makes for wonderful light weekend reading, as it's mere 211 pages will attest, and can be finished in a few sittings. With a plethora of these factors in its favor, I would not hesitate recommending "Driving Mr. Albert" to anyone who enjoys a truly entertaining anecdote, both deep and humorous.
Rating:
Summary: kerouac it is not
Review: complete with a visit to wm burroughs, paterniti spends alot of time trying to figure out how to make this into an interesting trip, but fails. some of the more interesting pieces are vignettes into the life and head of einstein which can be better appreciated in a biography. sadly, none of the "characters" he meets on the road are very interesting. his ties to his personal problems are also shallow and out of place. i can't even say i found the character of the doctor interesting. if you're looking for a road book, go to the best--on the road by jack kerouac. this book is a pretty good short story that grew too long.
Rating:
Summary: The road trip to nowhere!
Review: Perhaps, my level of anticipation and expectations were too high thinking that the book, Driving Mr. Albert, would be an amusing road trip with insights to Einstein's life and mind. The book seemed more about the author's own crumby life, and his angst ridden love for Sara (page 187). In the beginning of his road trip with Dr. Harvey, as they traverse states heading west past Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, his attempt to create metaphors describing the numbing white lines lapses into jaded cliches. His writing is endless drivel and unsatisfying.
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