The Invention of Everything Else
Samantha Hunt | 2008-02-07 00:00:00 | Blackstone Audio Inc. | 0 | Historical
From the moment she first catches sight of Nikola Tesla on New Year's Day, 1943, Louisa, obsessed with radio dramas and the secret lives of the hotel guests, is determined to befriend this strange man. Winning his attention through their shared love of pigeons, Louisa eventually uncovers the extraordinary story of Tesla's life as a Serbian immigrant and a visionary genius. Meanwhile, Louisa finds herself facing her father's imminent departure in a time machine.
Reviews
Hunt is a phenomenal writer, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't for the life of me finish this book. It is so overly dull and dry; although, I was somewhat entertained with the storyline of Louisa. Telsa's flashbacks are somewhat... boring. I really tried to like this book. And believe it or not, I have been reading this book for four months and I'm only halfway through. This book is definitely not for me.
Reviews
Knowing Tesla from other readings, some of the AC theories that he created, and having navigated the numerous Internet pages on this man, I felt sorely let down by the writings. Perhaps I had expected too much. But I simply could not "get into the book". I kept it on my desk for months, opened it to my last read page, and struggled to savor the writings of Samantha Hunt. I had such hopes for this book when I first read of its release. Alas, the menu was more interesting than the meal.
Reviews
What better way to understand the enigma that was Nikola Tesla than via the eyes of a character in his life, even if that character is fictional? After all, Tesla's life from inside Tesla's brain would be way too perplexing for us mere mortals.
Through the perspective of Tesla's chambermaid, Samantha Hunt pulls off an engrossing tale of Tesla's final days and, along the way, weaves into his life the participation of assorted famous inventors, entrepreneurs, financiers, and literary figures.
My only objection -- almost strong enough to prevent me from getting to page 1, in fact -- was the unfortunate inclusion of a quotation purportedly by Charles Duell, the Commissioner of Patents in 1899 to the effect that everything has been invented. He never said that. (Check out snopes.com.)
But I'm glad I persevered beyond that quotation page.
Reviews
I've read some of the other reviews here and am absolutely baffled by the enthusiasm for this book. I've spent a couple days with THE INVENTION OF EVERYTHING ELSE, and must toss it in the same bucket with David Alan Gold's CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL -- awesome concepts featuring fantastical/magical period characters, that utterly fail to deliver.
THE INVENTION OF EVERYTHING ELSE focuses on two characters - Nikola Tesla (discovered living, in his later years, in rooms at The New Yorker hotel) and Louisa (a young housemaid at the hotel). Inevitably they meet. I was very hopeful that Tesla would emerge fully imagined and authentic in these pages - but Hunt fails completely. It is a high challenge to convincingly present a genius. Hunt's Tesla doesn't emerge as a genius - rather, Tesla's voice sounds distinctly feminine, and rather pedestrian of intellect. Worse, he emerges *without* character - we are told that he is of Serbian ancestry, from the Czech republic, brilliant, etc., but despite all that richness, he sounds exactly like a rather pedestrian American.
Louisa we have met before - she is one of the millions of innocent/virginal waifs that people young adult novels. Her musings are adolescent and rather infantile. There is nothing in this book - repeat, nothing - that separates Louisa as a unique character from any others of her ilk. In one scene, Hunt has her fancying that she is about to be bitten by a vampire - which immediately reminded me of the appeal of the TWILIGHT novels to adolescent girls: basically, the sexuality inherent in vampire stories. Thus, I suggest a new rule: When publishing novels, any combination of innocent girls with any mention whatsoever of vampires merits shelving such novels in the young adult section. That's where THE INVENTION OF EVERYTHING ELSE belongs.
Other famous people of the age appear in THE INVENTION OF EVERYTHING ELSE - Sam Clemens, among others. All of them sound interchangeable. None of them emerge as unique characters.
The prose is meandering, sometimes purple. The plotting is meandering, sometimes aimless, and not particularly involving - even when the action crosses into the fantastic.
I will say this for THE INVENTION OF EVERYTHING ELSE - it may reside in the same bucket as CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL, but it's a better book. CARTER BEATS THE DEVIL was amateurish on every level. THE INVENTION OF EVERYTHING ELSE at least is the product of a writer, albeit a young adult writer.
Reviews
Ms. Hunt has created a very original piece of fiction in "Invention of Everything Else." The characters are endearing and vulnerable, funny and courageous--all in their own ways. The love story involves everyone and is believable even if Ms. Hunt uses a type of fantasy realism and whimsy that defies definition. I guess I was hoping for more than the ending was able to provide. Well, maybe I just didn't want a very good read to end.
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