The Invention of Everything Else

so good i am giving copies to friends as well. a favourite. anyone who got into the Current War movie may enjoy this too.

A real discovery for me. Despite the huge amount of books written on the subject: Nikola Tesla this book enlightens hidden shadows on the inventor. As a consequence it helps to understand a lot about this enigmatic man and his enormous legacy to the modern world. Definitely interesting for whom is in interested to catch the hystory of science at the beginning of 20 century.

話が分かりづらすぎます。テスラーの人となりを、もっと盛り込んで欲しかった。

I first learned about Tesla last July, at the age of 62. Why were we not taught about this important inventor in grade school? Ever since I learned about him, it became an obsession...I read a bunch of biographies, and then I wanted to read every fictional book about him. This was not a very long list: Tesla is still almost unknown.Others have summarized the plot of this book, so I won't go into that. This writer's style reminds me of Anne Tyler, with her portrayals of unusual characters and their off-kilter family lives. The surrealism is heightened by the author's unusual structural choices. Occasionally the storyline jumps into the past, and segues into Tesla's journalistic recollections of his own life. Further surreal touches are brought in with a section describing Edison's electrocution of animals and his invention of the electric chair. (Yes, Edison really was an evil and unscrupulous fellow, but TIME Magazine still sells the Edison special, and they have never done a Tesla special...go figure.) The sections written from Tesla's viewpoint are in first-person, while all the rest is third. Certainly not how they tell you to structure a novel in 'writers workshop'!Louisa was an engaging character, but the entire subplot about Louisa's father, Azor and Arthur, and the "time machine" weren't that interesting to me. Louisa's relationship with Arthur just didn't come alive. Other reviewers said "he may have come from the future", I didn't pick up on that. He was just a sort of wooden, blank character. I wish the entire book had been about Louisa's conversations and interactions with Tesla and his pigeons. Those scenes are marvelous. Tesla is wonderfully portrayed as eccentric, a bit scary yet fascinating, mysterious, wise, witty, sad and a little bitter, yet noble and resigned. I have read descriptions of the elder Tesla as physically frail, yet possessing a presence and a dignity that dominated any gathering. This novel captured that quality for me! Oh, if only I had that Time Machine, so I could go back and meet Tesla!

The Invention of Everything Else, by Samantha Hunt, provides a kind of biography of the inventer Nikola Tesla, a genius obsessed with electricity, as seen through the eyes of a nosey hotel cleaner, Louisa. The main story is set in 1943, when Louisa comes across the eccentric 86 yr old Tesla who is permenantly resident at the hotel where she works. Largely forgotten by the world and viewed with suspicion by others for suspected anti-American views, Tesla is befriended by Louisa and we slowly learn his life-story through her eyes.Just like its subject, the book itself is also quirky and written in a somewhat non-linear way. Also, the book devotes just as much space to Louisa interacting with her eccentric father and his friend when you want it to be telling more about Tesla. But I enjoyed the style as it makes a subject that could be for enthusiasts only into something interesting and entertaining. And from a research point of view, a quick check on wikipedia supports much of what relates to Tesla himself. Recommended.