On a cold February day, the two men and the brain leave New Jersey and light out on I-70 for sunny California, where Einstein's perplexed granddaughter, Evelyn, awaits. And riding along as the imaginary fourth passenger is Einstein himself, an id-driven genius, the original galactic slacker with his head in the stars. Part travelogue, part memoir, part history, part biography, and part meditation, Driving Mr. Albert is one of the most unique road trips in modern literature.
Author: THE TRACES (@DeepVellum, 2022). Essays: @ParisReview, @Southern_Review, @YaleReview, &c.
@RussBrakefield Love that Barrett Swanson one. Also John Jeremiah Sullivan's Upon This Rock. And the Michael Paterniti piece that turned into Driving Mr. Albert. And Joni Tevis's Brain Sweat & Blueprints! And and and.
"A splendid peek into the weird side of American life. Driving Mr. Albert is a work of ... uncommon intelligence."
-- Newsweek
"One of the most fascinating and memorable road trips since Kerouac's On the Road."
-- The Denver Post
"Driving Mr. Albert is entertaining, absurd, real, deep and informative ... in a world in which it seems that all the good ideas have been taken, it is singular."
-- The Boston Globe
"Paterniti seems to have been favored by that happy little god of travel writers who sits on one shoulder and whispers ... the perfect anecdotes, the perfect set pieces at the perfect moments. ... It's a brain, in fact, that I'd be happy to travel with again."
-- The New York Times Book Review