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Publisher's Weekly Review
Einstein's biographer (Subtle Is the Lord) has now collected memories of his own life, strung together like beads, with nothing to link them but a slack chronological filament. Pais, one of the foremost physicists of this century and former professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, has led his life at the center of a most interesting field at one of its most interesting times, and it is unfortunate that the reader of his autobiography gets so little sense either of the man or of his contributions to our understanding of the physical realm. Perhaps Pais himself sees no context or overarching theme to his life and therefore imparts one so seldom. Though admirable in a physicist, such reticence can be exasperating in an autobiographer. What he sees in retrospect as the important part of a trip to the Caribbean, for example, is a meeting with cellist Pablo Casals and not that he told his wife they should divorce. When he comprehends a larger framework for the events of his life, though, as in his story of the deportation of his sister to the death camp of Sobibor, his language becomes compelling and he is engaged in the tale. More often, we are left with a catalogue of a life's events related in a curious monotone that gives equal weight to all events: introduction to sex, arrest by the Gestapo, study with Niels Bohr, residence at Princeton, vacation trips, research papers, persecution of J. Robert Oppenheimer, birth of a son, deaths of parents and mountain climbing. This author has had a memorable life, but his account does little justice to it. Those who do not know Pais's work will find some interesting vignettes that are sometimes compelling, and those who are familiar with his name will enjoy these disjointed reminiscences of a chatty grandfather who, ultimately, seems like a tourist in his own existence. Photos not seen by PW. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The author of a highly regarded biography of Albert Einstein (Subtle Is the Lord, not reviewed; Einstein Lived Here, 1994) sums up his own life. Pais is clearly temperamentally unsuited to discuss intimate matters; what he does instead is to chronicle his passage through momentous times, describing his experiences as a privileged onlooker. Growing up in the blue-collar Jewish community of Amsterdam, Pais encountered no prejudice and, because of the exciting developments going on in quantum mechanics, determined upon a career as an experimental physicist. Then the Nazis invaded Holland, and Jews were slowly marginalized and then sent to ``labor camps.'' Some were able to flee the country and some, like Pais, went into hiding, Pais stayed underground nearly three years before being spotted by an SS officer and arrested. Luckily, his imprisonment began just as the war was ending, and Pais was spared the fate of Anne Frank, who had been concealed with her family nearby. While in hiding Pais had kept up his study of physics, and when the war ended, his career quickly flowered. He worked for some time with Niels Bohr and offers a lengthy portrait both of the man and his philosophy, particularly as it relates to the reconciliation of classical and quantum physics. He knew Robert Oppenheimer and describes his sufferings during the McCarthy hearings. He also offers stories of Einstein, Sakharov, Heisenberg, and, because his interests extended beyond the laboratory and the classroom, of such acquaintances as Pablo Casals and George Kennan. He chronicles the time he spent at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and at Rockefeller University, and speaks usefully about his research and about the writing of the Einstein biography. Authoritative and valuable historically, though because of Pais's remoteness, not widely appealing as an autobiography. (24 b&w photos)
Choice Review
Pais was born into modest comfort and security in Amsterdam in 1918. In 1940, before he had finished his studies, Holland was invaded and he continued them in hiding; the first quarter of this autobiography tells how he managed to survive and even to study during these five years of hell. At the war's end he was one of the 15 percent of Dutch Jews who were still alive. Soon he moved to Princeton, where he spent 17 years at the Institute for Advanced Study; then he went on to Rockefeller University. After his research was over, he wrote books about Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and the history of science; now he has written about himself. The structure of this last book is only roughly chronological. Since it contains along with the author's life and opinions long passages on history, physics, popular entertainment, and the personalities of notable physicists, the material comes in blocks, and one skips back a few years almost as often as one skips forward. For scientists there is much on the history of physics; other readers will see how life and thought change as one moves from one continent and civilization to another. General readers; graduate students; faculty. D. Park; emeritus, Williams College
Library Journal Review
Pais's autobiography is truly "a tale of two continents"; the contrast between his World War II experiences and his later life are amazing. Pais, a Jew, was forced into hiding in 1943 and spent some of that time practically next door to Anne Frank. Ultimately discovered and arrested, he spent the last weeks of the war in a Gestapo prison. Within a year of his liberation he was working with Niels Bohr and shortly thereafter moved to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. As a physicist with an international reputation, he counts Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Andrei Sakharov, and Werner Heisenberg among his contemporaries. As such, this memoir is also a partial history of 20th-century physics. Pais is probably best known for his biography of Bohr (Niels Bohr's Times, Oxford Univ., 1991) and his very popular biography of Albert Einstein (Einstein Lived Here, LJ 6/1/94). This work is no less enjoyable. Recommended for general science and biography collections.James Olson, Northeastern Illinois Univ. Lib., Chicago (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.