HelloKatieO’s #CBR4 Review #34: Emily and Einstein by Linda Francis Lee
Emily and Einstein is a story of a woman who only discovers her marriage had disintegrated after her husband’s death in a tragic car accident, and how she recovers from the death of her husband and mourns the marriage she thought she had. But the single most important fact about this book is left out on the book jacket (at least on my copy): Emily’s husband Sandy, after dying, is reincarnated in the dog Einstein who Emily subsequently adopts.
The book is told from the alternating perspectives of Einstein/Sandy, and Emily. At first, I was put off by Sandy’s reincarnation in the dog because introspective books flirting with the spiritual realm really are’t my thing. But his perspective was important: Emily knew so little about the actual state of her marriage, that you needed Sandy/Einstein’s input to figure out what had gone wrong, and why.
Sandy was insufferable! Even as a dog. The book jacket makes it sound like Sandy, through Einstein the dog, helps Emily recover to repent for his awful actions and because he loves her. But that’s not why. Sandy pushes Emily to live the life he wanted to live – run a marathon where he could not, stay thin so he still finds her attractive, etc. Everything Sandy pushes Emily to do is in his own self interest , with the ultimate purpose of trying to get her to spend more time with his dog form. I would feel better about Sandy/Einstein’s role in Emily’s recovery if he was something other than self motivated.
