Before reading The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt all I knew about him was that he was a scientist who discovered some amazing stuff (although I couldn’t have said what). Hunt makes Tesla a character in this, her second novel, and readers are treated to an exploration of both Tesla’s discoveries and his eccentricities.

Set in New York City in the 1943, the novel alternates between Tesla and Louise, a chambermaid at the Hotel New Yorker, where Tesla is living out the final years of his life. Louise’s great loves are radio drama, her widowed father, and snooping in hotel guests’ possessions. Despite the snooping, I liked Louise right away. She has a sort of anti-social streak that I could relate to.

I also liked how Hunt depicted Tesla. In the latter years of his life, Tesla showed signs of mental illness. Hunt immerses the reader in Tesla’s present state, but she also takes us into his past, both through the writings that Louise finds in his hotel room and through his own mental wanderings. The juxtaposition of his former brilliance and his later state made me think of how quickly we dismiss the eccentrics in our urban landscapes. There’s so much we don’t know about the people around us.

Another part of the book’s charm was in its sense of place and time. Hunt writes wonderful descriptions of New York life in the 1940s. At times, the writing gets a bit over the top, but it’s generally not a distraction, and it’s often quite evocative.

Where Hunt really goes over the top is with her attempt to pack too many ideas into this 250-page book. Louisa and Tesla and their eventual meeting are enough for a book of this length (or even longer), but Hunt throws in threads related to time travel, a potential love interest for Louise, an ambiguous three-way relationship between Tesla and two friends, the relationship between Louise’s parents, and the experiments of Thomas Alva Edison.

In the end, the lingering effect is that the book itself is a sort of “invention of everything else,” instead of one coherent creation. Like a kitchen junk drawer, the book contains many treasures, but they don’t quite make sense together.

See my complete review at my blog. ( )

Fanciful story of real-life inventor Nikola Tesla, which brings in elements of science fiction and fantasy - time travel, a love affair with a pigeon, etc. Well-written and unusual but the story itself didn't really engage me and I found it hard to stick with it till the end. Interesting fact learned from this book: Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, read his own obituary, which had been printed prematurely in error. It blamed his invention for much death and misery. He decided this wasn't the way he wanted to be remembered and so created a new legacy: the Nobel prize. It worked, because I was unaware that he the invention of dynamite was where his money had actually come from. ( )

I enjoy reading about Nikola Tesla and his fabulous inventions. And so I enjoyed this historical fiction about him too. I felt the author could have developed the climax and ending a bit more but I imagine that is difficult to do when adding time travel to reality... ( )

Strange and fascinating, Samantha Hunt’s The Invention of Everything Else floats in and out of the life of Nikola Tesla, the inventor of AC electricity and wireless communication. The novel has an ethereal feel to it, drifting in time between Tesla’s younger days and the end of his life, when he was practically destitute, unrecognized for his genius. Thrown into the story is Louisa, a maid in the hotel where the 83 year old Tesla resides. The book touches on time travel, pigeons, love and the wonder of all things possible. A noteworthy read. ( )

The once famous inventor Nikola Tesla has been "left alone talking to lightning storms, studying the mysterious patterns the dust of dead people makes as it floats through the last light of day." (p.2) He lives in the Hotel New Yorker; a lonely, penniless, forgotten old man. His only companionship is pigeons and memories of former years. Louisa, a chambermaid in the same hotel has an infatuation with radio dramas and a love for the pigeons that she keeps on the roof of her house. She learns about the eccentric guest Mr. Tesla and lets herself into his room. In the course of her repeated snooping she tries out a strange invention and reads the biographical manuscript about Tesla's life that she finds. It is through this manuscript and flashbacks that we catch snippets of Tesla's early life, his struggles with lack of money and recognition, his friendships and we also learn about some of his inventions. The most important inventions of Tesla were to do with AC electrical distribution and wireless radio communications (commonly attributed to Marconi).

As the unlikely friendship between chambermaid and inventor develops Hunt also weaves in a subplot concerning Louisa, her father, her boyfriend and a family friend who has invented a time machine. The close relationship between father and daughter is haunted by the early death of Louisa's mother and this continual loss and loneliness permeates the entire novel. These same emotions are experienced by Tesla as he faces his old age with grief and loss at the sacrifices demanded by his creative genius. He finds it difficult to accept the lack of recognition and wealth for his work compared to that gained by other of his contemporary inventors. He has spent many years trying to come to terms with these and other failures in his life.

Hunt set out to spark interest in Tesla who's genius she believes to have been largely ignored. In this book she reveals Tesla to be a quirky and complex man whose extraordinary theories led some to infer that he was an alien. The Invention of Everything Else captures a time when the inventor was an artist who devoted the entirety of his life to his pursuits. Tesla mostly worked alone because he did not want corporate sponsorship to influence the development of his ideas. Hunt's fascination with Tesla and appreciation for his genius is evident in her detailed and lyrical portrayal of his life.

This book was full of fascinating anecdotes about the life and times of Tesla. The plot jumps around a lot and is not predictable, giving the book a mysterious quality. It captures a unique period of history while also evidencing a lot of creativity in its science fiction elements. It seems that Hunt was inspired by Tesla's own vision of a world in which humans can fly and electricity is harvested from the sky and distributed for free. I would highly recommend this book to people interested in science. It is well written and captures the complexity of a life devoted to creative vision. It really makes you think about the individuals who have made our current lifestyle possible by taking inspiration from the natural environment and dreaming of any possibility. ( )