135 pages
English language
Published Dec. 14, 1998 by Wesleyan University Press, Published by University Press of New England.
The surface story tells of the problems a member of an alien race, Lo Lobey, has assimilating the mythology of earth, where his kind have settled among the leftover artifacts of humanity. The deeper tale concerns, however, the way those who are "different" must deal with the dominant cultural ideology. The tale follows Lobey's mythic quest for his lost love, Friza.
In luminous and hallucinated language, it explores what new myths might emerge from the detritus of the human world as those who are "different" try to seize history and the day.
There are some writers whose style prevents me from immersion in the story, Samuel R. Delany is just such an author. Clearly he's a man with a great imagination, but his prose style is confounding to me. Just his dialogue scenes are enough to shut down my imagination. Three characters will be chatting, and none of their lines will have any attribution. That's great every once in a while, but that is this author's M.O. See also Babel-17.
I originally read the paperback in my late teens. I don't even remember if I bought it or recieved it as a gift. All I remember is the first section with mutants and buried ancient human tech.
There is now an audible plus catalogue version with an introduction by Neal Gaiman that helped allot with understanding what Delany was going, nad being 47 with betting English and much more knowledge I was able to get much more out of The Einstein Intersection.
However I was still confused at the end.
I'm less confused after listening to Luke Burrages review of the Novel on the Science Book Review Podcast, Episode SFBRP#476.
Delany's prose scintillates and mesmerizes.
