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Profesorova milovaná rovnice
On je „Profesor“, vynikající znalec matematiky s neobvyklou poruchou: od úrazu hlavy, který utrpěl při dávné autonehodě, umí v paměti uchovat pouze vzpomínky mladší osmdesáti minut, vše ostatní zapomíná. Ona je zručná hospodyně, svobodná matka desetiletého syna, kterou najali, aby o něj pečovala. Každé ráno se tak Profesor s hospodyní nanovo seznamují a rozvíjí se mezi nimi podivuhodné a krásné přátelství. A ačkoli Profesorův mozek funguje jako páska, která se vždy po osmdesáti minutách začne přemazávat, jeho mysl je stále svěží, hýřící elegantními rovnicemi z minulosti. Čísla pak ve svém přesném uspořádání odhalují hospodyni i jejímu synovi nový, bezpečný a poetický svět. Profesorova milovaná rovnice je okouzlující příběh o tom, co to znamená žít v přítomnosti, a o podivuhodných rovnicích, které dokáží utvářet rodinu.
179 pages, Hardcover
First published April 6, 2005
3410 people are currently reading
128233 people want to read
About the author
Yōko Ogawa
140 books5,410 followersYōko Ogawa (小川 洋子) was born in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, graduated from Waseda University, and lives in Ashiya. Since 1988, she has published more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction. Her novel The Professor and his Beloved Equation has been made into a movie. In 2006 she co-authored „An Introduction to the World's Most Elegant Mathematics“ with Masahiko Fujiwara, a mathematician, as a dialogue on the extraordinary beauty of numbers.
A film in French, "L'Annulaire“ (The Ringfinger), directed by Diane Bertrand, starring Olga Kurylenko and Marc Barbé, was released in France in June 2005 and subsequently made the rounds of the international film festivals; the film, some of which is filmed in the Hamburg docks, is based in part on Ogawa's "Kusuriyubi no hyōhon“ (薬指の標本), translated into French as "L'Annulaire“ (by Rose-Marie Makino-Fayolle who has translated numerous works by Ogawa, as well as works by Akira Yoshimura and by Ranpo Edogawa, into French).
Kenzaburō Ōe has said, 'Yōko Ogawa is able to give expression to the most subtle workings of human psychology in prose that is gentle yet penetrating.' The subtlety in part lies in the fact that Ogawa's characters often seem not to know why they are doing what they are doing. She works by accumulation of detail, a technique that is perhaps more successful in her shorter works; the slow pace of development in the longer works requires something of a deus ex machina to end them. The reader is presented with an acute description of what the protagonists, mostly but not always female, observe and feel and their somewhat alienated self-observations, some of which is a reflection of Japanese society and especially women's roles within in it. The tone of her works varies, across the works and sometimes within the longer works, from the surreal, through the grotesque and the--sometimes grotesquely--humorous, to the psychologically ambiguous and even disturbing.
A film in French, "L'Annulaire“ (The Ringfinger), directed by Diane Bertrand, starring Olga Kurylenko and Marc Barbé, was released in France in June 2005 and subsequently made the rounds of the international film festivals; the film, some of which is filmed in the Hamburg docks, is based in part on Ogawa's "Kusuriyubi no hyōhon“ (薬指の標本), translated into French as "L'Annulaire“ (by Rose-Marie Makino-Fayolle who has translated numerous works by Ogawa, as well as works by Akira Yoshimura and by Ranpo Edogawa, into French).
Kenzaburō Ōe has said, 'Yōko Ogawa is able to give expression to the most subtle workings of human psychology in prose that is gentle yet penetrating.' The subtlety in part lies in the fact that Ogawa's characters often seem not to know why they are doing what they are doing. She works by accumulation of detail, a technique that is perhaps more successful in her shorter works; the slow pace of development in the longer works requires something of a deus ex machina to end them. The reader is presented with an acute description of what the protagonists, mostly but not always female, observe and feel and their somewhat alienated self-observations, some of which is a reflection of Japanese society and especially women's roles within in it. The tone of her works varies, across the works and sometimes within the longer works, from the surreal, through the grotesque and the--sometimes grotesquely--humorous, to the psychologically ambiguous and even disturbing.
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April 11, 2023
Life by the Numbers
Numbers are everywhere - Real, Natural, Imaginary, Perfect, Amicable, Abundant, Deficient, Triangular, Prime (including both Mersenne and Pernicious as well as Twins) to name a few. And they're all here in The Housekeeper and the Professor, which Ms. Ogawa wrote in 2007. The Professor is of mathematics and has amnesia; the housekeeper is devoted and has a son. This melange constitutes the cast of a charming story of mathematics and love, subjects with a connection that is less than obvious. But there is a connection and it is fundamental and profound.
For a mathematician, defined by intensity of temperament not level of education, numbers are not simply classified as 'kinds' or 'types'. They are living species with distinctive genetic characteristics, with real family resemblances and lasting relationships, indeed with personalities. Some are rare, some shy, some awkward, some maddeningly unpredictable. Some may be hidden in infinity, some are waiting, desperate to be identified, and some may even be the last of their line, but we can't be sure. The ultimate mathematical accolade afforded to any number is to give it a family name, a formula by which all its relatives can be identified, even those we haven't met yet.
Thus the sum of all the numbers from 1 to 10 equals 55. But that is just this number's first name, as it were. It's family name is n(n-1)/2+n. All the numbers, 1 to n, in this family are related to each other and have this name. The numbers themselves have always known this, we as thinking human beings who aren't numbers, took some considerable time to recognise the fact.
Numbers, as living things, of course interbreed. They may be members of different families simultaneously. Plotting out the sister and brothers and cousins and aunts and the in-laws of numerical familial relations is what keeps mathematicians up at night. There are so many interesting genetic modifications, so many hidden liaisons, so many queer numbers waiting, and proudly wanting, to be outed. And the discovery of new families increases the possible connections among all the families. There's no end to the fun.
But why is such an appreciation of numbers of significance in a piece of fiction about amnesia? I think the answer to this question is best found through a comparison: The American novelist, Nicole Krauss, published her first book, Man Walks Into a Room, in 2002. Her novel has the same premise as Ogawa's, namely the condition of amnesia in a man who has suffered severe trauma. Both books then explore the relationship between memory and feelings in the victim - on the residual emotional bonds the victim maintains from his past, as well as their ability to create new relationships of intimacy.
Ogawa's amnesiac is even more disabled than Krauss's because the Professor's condition is anterograde amnesia which inhibits the creation of any new memories. So his memory 'store' consists of his life up to his early 30's plus the last 80 minutes, which recycles like a CarCam with a 16GB memory card. The condition of Krauss's victim is merely retrograde, meaning historical memories only are affected. He has, as it were, started a new reel in the film of his life; the entirety of this reel is available to him.
It is clear from the beginning that Krauss's story is going to end tragically. Samson Greene, her protagonist, whose trauma erased his memory back to his adolescence, is an emotional goner. His wife is not merely a stranger to him, she also evokes not the least emotional response in him; nor do any of the mementoes, photographs and other trinkets of their life together.
It is possible in fact that Samson is permanently crippled emotionally. Loss of memory is the equivalent of a comprehensive loss of affection and affective ability. He, sadly for the reader, also has not the slightest inclination to re-kindle his marriage and considers himself none the worse for it. He is not cruel, merely ennuied; his strongest emotion is melancholy
Ogawa tells a very different story. Although her mathematics Professor has a blank memory from his early 30's, his emotions are still stirred by the son of his housekeeper with whom he immediately feels an intense relationship of care. Despite the fact that the Professor must re-create this relationship every day from scratch, it in fact deepens on the basis of the mathematical tutorial that he has undertaken with the boy and his mother. His memory is blank, yet he has some level of residual emotional instinct and his capacity for relationship to his past life still exists.
I think that it is only in comparison with each other that both these novels can be recognised as profound metaphysical statements, contradictory to each other, but self-verifying by the protagonists, perhaps even to their authors. If I am correct, the responses of readers will depend primarily on the fundamental presumptions they hold not just about life but about existence itself. Here's why:
Krauss presents a decidedly Aristotelian vision of the world. Samson Greene is a physical scientist. He is a materialist in the sense that he lives in a world of strict cause and effect. Memory is a necessary causal condition for Samson’s emotions. Everything must have a cause and all causes are material in character. So no memory, no emotion. The cause/effect chain in his brain has been interrupted. The result is not simply that he doesn’t recognise his wife, he doesn’t recognise himself. He has lost his identity. He cannot remember his own name. While he mildly regrets these facts, he feels nothing more about them.
Ogawa's Professor is Platonist rather than Aristotelian. He lives in a world of Platonic forms - the apotheosis of which are numbers - that are independent not only him but of the world itself. Numbers are "contained in the notebooks of God himself." In effect numbers are attributes of God: eternal, perfect, trustworthy, and, most significantly, uncreated. They are not part of any chain of cause and effect. Yet their reality mysteriously governs the world. They are unaffected by the Professor’s injury and therefore provide what is a spiritual continuity in a materially interrupted life. While these number-forms cannot compensate for the Professor’s material deficiency, they permit him to keep his identity, which for a Platonist is a spiritual not a material entity. Numbers also mediate his current, otherwise fleeting, relationships, which spiritual things as well.
Consequently, Krauss’s story is one of irretrievable tragedy. Irretrievable because the gap in causality can never be recovered. The gap is a hole into which Samson's existence has fallen. He continues to be in the world but as a fundamentally altered being. That same gap exists for the Professor, and is just as materially unrecoverable. But the number-forms maintain their influence and ‘remind’ his material body on a daily basis of their existence, and his. They evoke the Professor's emotions, particularly love, which are not materially but spiritually-grounded. The Professor is debilitated but his ontology, his mode of being, is what it has always been.
Samson suffers mildly but has no real grief. He is now something other than human. He will probably function adequately and be perceived as normal, if somewhat aloof, by the world at large. The Professor on the other hand, may be pitiable to some, like his sister-in-law, and he does suffer, often intensely. But he is not pitiable to his housekeeper and her son. Through practical love and instinctive respect, they adapt to his condition and learn to live in his Platonic world, to their benefit as well as his. In a small but important way, he has improved the world.
Toward the end of Ogawa's book she has the Professor write a formula as a insistent communication to his sister-in-law:
This formula is known as Euler's Identity after the 18th century Swiss mathematician. It has been called the most beautiful formula in mathematics. Its beauty lies in its synthesis of at least four fundamentally different mathematical universes: Transcendental, Imaginary, Natural, and Irrational numbers. Each of these mathematical families has a genetic character as distinct as, say, the genetics of an earthworm and a human being. On the face of it, they should have no family connections whatsoever. But this is precisely what Euler's Identity shows they do have. It is an unparalleled 'abduction,’ or intuitive leap that couldn't have been arrived at by logical deduction or empirical induction.
The significance of Euler's Identity in the book is reasonably clear: It is the Professor’s way of expressing the synthesis of the worlds that he, his sister-in-law, his housekeeper, and her son are living in. Each is included without being denied, just as each mathematical family is included without being negated or changed in the Identity. A brilliant literary as well as mathematical insight therefore.
I have no idea if Ogawa has ever read Krauss, or if she has whether she intended to write a fictional riposte to Krauss’s Aristotelian materialism. Regardless, the two books certainly help to demonstrate what I think is the essential point of the other: It makes a fundamental difference in our lives what implicit philosophy we assimilate or adopt, perhaps without any awareness of the event. Perhaps we are simply born into one tendency or another, without the possibility of choice.
In either case, I am an inveterate Platonist and, like the Professor, find numbers unaccountably comforting. Who knows, they might even help me through my increasingly deficient aged memory. So for me Ogawa has written something far more than a merely charming piece of fiction. She has, either intentionally or inadvertently, addressed a fundamental issue of human existence. Thank you Ms. Ogawa.
See: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... for a discussion of the implications of these two books as a critique of science more generally.
See: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... for another literary use of number theory.
Numbers are everywhere - Real, Natural, Imaginary, Perfect, Amicable, Abundant, Deficient, Triangular, Prime (including both Mersenne and Pernicious as well as Twins) to name a few. And they're all here in The Housekeeper and the Professor, which Ms. Ogawa wrote in 2007. The Professor is of mathematics and has amnesia; the housekeeper is devoted and has a son. This melange constitutes the cast of a charming story of mathematics and love, subjects with a connection that is less than obvious. But there is a connection and it is fundamental and profound.
For a mathematician, defined by intensity of temperament not level of education, numbers are not simply classified as 'kinds' or 'types'. They are living species with distinctive genetic characteristics, with real family resemblances and lasting relationships, indeed with personalities. Some are rare, some shy, some awkward, some maddeningly unpredictable. Some may be hidden in infinity, some are waiting, desperate to be identified, and some may even be the last of their line, but we can't be sure. The ultimate mathematical accolade afforded to any number is to give it a family name, a formula by which all its relatives can be identified, even those we haven't met yet.
Thus the sum of all the numbers from 1 to 10 equals 55. But that is just this number's first name, as it were. It's family name is n(n-1)/2+n. All the numbers, 1 to n, in this family are related to each other and have this name. The numbers themselves have always known this, we as thinking human beings who aren't numbers, took some considerable time to recognise the fact.
Numbers, as living things, of course interbreed. They may be members of different families simultaneously. Plotting out the sister and brothers and cousins and aunts and the in-laws of numerical familial relations is what keeps mathematicians up at night. There are so many interesting genetic modifications, so many hidden liaisons, so many queer numbers waiting, and proudly wanting, to be outed. And the discovery of new families increases the possible connections among all the families. There's no end to the fun.
But why is such an appreciation of numbers of significance in a piece of fiction about amnesia? I think the answer to this question is best found through a comparison: The American novelist, Nicole Krauss, published her first book, Man Walks Into a Room, in 2002. Her novel has the same premise as Ogawa's, namely the condition of amnesia in a man who has suffered severe trauma. Both books then explore the relationship between memory and feelings in the victim - on the residual emotional bonds the victim maintains from his past, as well as their ability to create new relationships of intimacy.
Ogawa's amnesiac is even more disabled than Krauss's because the Professor's condition is anterograde amnesia which inhibits the creation of any new memories. So his memory 'store' consists of his life up to his early 30's plus the last 80 minutes, which recycles like a CarCam with a 16GB memory card. The condition of Krauss's victim is merely retrograde, meaning historical memories only are affected. He has, as it were, started a new reel in the film of his life; the entirety of this reel is available to him.
It is clear from the beginning that Krauss's story is going to end tragically. Samson Greene, her protagonist, whose trauma erased his memory back to his adolescence, is an emotional goner. His wife is not merely a stranger to him, she also evokes not the least emotional response in him; nor do any of the mementoes, photographs and other trinkets of their life together.
It is possible in fact that Samson is permanently crippled emotionally. Loss of memory is the equivalent of a comprehensive loss of affection and affective ability. He, sadly for the reader, also has not the slightest inclination to re-kindle his marriage and considers himself none the worse for it. He is not cruel, merely ennuied; his strongest emotion is melancholy
Ogawa tells a very different story. Although her mathematics Professor has a blank memory from his early 30's, his emotions are still stirred by the son of his housekeeper with whom he immediately feels an intense relationship of care. Despite the fact that the Professor must re-create this relationship every day from scratch, it in fact deepens on the basis of the mathematical tutorial that he has undertaken with the boy and his mother. His memory is blank, yet he has some level of residual emotional instinct and his capacity for relationship to his past life still exists.
I think that it is only in comparison with each other that both these novels can be recognised as profound metaphysical statements, contradictory to each other, but self-verifying by the protagonists, perhaps even to their authors. If I am correct, the responses of readers will depend primarily on the fundamental presumptions they hold not just about life but about existence itself. Here's why:
Krauss presents a decidedly Aristotelian vision of the world. Samson Greene is a physical scientist. He is a materialist in the sense that he lives in a world of strict cause and effect. Memory is a necessary causal condition for Samson’s emotions. Everything must have a cause and all causes are material in character. So no memory, no emotion. The cause/effect chain in his brain has been interrupted. The result is not simply that he doesn’t recognise his wife, he doesn’t recognise himself. He has lost his identity. He cannot remember his own name. While he mildly regrets these facts, he feels nothing more about them.
Ogawa's Professor is Platonist rather than Aristotelian. He lives in a world of Platonic forms - the apotheosis of which are numbers - that are independent not only him but of the world itself. Numbers are "contained in the notebooks of God himself." In effect numbers are attributes of God: eternal, perfect, trustworthy, and, most significantly, uncreated. They are not part of any chain of cause and effect. Yet their reality mysteriously governs the world. They are unaffected by the Professor’s injury and therefore provide what is a spiritual continuity in a materially interrupted life. While these number-forms cannot compensate for the Professor’s material deficiency, they permit him to keep his identity, which for a Platonist is a spiritual not a material entity. Numbers also mediate his current, otherwise fleeting, relationships, which spiritual things as well.
Consequently, Krauss’s story is one of irretrievable tragedy. Irretrievable because the gap in causality can never be recovered. The gap is a hole into which Samson's existence has fallen. He continues to be in the world but as a fundamentally altered being. That same gap exists for the Professor, and is just as materially unrecoverable. But the number-forms maintain their influence and ‘remind’ his material body on a daily basis of their existence, and his. They evoke the Professor's emotions, particularly love, which are not materially but spiritually-grounded. The Professor is debilitated but his ontology, his mode of being, is what it has always been.
Samson suffers mildly but has no real grief. He is now something other than human. He will probably function adequately and be perceived as normal, if somewhat aloof, by the world at large. The Professor on the other hand, may be pitiable to some, like his sister-in-law, and he does suffer, often intensely. But he is not pitiable to his housekeeper and her son. Through practical love and instinctive respect, they adapt to his condition and learn to live in his Platonic world, to their benefit as well as his. In a small but important way, he has improved the world.
Toward the end of Ogawa's book she has the Professor write a formula as a insistent communication to his sister-in-law:
This formula is known as Euler's Identity after the 18th century Swiss mathematician. It has been called the most beautiful formula in mathematics. Its beauty lies in its synthesis of at least four fundamentally different mathematical universes: Transcendental, Imaginary, Natural, and Irrational numbers. Each of these mathematical families has a genetic character as distinct as, say, the genetics of an earthworm and a human being. On the face of it, they should have no family connections whatsoever. But this is precisely what Euler's Identity shows they do have. It is an unparalleled 'abduction,’ or intuitive leap that couldn't have been arrived at by logical deduction or empirical induction.
The significance of Euler's Identity in the book is reasonably clear: It is the Professor’s way of expressing the synthesis of the worlds that he, his sister-in-law, his housekeeper, and her son are living in. Each is included without being denied, just as each mathematical family is included without being negated or changed in the Identity. A brilliant literary as well as mathematical insight therefore.
I have no idea if Ogawa has ever read Krauss, or if she has whether she intended to write a fictional riposte to Krauss’s Aristotelian materialism. Regardless, the two books certainly help to demonstrate what I think is the essential point of the other: It makes a fundamental difference in our lives what implicit philosophy we assimilate or adopt, perhaps without any awareness of the event. Perhaps we are simply born into one tendency or another, without the possibility of choice.
In either case, I am an inveterate Platonist and, like the Professor, find numbers unaccountably comforting. Who knows, they might even help me through my increasingly deficient aged memory. So for me Ogawa has written something far more than a merely charming piece of fiction. She has, either intentionally or inadvertently, addressed a fundamental issue of human existence. Thank you Ms. Ogawa.
See: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... for a discussion of the implications of these two books as a critique of science more generally.
See: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... for another literary use of number theory.
December 1, 2023
The story is set in Japan. A housekeeper is hired to clean and cook for an elderly former mathematics professor who suffered a brain injury. (He’s 64 – is that elderly? lol) His brain is still brilliant in math, but he can only remember NEW things for 80 minutes. So each day when she arrives at his house she has to re-introduce herself.
Every day he asks her some numerical question ranging from her birthday to her shoe size and he expounds about some unique aspect of the numbers of her response. Over time, of course, he asks her the same questions numerous times.
When he finds out that she has a ten-year old boy who is a latch-key kid waiting at home for her, he insists that she let the boy come over after school. So the boy starts learning math. We learn quite a bit about simple math in the process – things like prime numbers and amicable numbers. And I probably shouldn’t say ‘simple’ math – I should say ‘easily understandable’ math the way it is presented. (The Wikipedia review of the book has a list of a dozen math concepts talked about in the book.)
The professor and the boy are also fascinated by baseball stats. The professor still thinks his favorite baseball team has the same players it had in 1975 when he suffered his injury. She takes them both to a baseball game – neither has ever been. Little by little they basically become a family.
Interest is added to the story by the professor’s quirks, and he has plenty. She’s the ninth housekeeper her agency has sent recently – the others quit or were removed. There’s a mystery she solves about the relationship between the professor and his widowed sister-in-law. And the housekeeper has to solve the mystery of the professor’s injury on her own.
It’s a good story and the way the math is presented is fun, so that shouldn’t deter anyone from reading the book. The author (b. 1962) is a prolific writer with about 30 works of fiction. This book was made into a film in Japan with the title The Professor's Beloved Equation. I also read her book The Memory Police. That book and this book I am reviewing are her two best-known works in English.
Photo of a Japanese cottage from merrimackdesign.com
The author from pen-online.com
[Edited, spoilers hidden 1/10/23, 12/1/23]
Every day he asks her some numerical question ranging from her birthday to her shoe size and he expounds about some unique aspect of the numbers of her response. Over time, of course, he asks her the same questions numerous times.
When he finds out that she has a ten-year old boy who is a latch-key kid waiting at home for her, he insists that she let the boy come over after school. So the boy starts learning math. We learn quite a bit about simple math in the process – things like prime numbers and amicable numbers. And I probably shouldn’t say ‘simple’ math – I should say ‘easily understandable’ math the way it is presented. (The Wikipedia review of the book has a list of a dozen math concepts talked about in the book.)
The professor and the boy are also fascinated by baseball stats. The professor still thinks his favorite baseball team has the same players it had in 1975 when he suffered his injury. She takes them both to a baseball game – neither has ever been. Little by little they basically become a family.
Interest is added to the story by the professor’s quirks, and he has plenty. She’s the ninth housekeeper her agency has sent recently – the others quit or were removed. There’s a mystery she solves about the relationship between the professor and his widowed sister-in-law. And the housekeeper has to solve the mystery of the professor’s injury on her own.
It’s a good story and the way the math is presented is fun, so that shouldn’t deter anyone from reading the book. The author (b. 1962) is a prolific writer with about 30 works of fiction. This book was made into a film in Japan with the title The Professor's Beloved Equation. I also read her book The Memory Police. That book and this book I am reviewing are her two best-known works in English.
Photo of a Japanese cottage from merrimackdesign.com
The author from pen-online.com
[Edited, spoilers hidden 1/10/23, 12/1/23]
August 18, 2020
Happy Cubs opening day! 2018 has not been the reading year I had planned on so far. Real life and the stress that goes with it have gotten in the way of being able to focus on reading. Hopefully that changes. In the meantime in honor of the Cubs first home game this year, I am reposting my favorite baseball book from last year, a lovely novella that I am fortunate did not fly under my radar. The Housekeeper and the Professor was recommended to me by my Goodreads' friend Diane because she knows that I love baseball. This March, Japan is participating in the World Baseball Classic so I found this slim novel to be a reminder that America’s pastime is now played happily all over the world.
Yoko Ogawa has been a leading Japanese novelist for twenty years. In this touching story, she creates a family out of a housekeeper, her ten year old son, and the math professor whose cottage they were asked to tend to. The Professor is a math genius, but seventeen years prior to the events of this novel he suffered brain trauma in an accident. As a result his short term memory is only 80 minutes long, and he clips notes to his suit in order to remember important information. Fortunately, the math theorems for which he earned a PhD and many honors as well as his ability to teach them remain intact. Yet, despite this brilliant mind, he is unable to care for himself because of the memory loss and requires a full time Housekeeper to assist him at home. His sister would rather that he not have a housekeeper, however, because she believes that she can care for him herself. She does not exhibit any love toward her brother and makes his condition out to be worse than it is so that no person is willing to fill the position.
It takes a special person to care for those with memory loss. I have seen that first hand in my life. The Housekeeper is a single mother. She is the first Housekeeper who stayed with the Professor for more than one day because she overlooked his 80 minute memory loop. Rather, she embraced learning abstract mathematical concepts such as amicable numbers, perfect numbers, and the professor's love for prime numbers. When he finds out that she is a working mother, he insists that she brings her son to work. What ensues is a touching relationship between the Professor and ten year old Root. Ogawa is able to bridge the gap between the most unlikely of friends by writing about numbers as the universal language. The Professor says that G-D made numbers before people, and the proofs were always there waiting to be discovered. She inserts actual mathematical proofs rather than writing about them, which both speeds up the novel, and allows the Housekeeper to know the Professor on his level.
This gap is also bridged by Root and the Professor's shared love of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team. As a multigenerational fan of the same team, I have seen first hand how baseball is more than a game but a love shared by families. This is evident as the professor fixes his radio so that Root can listen to games, and together they follow the Tigers on their drive toward the pennant. Because baseball is a game of numbers, Ogawa includes statistics and probability in order to show that the Professor loves the game as much as children do. What touched me the most coincidentally is the Professor’s love of the number 28 because to him it is a perfect number that was worn by his favorite Tigers’ pitcher in the days when his memory was lucid enough to remember him pitching a no hitter. Today, our favorite Cubs’ pitcher wears number 28. He is a control pitcher who is capable of pitching a no hitter every time out and attended Dartmouth of the Ivy League. His nickname: The Professor.
Being a mother of a boy close in age to Root who loves both baseball and math as well as one who has seen older family members succumb to memory loss, I felt like I could relate to the characters in this story. In her last years, my grandmother could not remember how old I was or how many kids I had or that I had kids at all, but if I mentioned Ernie Banks, her eyes lit up. Thus, I was moved by the relationship of the three characters in this slim novel, and enjoyed trying to solve the math proofs along with the housekeeper and hoped upon hope that the professor’s dementia would improve even though from experience I knew it would not. Ogawa is a new author for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed this story that brings together an untraditional family who is drawn to the beauty of the numbers of baseball.
5 star ⚾️ 👨🏫 🔢 🇯🇵 read
Yoko Ogawa has been a leading Japanese novelist for twenty years. In this touching story, she creates a family out of a housekeeper, her ten year old son, and the math professor whose cottage they were asked to tend to. The Professor is a math genius, but seventeen years prior to the events of this novel he suffered brain trauma in an accident. As a result his short term memory is only 80 minutes long, and he clips notes to his suit in order to remember important information. Fortunately, the math theorems for which he earned a PhD and many honors as well as his ability to teach them remain intact. Yet, despite this brilliant mind, he is unable to care for himself because of the memory loss and requires a full time Housekeeper to assist him at home. His sister would rather that he not have a housekeeper, however, because she believes that she can care for him herself. She does not exhibit any love toward her brother and makes his condition out to be worse than it is so that no person is willing to fill the position.
It takes a special person to care for those with memory loss. I have seen that first hand in my life. The Housekeeper is a single mother. She is the first Housekeeper who stayed with the Professor for more than one day because she overlooked his 80 minute memory loop. Rather, she embraced learning abstract mathematical concepts such as amicable numbers, perfect numbers, and the professor's love for prime numbers. When he finds out that she is a working mother, he insists that she brings her son to work. What ensues is a touching relationship between the Professor and ten year old Root. Ogawa is able to bridge the gap between the most unlikely of friends by writing about numbers as the universal language. The Professor says that G-D made numbers before people, and the proofs were always there waiting to be discovered. She inserts actual mathematical proofs rather than writing about them, which both speeds up the novel, and allows the Housekeeper to know the Professor on his level.
This gap is also bridged by Root and the Professor's shared love of the Hanshin Tigers baseball team. As a multigenerational fan of the same team, I have seen first hand how baseball is more than a game but a love shared by families. This is evident as the professor fixes his radio so that Root can listen to games, and together they follow the Tigers on their drive toward the pennant. Because baseball is a game of numbers, Ogawa includes statistics and probability in order to show that the Professor loves the game as much as children do. What touched me the most coincidentally is the Professor’s love of the number 28 because to him it is a perfect number that was worn by his favorite Tigers’ pitcher in the days when his memory was lucid enough to remember him pitching a no hitter. Today, our favorite Cubs’ pitcher wears number 28. He is a control pitcher who is capable of pitching a no hitter every time out and attended Dartmouth of the Ivy League. His nickname: The Professor.
Being a mother of a boy close in age to Root who loves both baseball and math as well as one who has seen older family members succumb to memory loss, I felt like I could relate to the characters in this story. In her last years, my grandmother could not remember how old I was or how many kids I had or that I had kids at all, but if I mentioned Ernie Banks, her eyes lit up. Thus, I was moved by the relationship of the three characters in this slim novel, and enjoyed trying to solve the math proofs along with the housekeeper and hoped upon hope that the professor’s dementia would improve even though from experience I knew it would not. Ogawa is a new author for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed this story that brings together an untraditional family who is drawn to the beauty of the numbers of baseball.
5 star ⚾️ 👨🏫 🔢 🇯🇵 read
April 10, 2023
well that was just lovely.
i was expecting this to be saccharine, but it was actually quite wonderful. it never went too far in telling you how to feel and therefore was much more powerful emotionally.....
and i'm on board.
bottom line: i love having popular opinions!
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tbr review
love to read multiple books by an author without even realizing they've written an international bestseller
i was expecting this to be saccharine, but it was actually quite wonderful. it never went too far in telling you how to feel and therefore was much more powerful emotionally.....
and i'm on board.
bottom line: i love having popular opinions!
------------
tbr review
love to read multiple books by an author without even realizing they've written an international bestseller
August 24, 2021
Women in Translation 2021 book 3
I finished the novel two weeks ago and it already started to fade from my memory. As a result, it is going to be a short review. The Housekeeper and the Professor is sweet story about the relationship between a Mathematics professor, his maid and her son. To make the plot more interesting, the professor has some sort of amnesia where he losses his memory after 80 minutes. He only remembers what happened before the accident which caused his affliction. It is a book about friendships, the wonderful world of numbers and baseball. I enjoyed the part where we learn about the characters life stories. The math problems were also interesting but I got a bit bored when the focus of the novel shifted to baseball.
This is the 2nd book I read by the author and it will probably be my last. I liked both of them but they failed to impress me and to leave a memorable imprint in my brain. Ironic, when the other book I read by her is called The Memory Police.
I finished the novel two weeks ago and it already started to fade from my memory. As a result, it is going to be a short review. The Housekeeper and the Professor is sweet story about the relationship between a Mathematics professor, his maid and her son. To make the plot more interesting, the professor has some sort of amnesia where he losses his memory after 80 minutes. He only remembers what happened before the accident which caused his affliction. It is a book about friendships, the wonderful world of numbers and baseball. I enjoyed the part where we learn about the characters life stories. The math problems were also interesting but I got a bit bored when the focus of the novel shifted to baseball.
This is the 2nd book I read by the author and it will probably be my last. I liked both of them but they failed to impress me and to leave a memorable imprint in my brain. Ironic, when the other book I read by her is called The Memory Police.
January 5, 2013
On originally reading a description of this novel I wondered if it was really for me. Did I want to read about a Professor with a memory span of 80 minutes and the Housekeeper who assists him? I'm so glad I decided to read it and I'm happy to have my own copy. This story of memory, math, building a pseudo-family where no relationship has existed before is full of love and compassion. The emotions are mostly expressed in mathematical theorems, cooking and random touch, but it is palpable throughout the book. I had to remind myself repeatedly that this is a novel, not a memoir. It feels like life, a life beautifully lived. The emotions are still high as I write this review.
The blending of the math into the arc of life is amazing. I am a math-phobe and always have been. I could feel my resistance wearing down while reading and a subtle understanding of why others love the world of numbers beginning to grow. The Professor, and the housekeeper, would be pleased.
Highly recommended for its sensitive treatment of relationships.
Addendum 1/5/13: I realize that I truly love this book and it has only risen in my esteem over time. Therefore I am going to change its rating to the 5 stars it probably should have been initially.
The blending of the math into the arc of life is amazing. I am a math-phobe and always have been. I could feel my resistance wearing down while reading and a subtle understanding of why others love the world of numbers beginning to grow. The Professor, and the housekeeper, would be pleased.
Highly recommended for its sensitive treatment of relationships.
Addendum 1/5/13: I realize that I truly love this book and it has only risen in my esteem over time. Therefore I am going to change its rating to the 5 stars it probably should have been initially.
August 24, 2023
The writing, the imagery, the character relationships… this story is wonderful!
May 6, 2015
This is a beautifully-written, elegant little book about an old man, a maths professor, his housekeeper and her young son. The professor's memory post-1975 is only 80 minutes long, so everything is fresh and new to him all the time, including the news his memory is only 80 minutes long. The housekeeper has her own problems but finds fulfillment in the relationship, ever renewed, between her son and the professor and her growing love for mathematics. It is a mark of the author's writing that the fourth character, the linchpin of the story remains in the shadows but no more on that, otherwise I'd have to mark this with a 'spoiler' flag.
The book is a short read, mesmerising in its intensity and absolutely unique, I've never read another book even slightly like this one. Certainly I've never read anything about logarithms, mathematical conjectures and proofs that I ever even understood, let alone enjoyed. But now I know a bit more about maths, and wish I'd had a teacher who could have shown me the magic rather than the grind behind numbers.
The book is a short read, mesmerising in its intensity and absolutely unique, I've never read another book even slightly like this one. Certainly I've never read anything about logarithms, mathematical conjectures and proofs that I ever even understood, let alone enjoyed. But now I know a bit more about maths, and wish I'd had a teacher who could have shown me the magic rather than the grind behind numbers.
August 3, 2025
Who Discovered Zero? 0️⃣
The professor lives with memory loss caused by an accident.
A single mother—the housekeeper—takes a job caring for him, bringing warmth and life into his quiet home.
He teaches her son math, and together, they form a unique friendship that goes beyond numbers.
A touching story with a heartwarming ending. 😍👍
The professor lives with memory loss caused by an accident.
A single mother—the housekeeper—takes a job caring for him, bringing warmth and life into his quiet home.
He teaches her son math, and together, they form a unique friendship that goes beyond numbers.
A touching story with a heartwarming ending. 😍👍
January 12, 2025
An enjoyable Japanese novel that scatters numbers, and facts about the brain, though it's primarily about friendship. It feels light, but prompts profound questions.
The sit
The eponymous housekeeper is a young single mother (herself the only child of a single mother) with a ten-year-old son. She becomes daily housekeeper to a former maths professor whose head injury in 1975 means he only remembers the most recent 80 minutes, plus things before 1975, nearly 20 years before the story is set (~1992).
Numbers are now the professor's life. He works on problems for magazine competitions, and he comes alive when he spots numbers or patterns to explain to his increasingly interested housekeeper. When he discovers his housekeeper has a son, he is adamant that the boy must come to the house after school and in the holidays: he adores children, and thinks their needs (or his exaggerated perception of them) are more important than anything else. Thus a relationship is built between the prof and the boy (nicknamed Root - as in square root), based on numbers and baseball statistics. His short memory span makes him an incredibly patient teacher.
Despite all the notes, he has to start each day, each situation, anew. (The hire and fire nature of a housekeeping agency has parallels.)
The practicalities and humour of coping with the prof's condition are well portrayed, and the relationships are very touching.
The questions
Despite the efforts of the housekeeper and her son, the professor's capacity for joy seems literally limited.
* Is there much point having any sort of friendship with or giving happiness to someone who will not remember it?
* The housekeeper and her son learn so much from the professor, but does he get anything meaningful in return?
I think he benefits. Even if his pleasure is transient, it is still pleasure. Even if he can't consciously recall it later, it surely adds to his general sense of well-being. The fact his relationship with the housekeeper and her son develops to a deep bond implies a degree of memory and benefit.
If we really believed the only reason for being kind to someone was the certainty that they'd remember it, the world would be full of neglected babies and toddlers, who developed into cold and disturbed adults. Fortunately, only a very few people operate that way.
Don't be put off by the numbers
Some of the maths may be a little obscure for some readers, but not fully understanding it shouldn't impair enjoyment of the book. The prof's message is not about right answers, but listening to and feeling numbers, and there are times when the passion borders on religious:
"I needed this eternal truth... I needed the sense that this invisible world was somehow propped up by the visible one... Somehow this line would help me find peace."
Related books
This has some similarities with:
* Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (see my review HERE).
*Iris Murdoch's The Word Child (see my review HERE).
David Mitchell cites it as one of his five favourite Japanese novels: http://www.avclub.com/article/david-m...
Updates
Review updated August 2017 after Tsung Wei prompted me to think more about what I'd written.
Then at the start of 2025, I read his The Memory Police, which was utterly different and very good. See my review HERE.
The sit
The eponymous housekeeper is a young single mother (herself the only child of a single mother) with a ten-year-old son. She becomes daily housekeeper to a former maths professor whose head injury in 1975 means he only remembers the most recent 80 minutes, plus things before 1975, nearly 20 years before the story is set (~1992).
Numbers are now the professor's life. He works on problems for magazine competitions, and he comes alive when he spots numbers or patterns to explain to his increasingly interested housekeeper. When he discovers his housekeeper has a son, he is adamant that the boy must come to the house after school and in the holidays: he adores children, and thinks their needs (or his exaggerated perception of them) are more important than anything else. Thus a relationship is built between the prof and the boy (nicknamed Root - as in square root), based on numbers and baseball statistics. His short memory span makes him an incredibly patient teacher.
Despite all the notes, he has to start each day, each situation, anew. (The hire and fire nature of a housekeeping agency has parallels.)
The practicalities and humour of coping with the prof's condition are well portrayed, and the relationships are very touching.
The questions
Despite the efforts of the housekeeper and her son, the professor's capacity for joy seems literally limited.
* Is there much point having any sort of friendship with or giving happiness to someone who will not remember it?
* The housekeeper and her son learn so much from the professor, but does he get anything meaningful in return?
I think he benefits. Even if his pleasure is transient, it is still pleasure. Even if he can't consciously recall it later, it surely adds to his general sense of well-being. The fact his relationship with the housekeeper and her son develops to a deep bond implies a degree of memory and benefit.
If we really believed the only reason for being kind to someone was the certainty that they'd remember it, the world would be full of neglected babies and toddlers, who developed into cold and disturbed adults. Fortunately, only a very few people operate that way.
Don't be put off by the numbers
Some of the maths may be a little obscure for some readers, but not fully understanding it shouldn't impair enjoyment of the book. The prof's message is not about right answers, but listening to and feeling numbers, and there are times when the passion borders on religious:
"I needed this eternal truth... I needed the sense that this invisible world was somehow propped up by the visible one... Somehow this line would help me find peace."
Related books
This has some similarities with:
* Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (see my review HERE).
*Iris Murdoch's The Word Child (see my review HERE).
David Mitchell cites it as one of his five favourite Japanese novels: http://www.avclub.com/article/david-m...
Updates
Review updated August 2017 after Tsung Wei prompted me to think more about what I'd written.
Then at the start of 2025, I read his The Memory Police, which was utterly different and very good. See my review HERE.
Read
February 23, 2023This novel is a brief, delicate, slow-moving character portrait. The Housekeeper is a gentle but stubborn single mother who never finished school; the Professor is a math genius with a short term memory of only 80 minutes following a long-ago head injury. The plot of the book, in its entirety, is: will they become friends?
In between their first meeting and the ultimate culmination of friendship, there is a lot of math, baseball, and math about baseball. Personally, as someone who comes from a more genre reading background, I was really longing by the end for a little magic, or a little murder, or a little mayhem. I think it reads like a long-form poem about relationships and math and truth than a novel, and if that is what you are in the mood for, you'll love it—the stakes are quite low and the vibes are quite high. It reminded me ever so slightly of Elizabeth McCracken's THE GIANT'S HOUSE . . . I think if you adored that one, you might like this one.
*note: I tackled this book as part of my 2023 reading challenge to read books from this crowd-sourced list of recommended standalone novels published between 1985-2007: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Please know that I am a brittle and crotchety reader, so please don't take my opinions on these novels as universal.
In between their first meeting and the ultimate culmination of friendship, there is a lot of math, baseball, and math about baseball. Personally, as someone who comes from a more genre reading background, I was really longing by the end for a little magic, or a little murder, or a little mayhem. I think it reads like a long-form poem about relationships and math and truth than a novel, and if that is what you are in the mood for, you'll love it—the stakes are quite low and the vibes are quite high. It reminded me ever so slightly of Elizabeth McCracken's THE GIANT'S HOUSE . . . I think if you adored that one, you might like this one.
*note: I tackled this book as part of my 2023 reading challenge to read books from this crowd-sourced list of recommended standalone novels published between 1985-2007: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Please know that I am a brittle and crotchety reader, so please don't take my opinions on these novels as universal.
September 17, 2022
The book heavily revolves around math and baseball, and I am not a fan of either. And the thing is these two takes a lot of time in this story. Removing those parts, this book was a lovely story of friendship and respect among three people. I really liked how the relationship between professor and maid, professor and her son blossomed slowly. But in the I didn't care about any of them and hence the three stars.
March 19, 2023
After an accident, a professor, an exceptionally gifted mathematician, has lost the ability to remember things. Since then, his mind has failed to retain any new piece of information or any new face. All his memories end in 1975.
Now his memory lasts only eighty minutes, no more and no less. After eighty minutes he forgets everything that just happened to him or around him.
This obviously affects the life of the main character and forces him to change entirely his way of living. He is to stop teaching and live mostly on the charity of his relatives.
The Professor's sister-in-law hires a young woman to look after the small cottage in which the Professor is now living. She turns out to be the tenth housekeeper in a row. The nine previous housekeepers were dismissed for one reason or another.
The new housekeeper comes every day to help the Professor go through his days. Her son also starts showing up at the Professor's house after school. The woman and the boy come to form a close bond with the aging man.
The Professor uses every opportunity to bring up the subject of numbers, the beauty of numbers, and the mystery of the relationships between them.
"Soon after I began working for the Professor, I realized that he talked about numbers whenever he was unsure of what to say or do. Numbers were also his way of reaching out to the world. They were safe, a source of comfort."
He shares his knowledge and tries to communicate with his two friends despite his memory failing him.
The book, through the Professor's mathematical findings and explanations, conveys the idea of how exciting math can be. Numbers are not just simple symbols. They can be perfect, tricky, amicable, chaotic, and brilliant. The Professor searches for elaborate patterns numbers can hide. Finding a solution to a math problem can be compared to unearthing a shard of crystal from the floor of a dark cave. His enthusiasm and affection for math shine through, and I must admit that they are somehow contagious.
The mutual respect and affection with which the main characters treat each other shine through, as well. The Professor speaks to two friends as if they were real mathematicians. And the housekeeper and her ten-year-old son start, to their own surprise, absorbing his explanations.
I found some passages enlightening. Did you know what the term 'amicable numbers' meant? For example, 220 and 284 are 'amicable numbers.' Here is how the Professor explains this.
The novel is relatively short but slow-paced. I was taking my time with it.
One thing that could have prevented me from appreciating this story was baseball and the multiple references to that game. But it did not, and I enjoyed this read. My rating is ~ 3.7 stars.
Now his memory lasts only eighty minutes, no more and no less. After eighty minutes he forgets everything that just happened to him or around him.
This obviously affects the life of the main character and forces him to change entirely his way of living. He is to stop teaching and live mostly on the charity of his relatives.
The Professor's sister-in-law hires a young woman to look after the small cottage in which the Professor is now living. She turns out to be the tenth housekeeper in a row. The nine previous housekeepers were dismissed for one reason or another.
The new housekeeper comes every day to help the Professor go through his days. Her son also starts showing up at the Professor's house after school. The woman and the boy come to form a close bond with the aging man.
The Professor uses every opportunity to bring up the subject of numbers, the beauty of numbers, and the mystery of the relationships between them.
"Soon after I began working for the Professor, I realized that he talked about numbers whenever he was unsure of what to say or do. Numbers were also his way of reaching out to the world. They were safe, a source of comfort."
He shares his knowledge and tries to communicate with his two friends despite his memory failing him.
The book, through the Professor's mathematical findings and explanations, conveys the idea of how exciting math can be. Numbers are not just simple symbols. They can be perfect, tricky, amicable, chaotic, and brilliant. The Professor searches for elaborate patterns numbers can hide. Finding a solution to a math problem can be compared to unearthing a shard of crystal from the floor of a dark cave. His enthusiasm and affection for math shine through, and I must admit that they are somehow contagious.
The mutual respect and affection with which the main characters treat each other shine through, as well. The Professor speaks to two friends as if they were real mathematicians. And the housekeeper and her ten-year-old son start, to their own surprise, absorbing his explanations.
I found some passages enlightening. Did you know what the term 'amicable numbers' meant? For example, 220 and 284 are 'amicable numbers.' Here is how the Professor explains this.
220 : 1 + 2 + 4 + 5 + 10 + 11 + 20 + 22 + 44 + 55 + 110 = 284
220 = 142 + 71 + 4 + 2 + 1 : 284
"That's right! The sum of the factors of 220 is 284, and the sum of the factors of 284 is 220. They're called 'amicable numbers,' and they're extremely rare. Fermat and Descartes were only able to find one pair each. They're linked to each other by some divine scheme, and how incredible that your birthday and this number on my watch should be just such a pair."
The novel is relatively short but slow-paced. I was taking my time with it.
One thing that could have prevented me from appreciating this story was baseball and the multiple references to that game. But it did not, and I enjoyed this read. My rating is ~ 3.7 stars.
October 8, 2020
In comparison with Ogawa's The Memory Police and Hotel Iris, this story is particularly gentle and sweet. Naturally, that means it didn't grab me by the neck like her other work. But it did have its way of getting in and tugging those heartstrings.
This is a short novel about a woman (the housekeeper) who comes to care for her employer (the professor), who is a mathematical genius, but who also has a very limited short term memory (80 minutes).
Because he starts fresh every 80 minutes, the present becomes of utmost importance. The housekeeper, her young son, and the professor create beautiful times together in these 80 minute snips. During these times, he shares his deep love for numbers and their poetic, natural elegance.
While his recollection lasts 80 minutes, his impact on the housekeeper and her son is lifelong. Maybe for the fact that the friendship they extend calls on them to be selfless - any kindness is forgotten in minutes, and must be given almost anonymously, to impart temporary joy at best. There's a purity in that.
Math and baseball feature heavily here - neither are subjects that particularly draw me. But the mysteries explored in this short book go beyond sports and numbers.
Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won't find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions. Mathematics, however, can illuminate them, can give them expression -- in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.
The three characters create a life together, a life built on a series of 80 minute segments. What a beautiful formula: one single mother + a ten year old boy who loves baseball + an aging mathematician with a memory problem = a family.
This is a short novel about a woman (the housekeeper) who comes to care for her employer (the professor), who is a mathematical genius, but who also has a very limited short term memory (80 minutes).
Because he starts fresh every 80 minutes, the present becomes of utmost importance. The housekeeper, her young son, and the professor create beautiful times together in these 80 minute snips. During these times, he shares his deep love for numbers and their poetic, natural elegance.
While his recollection lasts 80 minutes, his impact on the housekeeper and her son is lifelong. Maybe for the fact that the friendship they extend calls on them to be selfless - any kindness is forgotten in minutes, and must be given almost anonymously, to impart temporary joy at best. There's a purity in that.
Math and baseball feature heavily here - neither are subjects that particularly draw me. But the mysteries explored in this short book go beyond sports and numbers.
Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won't find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions. Mathematics, however, can illuminate them, can give them expression -- in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.
The three characters create a life together, a life built on a series of 80 minute segments. What a beautiful formula: one single mother + a ten year old boy who loves baseball + an aging mathematician with a memory problem = a family.
February 11, 2018
Amicable numbers – pair of keyrings Nerd Romance (https://mathsgear.co.uk/products/amic...)
Not that kind of love story, but a sad, sweet story about an unlikely friendship between a brilliant mathematician, his housekeeper and her son. There is love just no romance.
The Professor is 64 years old. He suffered a brain injury at age 47. He has an 80-minute retention for new memories ever since his accident. He covers his suit in notes to remember new information. He loves math, numbers, children and his favorite baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers. His favorite player is the legendary strikeout pitcher, Yutaka Enatsu.
Except for the son who the Professor calls Root because the top of his head is flat like a square root sign none of them have names. There is also the Professor’s Sister-in-law or the Widow, she manages the Professor’s affairs and hires the Housekeeper.
The mathematician's personality is usually credited as based on the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős (26 March 1913 – 20 September 1996), because Erdős biography "The Man Who Loved Numbers" is in the bibliography. Although the disabling injury is strictly Ogawa’s Professor, Erdős worked prolifically until his fatal heart attack at a conference in Warsaw. He is shown here with mathematician rock star Terence Tao in 1985.
Image: Grace Tao (https://curiosity.com/topics/terence-...)
The Hanshin Tigers, one of Japan’s oldest professional teams, and Yutaka Enatsu (born 15 May 1948) feature prominently in the story. Root and the Professor are fans. The importance of a treasured baseball card collection is part of their friendship.
Since Enatsu had retired long before Root was born, he’d gone to the library to find out about him. He learned that he had a career record of 206 wins, 158 losses, 193 saves, with 2,987 strikeouts. He’d hit a home run in his second at bat as a pro; he had short fingers for a pitcher. He’d struck out his great rival, Sadaharu Oh, more than any other pitcher, but he’d also surrendered the most home runs to him. In the course of their rivalry, however, he’d never hit Oh with a pitch. During the 1968 season, he set a world record with 401 strikeouts, and after the 1975 season (the year the Professor’s memory came to an end), he’d been traded to the Nankai Hawks….
He’d chosen 28. Enatsu had played his whole career with a perfect number on his back!
#28 Yutaka Enatsu
You can enjoy the book without an appreciation of baseball or mathematics, but they would be a plus.
*******************************************************
Amicable Number: If two numbers are such that the sum of the perfect divisors of one number is equal to the other number and the sum of the perfect divisors of the other number is equal to the first number, then the numbers are called Amicable Numbers.
http://www.mymathtables.com/numbers/d...
*******************************************************
http://www.ams.org/notices/201005/rtx...
March 16, 2025
more stuff like this please! rtc
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love math so hopefully this serves (it probably will cause it's by yoko ogawa)
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love math so hopefully this serves (it probably will cause it's by yoko ogawa)
November 28, 2024
4.25/5
Wzruszająca!
Wzruszająca!
Read
January 25, 2025Piękne.
April 12, 2017
With only 192 pages, it is a breeze. A delightful pause. A little gem of fantasmagoric proportions. An ode to maths. And a Dennis The Menace- moment in nostalgia.
The Dennis The Menace-moment.
Reading this book, about a housekeeper and her little son, and a brilliant mentally-disabled professor after a severe head injury, brought the joy of numbers back. Every eighty minutes his short term memory erased itself, but he still had his memories of elegant equations from the past. The housekeeper and her son had to introduce themselves each day all over again. The professor called her son 'Root', because, he said, the flat top of the boy's head reminded him of the square root sign. Very soon the professor managed to instill a love of maths in the little boy (rekindle it in me as well!), and brought the magic of this ancient old knowledge alive.
The professor believed that the very origins of the universe could be explained in the exact language of numbers. It was like copying truths from God's notebook.
A bond of friendship formed when they managed to get the old radio working again and baseball broadcasts could reverberate through the small garden cottage. He became a surrogate father to the boy child, while layers of silence were slowly lifted. It did not matter if they got the answers wrong to his math problems. He preferred their wild, desperate guesses to silence.
Curious equations created an unlikely family where one was desperately needed.
Written as a fictional memoir. It feels so real, so true. So very very good.
RECOMMENDED.
The Dennis The Menace-moment.
Reading this book, about a housekeeper and her little son, and a brilliant mentally-disabled professor after a severe head injury, brought the joy of numbers back. Every eighty minutes his short term memory erased itself, but he still had his memories of elegant equations from the past. The housekeeper and her son had to introduce themselves each day all over again. The professor called her son 'Root', because, he said, the flat top of the boy's head reminded him of the square root sign. Very soon the professor managed to instill a love of maths in the little boy (rekindle it in me as well!), and brought the magic of this ancient old knowledge alive.
The professor believed that the very origins of the universe could be explained in the exact language of numbers. It was like copying truths from God's notebook.
A bond of friendship formed when they managed to get the old radio working again and baseball broadcasts could reverberate through the small garden cottage. He became a surrogate father to the boy child, while layers of silence were slowly lifted. It did not matter if they got the answers wrong to his math problems. He preferred their wild, desperate guesses to silence.
Curious equations created an unlikely family where one was desperately needed.
Written as a fictional memoir. It feels so real, so true. So very very good.
RECOMMENDED.
September 25, 2020
Math has never liked me, and if you make me sit through an entire baseball game, I cry. So how is it that I am about to tell you that a book that is largely concerned with math and baseball has captured my heart? Yoko Ogawa has convinced me, without really trying, that math is beautiful, in a way my college algebra teacher was unable to.
Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won’t find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions. Mathematics, however, can illuminate them, can give them expression--in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.
I’m guessing those who actually understand math and comprehend what the numbers say, are closer to understanding eternity than the rest of us. Perhaps they are the ones who can fathom that the universe has no borders, no end; it's a concept I grasp intellectually but still feel overwhelmed by.
But, I digress, because this not a book about math, it is a book about people; about how they can come to care about one another despite the most challenging of situations. It is a book about compassion, kindness, and love. And, while you might think those elements are flowing in one direction alone, they can come to flow in two directions so easily, and kindness and love can help the givers as well as the receivers.
My sincere thanks to my GR friends, Lynn and Anne. It was as lovely as you promised.
Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won’t find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions. Mathematics, however, can illuminate them, can give them expression--in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.
I’m guessing those who actually understand math and comprehend what the numbers say, are closer to understanding eternity than the rest of us. Perhaps they are the ones who can fathom that the universe has no borders, no end; it's a concept I grasp intellectually but still feel overwhelmed by.
But, I digress, because this not a book about math, it is a book about people; about how they can come to care about one another despite the most challenging of situations. It is a book about compassion, kindness, and love. And, while you might think those elements are flowing in one direction alone, they can come to flow in two directions so easily, and kindness and love can help the givers as well as the receivers.
My sincere thanks to my GR friends, Lynn and Anne. It was as lovely as you promised.
January 15, 2018
A wonderful, heart-warming story about unlikely friendships....and math...and baseball! I decided to grab this one for my Japanese reading challenge for 2018 and it was the perfect story to begin reading. It's heavy into math, which I must say, I'm a bit rusty on. I was at one time fascinated by numbers, going to the highest level of math courses in college, and working for my college math professor. But then...I just lost interest in numbers (as along came computers! Nerd!)
The story is of the friendship of the housekeeper and the professor. The professor had an accident some number of years ago and his memory only lasts 80 minutes. He's quite the sight for the housekeeper, wearing a suit with post it notes pinned all over his suit to remind of things he will soon forget. He has his memory prior to the accident, but after that, it only lasts 80 minutes. But, he is a math genius and relates everything to math. When he first meets his new housekeeper, he asks her shoe size and phone number and recounting the tale of those specific numbers. And so begins their daily dance. But over time, they have an impact on one another. The housekeepers son comes around and the professor helps to teach him, the housekeeper becomes enamored by numbers, and they all share their fondness of baseball. A unlikely friendship that lasts a lifetime for the three of them.
I listened to this one via audio and it was wonderful. Cassandra Campbell is an awesome narrator and I have listened to her numerous times, and loved each narration. I also grabbed the print, which was available at my library, so I could reference when numbers and equations were discussed. I'm so happy that I picked this one up. A short, special read for anyone who is a fan of math, a fan of baseball, or who wants a really good feel, good story.
The story is of the friendship of the housekeeper and the professor. The professor had an accident some number of years ago and his memory only lasts 80 minutes. He's quite the sight for the housekeeper, wearing a suit with post it notes pinned all over his suit to remind of things he will soon forget. He has his memory prior to the accident, but after that, it only lasts 80 minutes. But, he is a math genius and relates everything to math. When he first meets his new housekeeper, he asks her shoe size and phone number and recounting the tale of those specific numbers. And so begins their daily dance. But over time, they have an impact on one another. The housekeepers son comes around and the professor helps to teach him, the housekeeper becomes enamored by numbers, and they all share their fondness of baseball. A unlikely friendship that lasts a lifetime for the three of them.
I listened to this one via audio and it was wonderful. Cassandra Campbell is an awesome narrator and I have listened to her numerous times, and loved each narration. I also grabbed the print, which was available at my library, so I could reference when numbers and equations were discussed. I'm so happy that I picked this one up. A short, special read for anyone who is a fan of math, a fan of baseball, or who wants a really good feel, good story.
October 2, 2019
The Housekeeper and the Professor is a charming and enjoyable novella about eponymous Professor of mathematics who due to accident years earlier suffers from peculiar form of amnesia and while he remembers everything from the past his current memory lasts only eighty minutes, and as a reminder of this fact he has fitting note pinned to his suit. In fact Professor has plenty notes on him that rustle when he walks. It also is a story about his housekeeper, young single mother and her son named by Professor, in honor of root sign since his head is flat, Root. And finally the story revolves about numbers, whole range of numbers. Prime, natural, amicable, perfect, triangular and so on.
Well, being myself mathematical dimwit I didn’t think reading about equations, proofs and Fermat Last Theorem could be so engaging. For Professor numbers are comforting and solving some mathematical puzzle leaves him peaceful and at ease. And these passages devoted to the beauty of mathematics I found especially captivating. In mathematics is order and logic that I admire and mystery and beauty that regretfully I not always can comprehend.
You could think that being limited to the world of numbers only the Professor is excluded from the outside world. Yes, in some way he is. He lives in unkempt cottage, his clothes remember better times and he barely leaves his refuge. But he almost immediately creates a bond with his housekeeper’s ten years old son. And reading about their relationship, the way he cares about the boy is such heart-warming even if every time Professor has to start his day looking at his clothes to find a proper note reminding him who the boy and his mother are.
Yōko Ogawa wrote this story with elegance and understanding, fortunately avoiding saccharine undertone that can be found in some novels concerning disabilities issue. We can see Professor in his best and worst moments. We see old man in shabby clothes who pays no attention to his dowdiness and hygienic matters. We see him thinking and pointing at the sky to indicate the evening star that is about to show. We perfectly understand his fear of crowded places and can comprehend the fact when he reduces baseball game to numbers and statistics or writes a formula to end an arguing. Because numbers always would give him sense of order and harmony with himself and the world.
3.5/5
August 21, 2017
Everyone and their mother read this last year for Women in Translation month (August 2016), and I remember finding my own copy at the annual literacy book sale. I set it aside for WIT month this year and was happy to pull it back out.
The housekeeper is a single parent, trying to make enough to live on, and the professor is a mathematician with a failing memory. The story is about connection and care but also MATH and anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for math. The professor can't remember past 80 minutes and tries to attach little slips of paper with the important details to his robe. But he can still think in math, so that is how he connects to the people around him.
He refers to the housekeeper's son as Root because of the shape of his hair, the flat top of the square root symbol.
I'm not much for charming books but I was still charmed by this. I guess I needed a book that showed kindness matters. And math.
The housekeeper is a single parent, trying to make enough to live on, and the professor is a mathematician with a failing memory. The story is about connection and care but also MATH and anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for math. The professor can't remember past 80 minutes and tries to attach little slips of paper with the important details to his robe. But he can still think in math, so that is how he connects to the people around him.
He refers to the housekeeper's son as Root because of the shape of his hair, the flat top of the square root symbol.
I'm not much for charming books but I was still charmed by this. I guess I needed a book that showed kindness matters. And math.
September 13, 2020
A poignant and touching story about a very special housekeeper with qualities of empathy, gentleness and kindness without which this would be a very different story. This housekeeper cares for a math professor who has a brain injury from an accident and, as a result, only has 80 minutes of short term memory. Ten housekeepers prior to our angelic one have failed with him. But the housekeeper in the story shares and gives all that she has to comfort and care for the professor, including her son. All three gain from the relationship as they share math problems, baseball, and time together. A lovely, well-written story.
January 24, 2021
كيف ستكون حياتك اذا ماتعرضت يومًا لحادث وتوقفت ذاكرتك عن تخزين كل شيء بعد هذا الحادث وتبقت فقط ذكرياتك السابقة ؟
مدبرة المنزل , التي لديها طفل غير شرعي لتعتني به . يقودها القدر لتعمل عند بروفيسور أو أستاذ متخصص في علم الرياضيات فشلت ذاكرته بتخزين كل مايمر به في حياته بعد تعرضه لحادث عام 1975 ادى لتهشم جزء من جمجمته
بعد مرور 30 عام على هذه الحادثة تستدعي زوجة أخاه المتوفي من إحدى وكالات التنظيف مدبرة منزل لتهتم بأموره وتساعده لتكون هذه المدبرة التاسعة التي تجلبها بعد انسحاب المدبرات السابقات
تنشأ علاقة عميقة ورياضياتية دافئة بين مدبرة المنزل والأستاذ , على الرغم من أن مدبرة المنزل لم تكن تحب الرياضيات , إلا أن هوس الأستاذ بهذا العلم العميق هو ماعزز من علاقتهما الغريبة ليجعلها تهتم بهذا المجال هي وولدها
في كل صباح يسأل الأستاذ المدبرة .. اهلا , من انتِ
في كل صباح يتعرف عليها من جديد بدون ان تمل او تسأم مدبرة المنزل يافعة السن
في كل صباح يراجع الأستاذ الملصقات التي يعلقها بمعطفه ليعلم انه التقى بهذه المدبرة من قبل ولكن ذاكرته الخائنة تنسيه كل ماحدث قبل
كل يوم تنشأ نفس العلاقة اللطيفة الرياضياتة هذه بينهما ليجعلها تكتشف كل يوم لغز جديد في عالم الأرقام
كان عادة مايعطي الأستاذ مسألة رياضية او لغز لتحله هي وأبنها لتذكره باليوم التالي بالواجب الذي اعطاهما ليصحح لهما .. هنا يكون الأستاذ سعيد على الرغم من عدم تذكره
رواية لطيفة هادئة مليئة بالأحاسيس والمشاعر . هذا النوع من العلاقات الجميلة يجعل المرء يشعر بالدفء
الأدب الياباني من أرقى أنواع الأدب حرفيًا
ربما لم تعد ذاكرته تخزن المزيد من الأحداث , لكن المهم انها احتفظت بشغفه .. إحتفظت بعلمه بهذا المجال
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May 4, 2025
⤿ 🫐 4 stars . . ⟡
in the novel, the housekeeper and the professor, we follow three characters, namely, the professor, the housekeeper, and the housekeeper's son, root. though none bear names, this touching novel leaves an indelible impression which is one to be remembered for a lifetime. we follow the professor, a mathematical genius who suffers from a traumatic brain injury that allows him to retain only 80 short minutes of memory. a housekeeper is assigned to look after him who is a single mother doing everything she can for her son. these three unlikely characters find something in common, i.e., numbers and baseball to bond over and grow their relationships. ogawa calls the readers to understand a minuscule part of the enormous subject that is maths, bit by bit, by slowly incorporating theorems and proofs, equations and truths as an extended metaphor to love and life itself. this book is an elusive one, swimming in a vast sea of countless others, silently waiting to be found by those who are willing to generously devote their time to truly understand it.
the professor is one who would rather be surrounded by numbers than people, for he found solace in formulas and postulates, drowning in plethora of complex mathematics that may seem like utter gibberish to the common eye. he found a rare sense of comfort in knowing that there is a concrete answer to mathematical problems unlike the troubles that are put forth by life. this led him to retreat into his cluttered little study where he chose to spend most of his time. this often made him miss out on any real human interaction. it made him a tad bit ill mannered and he found it difficult to form a meaningful bond with anyone. he resorted to making conversations with the very few people he encountered in life with the help of numbers. the connections he made with common numerals found in our day to day life to years and years of hard work and knowledge revolving around mathematics helped him make small talk to new strangers (especially his ever changing housekeepers). no one took a particular liking to this habit of his but the housekeeper did. she was instantly piqued and gradually gravitated towards the professor's secure realm. initially, the housekeeper and her son, had a little trouble communicating with the professor due to his short lived memory. but with the help of his bizarre coats littered with sticky note reminders stuck to every corner, constant reintroductions throughout the day and willingness to make conversation with him led the housekeeper and her son to become well acquainted with him.
the lives of the professor and the housekeeper intertwined, blossoming into a beautiful relationship that proved not all strong bonds must be familial. while the professor taught mathematics and how numbers held the power to connect people, the housekeeper and root taught the professor what true love and caring for others could look like. i particularly loved the relationship between the professor and root. he always had a soft spot for the little boy and never sneered or got annoyed with him when root posed question after question about anything. he was patient, kind and ever so loving. my heart broke for the professor when he felt this intense sadness every time his memory reseted. he frequently avoided bringing up topics that he felt might inconvenience others. he neglected his own needs in order not to trouble people but numbers were always a constant. although he repeated a lot of the concepts in maths again and again, the housekeeper and her son made sure to listen intently every single time so as to not make him sad. they did their very best to avoid speaking of things that reminded him of his memory impairment. and this small action portrays how deep their love for the professor is. i loved reading almost every single scene, whether is was the professor explaining a particularly hard formula or the mother and son helping him branch out of his comfort zone. each one carried a significant meaning and was beautifully written. it read like a poem. although, having no knowledge whatsoever about the sport baseball, all the talk about it had me a little stumped. i did skim through the parts that flew right over my head and made no sense. but i found great joy in seeing the three share a profound love for this game that appealed to all of them.
if you would've told my younger self that i willingly read a book about mathematics and thoroughly enjoyed it... she would've laughed in your face. it was a stark surprise to me when i found out that even the little passages explaining about maths was lovely... fun even. despite it being only 180 pages, it has managed to win me over and made me look at the world and numbers in a new light. i will forever cherish the memory of reading this book and i know that there are many rereads set in the future.
with all my love,
ahana ⟡
⊹ eternal truths are ultimately invisiible, and you won’t find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions. mathematics, however, can illuminate them, can give them expression—in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.
in the novel, the housekeeper and the professor, we follow three characters, namely, the professor, the housekeeper, and the housekeeper's son, root. though none bear names, this touching novel leaves an indelible impression which is one to be remembered for a lifetime. we follow the professor, a mathematical genius who suffers from a traumatic brain injury that allows him to retain only 80 short minutes of memory. a housekeeper is assigned to look after him who is a single mother doing everything she can for her son. these three unlikely characters find something in common, i.e., numbers and baseball to bond over and grow their relationships. ogawa calls the readers to understand a minuscule part of the enormous subject that is maths, bit by bit, by slowly incorporating theorems and proofs, equations and truths as an extended metaphor to love and life itself. this book is an elusive one, swimming in a vast sea of countless others, silently waiting to be found by those who are willing to generously devote their time to truly understand it.
⊹ the truly correct proof is one that strikes a harmonious balance between strength and flexibility. there are plenty of proofs that are technically correct but are messy and inelegant or counterintuitive. but it’s not something you can put into words—explaining why a formula is beautiful is like trying to explain why the stars are beautiful.
the professor is one who would rather be surrounded by numbers than people, for he found solace in formulas and postulates, drowning in plethora of complex mathematics that may seem like utter gibberish to the common eye. he found a rare sense of comfort in knowing that there is a concrete answer to mathematical problems unlike the troubles that are put forth by life. this led him to retreat into his cluttered little study where he chose to spend most of his time. this often made him miss out on any real human interaction. it made him a tad bit ill mannered and he found it difficult to form a meaningful bond with anyone. he resorted to making conversations with the very few people he encountered in life with the help of numbers. the connections he made with common numerals found in our day to day life to years and years of hard work and knowledge revolving around mathematics helped him make small talk to new strangers (especially his ever changing housekeepers). no one took a particular liking to this habit of his but the housekeeper did. she was instantly piqued and gradually gravitated towards the professor's secure realm. initially, the housekeeper and her son, had a little trouble communicating with the professor due to his short lived memory. but with the help of his bizarre coats littered with sticky note reminders stuck to every corner, constant reintroductions throughout the day and willingness to make conversation with him led the housekeeper and her son to become well acquainted with him.
⊹ solving a problem for which you know there’s an answer is like climbing a mountain with a guide, along a trail someone else has laid. in mathematics, the truth is somewhere out there in a place no one knows, beyond all the beaten paths. and it’s not always at the top of the mountain. it might be in a crack on the smoothest cliff or somewhere deep in the valley.
the lives of the professor and the housekeeper intertwined, blossoming into a beautiful relationship that proved not all strong bonds must be familial. while the professor taught mathematics and how numbers held the power to connect people, the housekeeper and root taught the professor what true love and caring for others could look like. i particularly loved the relationship between the professor and root. he always had a soft spot for the little boy and never sneered or got annoyed with him when root posed question after question about anything. he was patient, kind and ever so loving. my heart broke for the professor when he felt this intense sadness every time his memory reseted. he frequently avoided bringing up topics that he felt might inconvenience others. he neglected his own needs in order not to trouble people but numbers were always a constant. although he repeated a lot of the concepts in maths again and again, the housekeeper and her son made sure to listen intently every single time so as to not make him sad. they did their very best to avoid speaking of things that reminded him of his memory impairment. and this small action portrays how deep their love for the professor is. i loved reading almost every single scene, whether is was the professor explaining a particularly hard formula or the mother and son helping him branch out of his comfort zone. each one carried a significant meaning and was beautifully written. it read like a poem. although, having no knowledge whatsoever about the sport baseball, all the talk about it had me a little stumped. i did skim through the parts that flew right over my head and made no sense. but i found great joy in seeing the three share a profound love for this game that appealed to all of them.
⊹ the mathematical order is beautiful precisely because it has no effect on the real world.life isn’t going to be easier, nor is anyone going to make a fortune, just because they know something about prime numbers.
if you would've told my younger self that i willingly read a book about mathematics and thoroughly enjoyed it... she would've laughed in your face. it was a stark surprise to me when i found out that even the little passages explaining about maths was lovely... fun even. despite it being only 180 pages, it has managed to win me over and made me look at the world and numbers in a new light. i will forever cherish the memory of reading this book and i know that there are many rereads set in the future.
with all my love,
ahana ⟡
April 23, 2021
Absolutely wonderful!
September 21, 2024
I feel like this is another book that was let down by its title.
It's not a love story; the professor's love should refer to mathematics, at least not the fleeting first love mentioned a couple of times in the book. The housekeeper and the professor aren't in a romantic relationship. Their bond goes beyond the typical caregiver-patient dynamic; they're more like understanding and tolerant friends. Add the housekeeper's son, Root, you have a trio that relies on and supports each other. This human connection is what moved me.
The professor's memory only lasts 80 minutes. He relies on countless sticky notes plastered all over his body to remember things. Any beautiful memories created in the moment will disappear with the passage of time. Besides, he's a math geek who spends almost all his time thinking about numbers, except when he's eating or sleeping. His interactions with people are usually limited to discussions about mathematics, which might be why he and the former caregiver didn't get along. That is, until the housekeeper arrived.
She can appreciate the beauty of mathematics (I have to commend Ogawa Yoko for making math so appealing! Reading this book makes me fall in love with math again!). She understands the professor's loneliness. Even after losing his memory countless times and meeting Root as if for the first time, the professor always extends the utmost kindness. They're like father and son, but also friends.
They celebrate birthdays together, watch baseball games together. Even though these memories will be forgotten.
A relationship guarded by memories that only last 80 minutes.
The simplicity of the story was like a warm embrace on a cold day, comforting and soothing to the soul.
4. 2 / 5
It's not a love story; the professor's love should refer to mathematics, at least not the fleeting first love mentioned a couple of times in the book. The housekeeper and the professor aren't in a romantic relationship. Their bond goes beyond the typical caregiver-patient dynamic; they're more like understanding and tolerant friends. Add the housekeeper's son, Root, you have a trio that relies on and supports each other. This human connection is what moved me.
The professor's memory only lasts 80 minutes. He relies on countless sticky notes plastered all over his body to remember things. Any beautiful memories created in the moment will disappear with the passage of time. Besides, he's a math geek who spends almost all his time thinking about numbers, except when he's eating or sleeping. His interactions with people are usually limited to discussions about mathematics, which might be why he and the former caregiver didn't get along. That is, until the housekeeper arrived.
She can appreciate the beauty of mathematics (I have to commend Ogawa Yoko for making math so appealing! Reading this book makes me fall in love with math again!). She understands the professor's loneliness. Even after losing his memory countless times and meeting Root as if for the first time, the professor always extends the utmost kindness. They're like father and son, but also friends.
They celebrate birthdays together, watch baseball games together. Even though these memories will be forgotten.
A relationship guarded by memories that only last 80 minutes.
The simplicity of the story was like a warm embrace on a cold day, comforting and soothing to the soul.
4. 2 / 5
April 1, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
the most raw and human book I've ever read!!! yoko ogawa never disappoints with the imperative societal discussions hidden amongst the characters and their fluctuating dynamics (even though I hate maths this was everything to me)
the most raw and human book I've ever read!!! yoko ogawa never disappoints with the imperative societal discussions hidden amongst the characters and their fluctuating dynamics (even though I hate maths this was everything to me)
August 6, 2014
A highly polished, smooth, shining surface of a novel that was exquisitely crafted from start to finish. The voice was so understated and matter-of-fact that I would have had little trouble believing that this was an actual account of a real housekeeper remembering her experiences. There were very few authorial flourishes and all of them were appropriately put into the mouth of the strange, afflicted Professor, a math genius whose short-term memory only lasts 80 minutes.
A premise like that can be in danger of becoming a gimmick, a crutch for the plot to rely on to provide tension, as reliable as a countdown clock in an apocalyptic film. However, that did not happen here. If anything, sometimes Ogawa blurred time together- she only used the premise when needed. The time-bomb ticking mattered less than Ogawa's use of it to demonstrate the selfless care and devotion of a housekeeper and her son to this debilitated, nervous old man. The other quirk of the Professor's memory is that he can remember everything that happened to him before 1975. This means it will always be that year in his mind. This was interesting as well because it allowed Ogawa to explore, with a very light touch, what "time" is made up of- her answer seems to be a combination of objects, people, and the sort of pop culture that connects you with a wider world, the famous figures that help you see time passing in your own life.
The housekeeper's tale is self-effacing and modest, with only the barest of facts given to let the reader know why her relationship with the Professor is possible, and why it means so much to her. The rare moments where she breaks down and tells a story about her emotions mean that much more because of it. Her life is one of work, hardship, frequent disrespect and degradation, and she has no opportunity to really escape it. Thus her interactions with the Professor, who only remembers the last 80 minutes, and will therefore explain things again and again and still feel just as excited about doing so, allow her a share in beauty and kindness and higher understanding that has never been within the possibilities of her experience. The 80 minutes is about exploring and re-exploring, having the freedom to try again and be secure that there will be no judgement of your failures. What would that be like? What sort of gift would it be for a woman whose whole life has been judgment and avoiding judgment and getting by with her head down?
Her joy is quiet and contained and hidden, subject to the permission of authority figures for its existence, not to be depended on, as likely to quickly disappear as not. But for some little time, this woman is able to look into "God's notebook," with a patient teacher and precious privacy:
"In my imagination, I saw the creator of the universe sitting in some distant corner of the sky, weaving a pattern of delicate lace so fine that even the faintest light would shine through it. The lace stretches out infinitely in every direction, billowing gently in the cosmic breeze. You want desperately to touch it, hold it up to the light, rub it against your cheek. And all we ask is to be able to re-create the pattern, weave it again with numbers, somehow, in our own language; to make even the tiniest fragment on our own, to bring it back to earth."
This ethereal daydream represents the height of the emotion that this book reaches. It is a whispering sort of book, a calm and nostalgic Sunday with nowhere to be sort of book. It is the sort of book I actually think would benefit from being read aloud by a woman with a wise old voice and a solid, but sometimes somewhat fragile demeanor.
The major fault I found with this book was that... there were no faults. The author seemed perfectly separated from her subject, at her observational best, understanding, but uninvolved. I liked that, in a sense, after reading so many books where authors are clearly working out their own issues on the page. I liked that this seemed like a genuine attempt to understand something outside of the Self. I also liked that this never bowed to our modern, confessional needs to know everything- she always left the mystery, always respected the limits of what her tale would reasonably know or respectfully want to know, and left it to us to guess the rest or to be discreet enough to leave the characters' secrets alone.
However, her skill was such that the story was told so smoothly. So smoothly, too smoothly for my taste. You could almost miss the bumps in the road- the language almost never changed, the tone didn't alter, nor, I think most importantly, did your sense of being well taken care of by the author. I felt so safe in Ogawa's hands that I never feared for the characters, nor was able to consequently work up a great passion about any of them in any way. I knew that each of them would be given a fitting, lovely conclusion that wrapped up the tale with dignity, ending it not with a bang, but a whisper. It made me respect Ogawa's skill so much. It made me pay attention, and I understood that certain scenes had more power because of this almost never changing tone, and her plain, even language, even in moments of stress or crisis for the characters.
I confess that I was looking for ragged edges by the end- looking to find fault with her for not keeping to her 80 minutes, looking for some outbursts or ill-chosen words. She receded so much from me that I wanted some of the author back- and she refused to appear.
I will say that it has been a long time since I've wished for that. I've not often had the need.
Ultimately, I think that when I see this book on my shelves I will remember a sense of quiet, smile a little bit remembering the unique passion for mathematics, and I will think of the word "polished", but that will be all. It shone softly, not a hair out of place, and I can already feel it fading from my mind. That's why I can't rate it higher, even though, as I've stated, I can't find a single flaw with the writing.
Oh well book. As a favorite character of mine almost said- perhaps it is your perfections that make us imperfect for one another.
A premise like that can be in danger of becoming a gimmick, a crutch for the plot to rely on to provide tension, as reliable as a countdown clock in an apocalyptic film. However, that did not happen here. If anything, sometimes Ogawa blurred time together- she only used the premise when needed. The time-bomb ticking mattered less than Ogawa's use of it to demonstrate the selfless care and devotion of a housekeeper and her son to this debilitated, nervous old man. The other quirk of the Professor's memory is that he can remember everything that happened to him before 1975. This means it will always be that year in his mind. This was interesting as well because it allowed Ogawa to explore, with a very light touch, what "time" is made up of- her answer seems to be a combination of objects, people, and the sort of pop culture that connects you with a wider world, the famous figures that help you see time passing in your own life.
The housekeeper's tale is self-effacing and modest, with only the barest of facts given to let the reader know why her relationship with the Professor is possible, and why it means so much to her. The rare moments where she breaks down and tells a story about her emotions mean that much more because of it. Her life is one of work, hardship, frequent disrespect and degradation, and she has no opportunity to really escape it. Thus her interactions with the Professor, who only remembers the last 80 minutes, and will therefore explain things again and again and still feel just as excited about doing so, allow her a share in beauty and kindness and higher understanding that has never been within the possibilities of her experience. The 80 minutes is about exploring and re-exploring, having the freedom to try again and be secure that there will be no judgement of your failures. What would that be like? What sort of gift would it be for a woman whose whole life has been judgment and avoiding judgment and getting by with her head down?
Her joy is quiet and contained and hidden, subject to the permission of authority figures for its existence, not to be depended on, as likely to quickly disappear as not. But for some little time, this woman is able to look into "God's notebook," with a patient teacher and precious privacy:
"In my imagination, I saw the creator of the universe sitting in some distant corner of the sky, weaving a pattern of delicate lace so fine that even the faintest light would shine through it. The lace stretches out infinitely in every direction, billowing gently in the cosmic breeze. You want desperately to touch it, hold it up to the light, rub it against your cheek. And all we ask is to be able to re-create the pattern, weave it again with numbers, somehow, in our own language; to make even the tiniest fragment on our own, to bring it back to earth."
This ethereal daydream represents the height of the emotion that this book reaches. It is a whispering sort of book, a calm and nostalgic Sunday with nowhere to be sort of book. It is the sort of book I actually think would benefit from being read aloud by a woman with a wise old voice and a solid, but sometimes somewhat fragile demeanor.
The major fault I found with this book was that... there were no faults. The author seemed perfectly separated from her subject, at her observational best, understanding, but uninvolved. I liked that, in a sense, after reading so many books where authors are clearly working out their own issues on the page. I liked that this seemed like a genuine attempt to understand something outside of the Self. I also liked that this never bowed to our modern, confessional needs to know everything- she always left the mystery, always respected the limits of what her tale would reasonably know or respectfully want to know, and left it to us to guess the rest or to be discreet enough to leave the characters' secrets alone.
However, her skill was such that the story was told so smoothly. So smoothly, too smoothly for my taste. You could almost miss the bumps in the road- the language almost never changed, the tone didn't alter, nor, I think most importantly, did your sense of being well taken care of by the author. I felt so safe in Ogawa's hands that I never feared for the characters, nor was able to consequently work up a great passion about any of them in any way. I knew that each of them would be given a fitting, lovely conclusion that wrapped up the tale with dignity, ending it not with a bang, but a whisper. It made me respect Ogawa's skill so much. It made me pay attention, and I understood that certain scenes had more power because of this almost never changing tone, and her plain, even language, even in moments of stress or crisis for the characters.
I confess that I was looking for ragged edges by the end- looking to find fault with her for not keeping to her 80 minutes, looking for some outbursts or ill-chosen words. She receded so much from me that I wanted some of the author back- and she refused to appear.
I will say that it has been a long time since I've wished for that. I've not often had the need.
Ultimately, I think that when I see this book on my shelves I will remember a sense of quiet, smile a little bit remembering the unique passion for mathematics, and I will think of the word "polished", but that will be all. It shone softly, not a hair out of place, and I can already feel it fading from my mind. That's why I can't rate it higher, even though, as I've stated, I can't find a single flaw with the writing.
Oh well book. As a favorite character of mine almost said- perhaps it is your perfections that make us imperfect for one another.
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