Perelman’s Refusal: A Novel

by Philippe Zaouati

November 11, 2002: Grigori Perelman, a famous mathematician, brilliantly establishes his proof of the Poincaré Conjecture. A few years later, he is widely acclaimed for his research. However, he declines the prestigious Fields Medal and persists in not wanting to leave his native city of Saint Petersburg to attend the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid in 2006 where the medal is supposed to be awarded. John Ball, the President of the International Mathematical Union, decided to visit Russia in an attempt to convince Perelman to accept the Fields Medal.\n\nThis book contains the story, part real, part fictional, of the exchanges between Ball and Perelman. We are immersed in the tormented mind of a person who prefers the simple and secluded life to the prestige of his discoveries. We already know the final outcome of the story, Perelman\x27s perpetual refusal to be glorified by the public, and yet there is still much to learn from this character of astonishing complexity.

133 pages, Paperback

Published April 13, 2021

Reviews

[Sourav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perelman would disapprove of us

I am an applied mathematician working in academia in topics that are far removed from Perelman's. At best, occasionally I have to think about problems in partial differential equations; nothing remotely of the kind Perelman solved. However, I have been curious about Perelman since my undergraduate days, not much about his mathematics, but about his life and choices. In the book, Perelman appears in Ball's dreams and says the following,

...If you want to talk about the life of a scientist, limit yourself to describing his discoveries. Anything else is pointless. What can it possibly matter to us to know about Einstein, other than his theory? What end is served by dusting off his pettiness, his beliefs, his compromises? Do his fears, failed relationships, his cowardice or his abysmal record as a father teach us anything? Nothing it is possible to write about the life of Albert Einstein provides any insight into his incredible summary of space and time.

It's not impossible that Perelman would have shared this sentiment. And yet readers like myself are drawn to his story, because we are looking for something else, I would like to think inspiration and not gossip. We hope, perhaps naively, that understanding how Perelman lived with such conviction might help us live a little closer to our own ideals.

Zaouati makes it clear that it is a fictionalized, meditative attempt rather than a strict account of his reasons for refusal. For a biographical account on Perelman, Masha Gessen's Perfect Rigor is the book to look at. But this work feels more sympathetic, a reflection on what it might mean to live a life devoted entirely to the truth.

[Peter Kálnai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book right after Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh, and realized that it's very different. While the first describes a real story of a huge mathematical success, the latter involves another breaking math discovery but this time just based on real-life events. Actually it makes sense, because the main character of the story, a mathematician Grigori Perelman, the one who proved Poincaré Conjecture, is an inaccessible person living in Russian St. Petersburg, without any public appearance or expression for a long period of time.

The author did an exceptional experiment to emulate thoughts of such controversial personality (that refused the Fields Award and the linked high financial reward as well). It's up to the reader to decide the level of accuracy of the author's extrapolation, but in any case I consider it definitely interesting. The author's playing with reality reminded me Quentin Tarantino's movies like Inglorious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, where the real events are rethinked in a new fictional way.

One star down because the book's not easy reading. Both the depicted ideas and the language are difficult and hard to follow, at least for a non-native English speaker. In overall, quality 4-star rating from me.

[Judy Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s quite a slim book, but then the action all takes place across two days. It’s about a Jewish Russian mathematician called Grigori Perelman, who was the first person to succeed in proving the Poincaré Conjecture. Don’t ask me what that is: it’s something to do with four-dimensional spheres. For this achievement he is awarded the Fields Medal (the highest honour available for mathematics, because Nobel didn’t like mathematicians!) but he refuses to come to Madrid for the presentation. The book is a “part real, part fictional” account of the two-day mission of John Ball, the mathematician who is charged to go to St Petersburg and persuade him to change his mind.

Readers spend most of their time inside the head of Perelman – which is portrayed as a very odd place, but perhaps no odder than any other neuro-diverse individual. I still don't quite know what to make of it. It seems presumptuous in the extreme to attempt to present the inner workings of the mind of a real person, without ever having met him Presumably that is why the subtitle makes clear that it is all fiction. But, a work of fiction without any sort of story doesn't really work for me.

[Sarbajit Ghosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a meditative, and enjoyable read, that allowed me to put myself in John Ball's and Perelman's shoes quite easily.