The Housekeeper and the Professor: ‘a poignant tale of beauty, heart and sorrow’ Publishers Weekly

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Numbers were also his way of reaching out to the world. They were safe, a source of comfort.” Conclusion The Professor tells the Housekeeper: "Math has proven the existence of God because it is absolute and without contradiction; but the devil must exist as well, because we cannot prove it." Does this paradox apply to anything else, beside math? Perhaps memory? When I went for my interview, I was greeted by a slender, elegant old woman with dyed brown hair swept up in a bun. She wore a knit dress and walked with a cane. See: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... for a discussion of the implications of these two books as a critique of science more generally. 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.

There was something hesitant about the way she said the words brother-in-law. Her tone was polite enough, but her left hand nervously fingered her cane. Her eyes avoided mine, but occasionally I caught her casting a wary glance in my direction. What I found loveliest is the gradual and steady flowering of the relationship between the Professor, the housekeeper, and her son, Root (a name fondly given by the Professor who delights in mussing the hair on the boy’s flat head). The Professor tells Root, "The square root sign is a generous symbol, it gives shelter to all the numbers." How wonderful!

Well then, I'll expect you to start on Monday," the old woman said, putting an end to the conversation. And that's how I came to work for the Professor. He didn’t press us. On the contrary, he fondly studied our expressions as we mulled over the problem.

And yet, the room was filled by a kind of stillness. Not simply an absence of noise, but an accumulation of layers of silence […] silence like a clear lake hidden in the depths of the forest.” 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." 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.And in capturing this beauty, Ogawa has also captured my heart. I should say immediately that my heart was not the only one to be stolen by Ogawa’s enigmatic Professor. The Housekeeper and the Professor But the Professor didn't always insist on being the teacher. He had enormous respect for matters about which he had no knowledge, and he was as humble in such cases as the square root of negative one itself. Whenever he needed my help, he would interrupt me in the most polite way. Even the simplest request--that I help him set the timer on the toaster, for example--always began with "I'm terribly sorry to bother you, but . . ." Once I'd set the dial, he would sit peering in as the toast browned. He was as fascinated by the toast as he was by the mathematical proofs we did together, as if the truth of the toaster were no different from that of the Pythagorean theorem. 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. 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.

Is there much point having any sort of friendship with or giving happiness to someone who will not remember it?

Beyond the Book

I must ask you not to come and go between the main house and the cottage. Your job is to care for my brother-in-law, and the cottage has a separate entrance on the north side of the property. I would prefer that you resolve any difficulties without consulting me. That's the one rule I ask you to respect." She gave a little tap with her cane.