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BOOKS
The math professor at the center of Yoko Ogawa's new novel sees philosophical significance in elaborate math equations. Indeed, where I see mind-numbering strings of numbers and letters, this brilliant character sees eternity and truth.
Despite my meager math aptitude, it wasn't long before I found myself irretrievably engaged in this book because of the professor's wise, humble teachings – and also because of his odd condition.
He remembers everything up to the time of a car accident that caused him brain damage, but nothing after it. Also, his short-term memory lasts only 80 minutes. To compensate, this nameless professor covers himself with reminder notes, pinned to his suit.
The professor's housekeeper narrates the story. She's one in a long line of housekeepers who've quit or been fired due to the peculiar client. Our narrator, however, succeeds by introducing the professor to her 10-year-old son. They listen to that very statistical game – baseball – on the radio together. Also, the housekeeper gets the professor out of his house and engages with him in calculating his beloved numbers. Their interactions offer grace to the professor and the idea of something beyond infinity to the housekeeper.
The professor tells her:
"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…"
One day the professor falls ill and the housekeeper and her son care for him overnight. The professor's sister-in-law fires the housekeeper, suspecting impropriety. Then, in the middle of heated accusations, the professor writes down a simple equation. It communicates something mysterious to the sister-in-law, and the housekeeper is allowed to return.
That's what's so alluring about this book -- Ogawa uses the mystery of math to move the story forward and also to profoundly inform it with messages about friendship and living in the present.
In the end, the professor's memory deteriorates further. He's moved into an assisted living facility where the housekeeper and her son continue to visit him. It's not a sad ending because the idea of something beyond infinity is so very present.
"The Housekeeper and the Professor" written by Yoko Ogawa and translated by Stephen Snyder is published by Picador. I'm Kassie Rose.
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