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The Mathematician's Shiva (2014)

by Stuart Rojstaczer(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0143126318 (ISBN13: 9780143126317)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Penguin Books

review 1: I really enjoyed this book. It gives historical flavor beginning in 1940's Poland, moving to pre and post war communist Russia. The author made in-depth mathmatical descriptions, theory and historic impact were suprisingly interesting and readable. It also was funny and satirical while still tasteful in the telling of traditional Jewish religious rites. I found it fascinating, informative, and amusing. I highly recommend this book.
review 2: I really loved this book…probably the best new novel since Lahiri's "The Lowland," and the best debut novel I've read since…I don't even know. It's ballsy, asking literary-minded people to read about mathematicians, but if you can get past that bias (tough, for me), then there's so much to like about this book... more, not the least of which is exactly that issue: the creative vs. the analytical mind, and the idea that there's not nearly as much mutual exclusivity as we sometimes think. I'll admit, I picked this up off at table at B&N mainly because it had a Jewish word in the title…but I was intrigued by the description on the back cover, and it surpassed my initial expectations. Yes, this is somewhat about math. But it's also about people, family, grief, writing, celebrity, privacy, and deeply held personal conviction. It's almost ironic that the table I found this on said, "What the world is reading," because it makes the point that a work of art (or math) matters not because anyone other than its creator is reading it, but rather because it exists, it happened, it was created to begin with. less

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