The Housekeeper and the Professor

Yoko Ogawa's "The Housekeeper and the Professor" (2007) is a short novel that combines broad themes of reason and poetry with an exploration of the intimacy of family. Set in contemporary Japan, the book features three nameless characters and their relationships. The growing personal relationship among the characters is threaded in with the broader, eternal relationships that pervade reality, as seen in this novel, through mathematics. A young woman in her thirties narrates the story. With little education, she has a humble job as a housekeeper which enables her to support herself and her ten-year old son. The housekeeper is given the assignment to work for a mathematician, 64, a former professor who lives in a small cottage near the much larger home of his sister-in-law. As a result of an automobile accident some 17 years earlier, the professor's short-term memory is limited to 80 minutes. After that time, his short-term memory is erased and begins from scratch all over again. The professor's deep, long-term memory of mathematics remains intact and unscathed by his loss of short-term memory. The story shows the developing relationship that begins when the housekeeper is hired to provide care required by the professor's limitations of memory. The housekeeper is to provide simple cleaning and cooking, no more no less. Gradually a close familial relationship develops among the housekeeper, professor, and boy and expands to include the professor's sister-in-law. One of the keys to the developing relationship is mathematics. The professor introduces both the housekeeper and the son to the intricacies of mathematics involving square roots (the young boy is given the nickname "Root"), factors, and imaginary numbers. The professor is especially enamored of prime numbers and their properties. The mathematical discussions of the book culminate in a way that manages to be novelistically effective with a consideration of Euler's theorem. The intricacies of this difficult theory are used in the book to suggest the underlying unity of all reality as well as the unity of human relationships. The professor is a gifted teacher who allows his companions to discover and to appreciate mathematical truths for themselves, as Socrates does with the young boy in Plato's dialogue "Meno". There are indeed strong Platonic overtones in this short novel. Mathematics also plays a role in this family story in the love that both the professor and Root share for baseball, probably the most statistically driven of sports. Baseball is loved in Japan, the United States, and many other countries. This book includes moving scenes of the little family growing closer through love of the game. For all his knowledge of the statistics of the game, the professor attends a baseball game for the first time in an important scene of this book. He learns something of the world of fact beyond the extensive statistical lore of baseball. Mathematics is shown in this book as both reason and poetry. The book suggests that mathematics is an underlying key to reality and to truth beyond the world of appearances and differences -- a highly Platonic, spiritual, and controversial view. Reason and imagination are also shown as the unifying factors that unite people and that help to create love. This book has a great deal of depth for a short novel. It is also enchanting and deceptively simple to read. I learned a great deal from several of the reader reviews which brought me to this work. "The Housekeeper and the Professor" will appeal to readers with a strong philosophical bent. Robin Friedman

This is a delightful and heart-warming story. Loving mathematics and loving baseball will help immerse you even further. The relationships are endearing, a so nicely crafted.

"The Housekeeper and the Professor" was written by Yoko Ogawa and translated into its English addition by Stephen Snyder. Mrs. Ogawa is a resident of Japan where she lives with her husband and son. She is credited with a number of literary works, both fiction and non-fiction and several of her works incorporate a distinct appreciation of mathematics, not the least of which is the subject title. The Novel would be classified as literary fiction of the human drama genre. The writing is variously comprised of richly structured text that provides an almost poetic flow, especially pleasing in its dichotomy of complex human experience and simple grammatical statements. The electronic version appears to be well edited and unlike many of its kind seems to be mostly free of spelling and grammatical errors, enhancing the reading experience. The human nature development of the novel incorporates the mores and attitudes of the Japanese people and culture, many of which are decidedly different than those experienced in American culture. In regard to this difference, certain levels of appreciation of the novels subtle delving into subjects of the culture are best appreciated without comparison. In my opinion, certainly some of the most vocal critics of the work failed to recognize the distinction. This is a story about a beginning and an end and an examination of the meaning of memory. To develop the theme, Ogawa constructs a plot around a professor of mathematics who suffers a traumatic brain injury leaving him with limited short term memory (an ending), and a young boy of 10 years old who has not yet developed any long term past memories (a beginning). The subtle prompting of the story is provided by the boy's mother who is employed as a housekeeper for the professor and who sees the remarkable significance of the experiences shared between her son and the professor. Ogawa uses mathematics and baseball as the binding between the boy and the professor. Each loves his interest in a genuinely fascinating way and they share their experiences with each other as one memory fades and the other grows; developing a remarkable bond between them. As a support structure to her story, Ogawa introduces human aspects to her characters that bring them to life through their cultural experience; for instance the housekeeper is an unwed mother, a child of her unwed mother, a status that is not reviled in the culture but one that evokes certain empathy for the plight of the individual and the children and one that draws the reader to contemplate the relationship born between the professor and the boy absent a father. It further draws contemplation of the seemly benign relationship between the housekeeper and the professor as she perceives the effects of a missing husband on her existence as well. Finally, we find a small almost insignificant revelation regarding the professor and his sister in law who manages his care after the accident; an unacknowledged love that lingers, unassuming but unexplained. While Ogawa manages to bring her characters to vivid life through this technique she does it as though viewed through a one way glass - for none of her characters have names, but the reader feels personally attached to them in spite of it, quite an amazing experience. I really liked this novel a lot. It was very different and surprising in its effect. There is a fair amount of mathematics incorporated in the composition as well as unfamiliar baseball players, however, neither detracted appreciably from the work. In fact I rather had a different appreciation of the some of the math afterwards as I caught the author's vision of its significance to the story. Anyway, I thought this was an intriguing story, beautifully written and very emotional in its contemplation. I highly recommend this novel and rate it memorable.

Lo recibí apenas y obviamente aun no lo leo pero de todos los libros que he comprado este ha sido el peor, las hojas no están bien cortadas, son de diferente medida y pareciera se cortaron a mano, la vdd nunca me había pasado algo así de un libro que viniera de otro lado, un poco decepcionada pero espero la historia valga la pena leerse.

Bonne lecture.

This book has more mathematics than story.

とにかく読みやすい。そして心温まる内容。高校生レベルの英語力でもOK.

Creo que, a día de hoy y con todo lo qe he leído es el libro que más me ha llegado. Es en inglés pero corto y de vocabulario fácil. La historia te atrapa, te envuelve, y te hace sentir empatía total con los personajes. Una historia entrañable con un final que merece la pena. Lo recomiendo totalmente.