The Housekeeper and the Professor

"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.

This lovely little book is about relationships among three people: the professor, his housekeeper, and her ten-year old son. There are no other characters of significance except, somewhat mysteriously, the professor's sister-in-law. The story is very focused--told from the perspective of just the housekeeper and dealing little with the characters' lives outside their relationships. It could have been a bigger book if some side stories, such as the professor's relationship with his sister-in-law, had been developed; in fact, I found the inconsistencies in her behavior at the beginning and the end of the book disconcerting. But the three main characters and their relationships are developed very well. My initial reluctance to read a book in which mathematics and baseball play major roles was quickly forgotten as the story became real. Readers who are into mathematics or baseball would really like this story, but I came to care about the topics like the housekeeper did; she came to appreciate these topics because they were passions of people she cared for and because they shared their passions so well. All of the characters are good, kind people who are generally patient with each other. The tension in the story is provided by the professor's lack of short-term memory, the housekeeper's need to make independent decisions about how best to deal with everyday emergencies and how to help him lead a "normal" life, and the unpredictability of a young boy. Besides the professor's passion for and past knowledge of mathematics, his deep concern for children also provides continuities that bridge his memory gaps. On one level, this book raises haunting questions about how each of us would deal with such a devastating disability or help a loved one do so. On another level, it is a more universal story about how caring people brought together by circumstances can be a family.

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

Told from the housekeeper’s perspective, this novel starts with the introduction of a brilliant math professor to his new housekeeper. Due to an accident, the professor’s memories reset every eighty minutes. When we meet him, he is covered in sticky notes that remind him of who people are and where he has placed things. He has been through a number of other housekeepers already and is considered difficult. The housekeeper, a single mother, has a ten-year-old son who the professor names Root, as the hair on the top of his head reminds the professor of a square root symbol. Except for the nickname Root, these characters remain nameless. The novel focuses on the interactions between these three characters. I found the math tidbits, like amicable numbers, shared by the professor to be interesting. I was not aware of many of them, so that was a plus and I used those facts to initiate conversations with my husband who was also a math major. The professor’s mind for numbers never failed him (even as his memory for other things did) and when forced to, this is the way he interacts with those around him and the world. The housekeeper, while insecure about her knowledge of even basic math, is intrigued by the math questions/beauty that the professor presents. She is unafraid of a challenge and is determined to apply herself and do her best in all situations. The novel’s main theme revolves around family, especially the unlikely ways in which we create our own family. The professor was portrayed as the consummate professor – patient, inspiring, questioning, encouraging, and challenging to both Root and the housekeeper. His relationship with Root was tender and charming, as he became a surrogate grandfather to him. The housekeeper becomes more than a housekeeper as she is the professor’s main caretaker. The three of them create an unconventional family with their own rhythms and traditions. With this being an intergenerational relationship novel about a brilliant math teacher plus the intriguing memory premise, it should have been a home run for me. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Despite its certain strengths, I did not like this story. The pace was too slow, the relationships were too sweet and even the tragic circumstances surrounding the characters could not mitigate that. Even though the novel was set in modern day Japan, I did not get a sense of the culture or place. The novel could have been set in Middle-America and not lost or gained anything. Ultimately, I was disappointed by this novel and would not recommend it to others.

It's been a while since I read a book that left me in tears at the end. This one did. If you are interested in the wonders of numbers (not the calculations and hard stuff) at all, you will like this book. Complex yet interesting things are explained in a way that even a 10 year old boy or a high school dropout Housekeeper can get them. Not to mention the poignant fragile love that develops between the 3 main characters, despite the professor's handicap. Even if you aren't a math fan, I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of humanity.

A gifted mathematician, after suffering a terrible accident is left with a memory that only last for 80 minutes. His world is reduced to solving puzzles from mathematic journals. His only connection with the larger world and important events in his life is through the handwritten notes clipped to his worn out suits. Unable to form lasting relationships with anyone new, he’s stuck in the past that no longer exists. Isolated from the world, it’s left to his widowed sister-in-law to be his caretaker. To this end, she hires a series of housekeepers to tend to the “professor’s” few needs and to keep his shack of a home from deteriorating any further. Meeting new people for the professor and the person in question is a daunting experience that must be repeated every day. The only connection the professor can form with these people is through their numbers (birth date, age, height, shoe size, etc.); and finding the interplay those numbers have with the only world he understands, mathematics. Enter an under educated housekeeper devoted to her work and her nine year old son (an avid baseball fan) who shake the professor’s self constructed reality to reveal a fully fledged person. The Housekeeper and the Professor is about friendship and the bonds people form when they are open to receiving each other’s flaws as well as their gifts. It’s about to torn families coming together to form a new family built from the tragedies each has experienced. It’s about overcoming isolation and opening up to possibility. All wrapped in the beautifully understated prose of Yoko Ogawa.

Great late-night reading for this insomniac. Sincere people, compassion, commitment: the foundations of fulfilling life. Reminders that uncertainty, struggle, and challenge rest on that foundation can wait for daybreak.

The 'blurb' about the novel doesn't do it justice. It's a beautiful and tender novel about love, memory and acceptance. The young boy at the center of the story accepts the professor's love over mathematics and baseball and the professor comes alive again for 80 minutes, again and again... wonderfully written and a joy to read.

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.

Un libror que se lee facilisimo y te mantiene entretenido desde el principio hasta el final. Muy original e interesante.

This book has more mathematics than story.

This novel by Yoko Ogama is the most inspiring and spell- binding one I have had the pleasure and joy to read for a very long time. The whole premise of depicting the care-giving housekeeper providing daily care for a intellectually gifted mathematics professor made mostly inaccessible to those around him because of dementia is beautifully rendered. This writing is surpassed by the miracle of the housekeeper, her son and the professor making human contact through numbers and building communication, love joy, and relationships and finally for happiness for all three. The writing is delicate and precise. The characterisation are accurate and human. I couldn't stop turning the pages even though not wanting he story to end. I believe this book to be the work of a master. This novel is not to be missed