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Dec. 15th, 2018
Yoko Ogawa "The Housekeeper And The Professor" (Vintage)
In The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa uses mathematics and baseball as metaphors for life and, in so doing, has written a very imaginative and charming novel. The housekeeper is a single mother, living in Japan in the early 1990s when she is assigned to the brilliant mathematics professor. She is his tenth housekeeper, the previous nine having been unable to deal with his special requirements. Ever since the Professor suffered a head injury in a car accident many years previously, his memory ends in 1975 and his short-term memory only lasts eighty minutes. Therefore, every morning the housekeeper has to reintroduce herself:
“To the Professor, whose memory only lasted eighty minutes, I was always a new housekeeper he was meeting for the first time, and so every morning he was appropriately reserved and shy. He would ask my shoe size or telephone number, or perhaps, my zip code, the registration number on my bicycle, or the number of brushstrokes in the characters of my name; and whatever the number, he invariably found some significance in it.”
When the Professor discovers that the housekeeper has a ten-year-old son, who is home alone when the school day ends, he insists that the boy come to the Professor’s house. Once that happens, and the Professor names him Root because his head is flat like a square root sign, they discover they have a common love: baseball. The Tigers are their team and the Professor has a favourite player, who, unfortunately, was traded away in 1985. The Professor’s memory being what it is, he does not recognize this and Root and his mother tries desperately to keep the truth from him.
The housekeeper, Root and the Professor develop a wonderful, caring relationship centred on baseball and mathematics and the author explores a dry subject (mathematics) in a way that is appealing and surprising. At one point the Professor explains, “External 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, can give them expression—in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.” The housekeeper realizes how much she needs this eternal truth and “the sense that this invisible world was somehow propping up the visible one.”
This was an enjoyable read and I recommend it.
In The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa uses mathematics and baseball as metaphors for life and, in so doing, has written a very imaginative and charming novel. The housekeeper is a single mother, living in Japan in the early 1990s when she is assigned to the brilliant mathematics professor. She is his tenth housekeeper, the previous nine having been unable to deal with his special requirements. Ever since the Professor suffered a head injury in a car accident many years previously, his memory ends in 1975 and his short-term memory only lasts eighty minutes. Therefore, every morning the housekeeper has to reintroduce herself:
“To the Professor, whose memory only lasted eighty minutes, I was always a new housekeeper he was meeting for the first time, and so every morning he was appropriately reserved and shy. He would ask my shoe size or telephone number, or perhaps, my zip code, the registration number on my bicycle, or the number of brushstrokes in the characters of my name; and whatever the number, he invariably found some significance in it.”
When the Professor discovers that the housekeeper has a ten-year-old son, who is home alone when the school day ends, he insists that the boy come to the Professor’s house. Once that happens, and the Professor names him Root because his head is flat like a square root sign, they discover they have a common love: baseball. The Tigers are their team and the Professor has a favourite player, who, unfortunately, was traded away in 1985. The Professor’s memory being what it is, he does not recognize this and Root and his mother tries desperately to keep the truth from him.
The housekeeper, Root and the Professor develop a wonderful, caring relationship centred on baseball and mathematics and the author explores a dry subject (mathematics) in a way that is appealing and surprising. At one point the Professor explains, “External 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, can give them expression—in fact, nothing can prevent it from doing so.” The housekeeper realizes how much she needs this eternal truth and “the sense that this invisible world was somehow propping up the visible one.”
This was an enjoyable read and I recommend it.
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Did not get round to doing Tonbridge today. Just did the cinema visit in Ashford. It has been a crap cold rainy day too.
Luckily by not leaving early i did manage to take in the XMAS pressies from my brother,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coming42 from the postman at around midday.
Due to the fact that the 666 bus goes to Ashford every two hours on a Saturday I was too late for the 2pm showing of the film,so i caught the 3 pm bus down there and saw Aquaman at around 5 pm. The film was excellent in my opinion. The seating was very comfy in the auditorium but thank goodness i do not have to pay for the visit.Well i did have to pay but will not get reimbursed till next month around the tenth.
I still prefer the Carlton at Westgate. But this was the first day of opening for the new centrally located cinema in Ashford.
Picturehouse in Ashford is £11.20 for senior citizens , and a pound more for others, More expensive than Cineworld.
Carlton is only £4 max,
The scenario on the visit meant that i had to use the restaitant first,and then buy medium popcorn and medium soft drink for the cinema part,that was £8 each.
Halumi and aubergene wrap was £8 , half that in Wetherspoons.
At least the film was good BUT i am not doing this one again.
Luckily by not leaving early i did manage to take in the XMAS pressies from my brother,
coming42 from the postman at around midday.Due to the fact that the 666 bus goes to Ashford every two hours on a Saturday I was too late for the 2pm showing of the film,so i caught the 3 pm bus down there and saw Aquaman at around 5 pm. The film was excellent in my opinion. The seating was very comfy in the auditorium but thank goodness i do not have to pay for the visit.Well i did have to pay but will not get reimbursed till next month around the tenth.
I still prefer the Carlton at Westgate. But this was the first day of opening for the new centrally located cinema in Ashford.
Picturehouse in Ashford is £11.20 for senior citizens , and a pound more for others, More expensive than Cineworld.
Carlton is only £4 max,
The scenario on the visit meant that i had to use the restaitant first,and then buy medium popcorn and medium soft drink for the cinema part,that was £8 each.
Halumi and aubergene wrap was £8 , half that in Wetherspoons.
At least the film was good BUT i am not doing this one again.
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