We called him the Professor. And he called my son, Root, because, he said, the flat top of his head reminded him of the square root sign.
"There's a fine brain in there," the Professor said, mussing my son's hair. Root, who wore a cap to avoid being teased by his friends, gave a wary shrug.
Description:
Sometimes a book can slowly, gently sneak up on you, calmly introducing you to quiet characters in seemingly ordinary circumstances. But over the pages you gradually, inexorably become engrossed with these people, their minds and their actions. What was once a distracting read now thoroughly compels you to become deeply involved, wanting to understand more about this world depicted, to gain more insight into the characters, and see them develop separately and together.
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa surprised me. I planned to breeze through this small novel in a couple of sittings just out of curiosity for the title and the opening lines. Little did I know I soon would not be able to put it aside.
A young woman is hired to clean and cook meals for an elderly retired mathematics professor who lives in a small cottage. Sounds simple, straightforward, ordinary, right? But there are caveats to this employment.
The housekeeper learns that the professor's sister-in-law, who does the interviewing and lives in the large house on the same property, is never to be bothered in the big house. Also, the housekeeper is not allowed to meet the professor until her first day of work because he would not remember meeting her. She learns he has a short term memory of only 80 minutes. After that, his mind erases itself and must start over again, relearning what was familiar only an hour ago.
How does a learned man cope with life on those terms? And how can a housekeeper interact with him daily when he cannot remember her face, much less her name over a two hour period? Can this quiet, uneducated woman and son even comprehend the mathematical world of the professor?
That is the simple elegance of this book. We lucky readers watch, learn, and grow with these people as they address their relationship and lives together and alone.
It is not a tale that expects sympathy for its characters, nor one with solutions to difficult situations. Instead, it is the quiet perseverance of the characters to move forward and the determination to expand one's world that underlies all actions in the plot and totally absorbs any reader willing to sit quietly for a few hours with these people in their world.
It is a beautiful book.
A young woman is hired to clean and cook meals for an elderly retired mathematics professor who lives in a small cottage. Sounds simple, straightforward, ordinary, right? But there are caveats to this employment.
The housekeeper learns that the professor's sister-in-law, who does the interviewing and lives in the large house on the same property, is never to be bothered in the big house. Also, the housekeeper is not allowed to meet the professor until her first day of work because he would not remember meeting her. She learns he has a short term memory of only 80 minutes. After that, his mind erases itself and must start over again, relearning what was familiar only an hour ago.
How does a learned man cope with life on those terms? And how can a housekeeper interact with him daily when he cannot remember her face, much less her name over a two hour period? Can this quiet, uneducated woman and son even comprehend the mathematical world of the professor?
That is the simple elegance of this book. We lucky readers watch, learn, and grow with these people as they address their relationship and lives together and alone.
It is not a tale that expects sympathy for its characters, nor one with solutions to difficult situations. Instead, it is the quiet perseverance of the characters to move forward and the determination to expand one's world that underlies all actions in the plot and totally absorbs any reader willing to sit quietly for a few hours with these people in their world.
It is a beautiful book.
Happy reading.
Fred
Fred
www.firstsentencereader.blogspot.com
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
Historical account of the creation of the OED and the major contributions researched and compiled by a man living in an insane asylum.
Moore, Liz. Heft: A Novel
A young girl works on cleaning an eccentric, recluse's sprawling house, simultaneously encouraging him to expand his world and explore a long-forgotten relationship. (previously reviewed here)
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