About book The Housekeeper And The Professor (2009)
Отдавна не бях слушала камерна музика. С тази книга се случи. Камерна не само заради триото - всичко на всичко трима герои (плюс една втора цигулка от време на време). Камерна книжка и заради стила. Няма дълги изречения или безкрайни описания. Като със ситни стъпчици на японка върви повествованието. Спокойно като атмосферата в къщичката на Професора. Без онзи излишен шум, наречен суета, без излишно бъбрене или прекомерно бурни емоции, положителни или отрицателни. На моменти сдържано типично по японски. Езикът - като по учебник. Толкова „прилежен“ език не бях срещала скоро. Мисля, че този подреден английски език отразява именно японската стриктност. Основата на книгата – отношенията между Професора, прислужницата му и нейния син. Какви отношения може да има между тези хора, когато възрастният човек не може да помни повече от 80 минути след претърпяна злополука? Идеални. Всичко е изчистено от минали огорчения, натрупвания, недоразумения, които да обременяват общуването. Всичко е сега. „And because of the Professor's memory problem, he immediately forgot my misunderstanding with his sister-in-law. For him, no trace of the trouble remained.“И за този роман ми се появи подзаглавие. То е Грижа. Между всеки един от тримата герои. „He treated Root exactly as he treated prime numbers. For him, primes were the base on which all other natural numbers relied; and children were the foundation of everything worthwhile in the adult world."„He was always delighted when Root asked a question, no matter what the subject; and he seemed convinced that children's questions were much more important than those of an adult. He preferred smart questions to smart answers.“„His joy had little to do with the difficulty of the problem. Simple or hard, the pleasure was in sharing it with us.“И стигаме до математика – моят основен страх. Изпитвам ужас от цифри, от сметки, да не говорим за други математически сложности. Но тук видях това, което може да се мечтае за всеки преподавател. Да поднася материята с оригиналност, разчупеност, чрез връзки и аналогии. И с любов. Щом за мен не беше отблъскващо всичко математическо в книгата, представям си за читатели, които обичат тази наука. Дори съм описана с този цитат - на десетия път може и да схвана с такъв търпелив учител.„Things that most people would get the first time around might take me five, or even ten times, but I could go on asking the Professor to explain until I finally got it.“И мисля, че на много от местата, където се говори за математика, става въпрос и за хората.„There were plenty of cases where a number that looked to be composite turned out to be prime, and just as many others where I discovered divisors for a number that I was certain was prime.“Неминуемо в романа има скрити връзки и с някои будистки идеи („…without width or area…“; „Hasn't zero been around forever?“)Но книгата си изигра малка шега с мен. Очаквах, че най-неясни ще ми бъдат нещата, свързани с математиката. А се оказа друго – бейзболът. Първо се зачудих за Япония ли става въпрос. Попитах сина ми и каза, че това е най-популярният спорт там. Нещо повече – имали собствена дума за играта (иначе за безкрайно много неща ползват английски чуждици, сигурно след войната са „заели“ и спорта бейзбол). Япония в книгата си личи и по строгите отношения между работодателя (агенцията за прислужници) и подчинения.Тази книга може да бъде харесана от разнородни видове читатели (които не търсят нещо велико в стила). Предимно от хора, ценящи онова специално общуване, което е толкова изпълващо, а не много често срещано (особено между различни поколения). Аз поне обичам да чета за хора, на които им е приятно с други хора, които се откриват взаимно чрез общуване, на пръв поглед изглеждащо невъзможно. „Професионално“ би се харесала на математици и всякакъв вид преподаватели – не само по математика. Този тип представяне на дадена област може да измъкне на повърхността скрити наклонности. Или да разсее нагласи като „Това не е за мен“.„In school, I had hated math so much that the mere sight of the textbook made me feel ill. But the things the Professor taught me seemed to find their way effortlessly into my brain…“Като възраст – подходяща за трите основни групи. Ученици, които обичат и не обичат математиката. Хора на средна възраст (макар и прислужницата да е доста млада – 28 години). И хора на възрастта на Професора. За такива, които се считат за „по-ниски“ социални слоеве (а може и т.нар. „домакини“). Защото за тази неука и бедна жена се отваря нов прозорец, оказва се, че числата са ѝ интересни, освен това са символ на общуването с Професора.„Among the many things that made the Professor an excellent teacher was the fact that he wasn't afraid to say "we don't know." For the Professor, there was no shame in admitting you didn't have the answer, it was a necessary step toward the truth. It was as important to teach us about the unknown or the unknowable as it was to teach us what had already been safely proven.“„As I mopped the office floor, my mind churning with worries about Root, I realized how much I needed this eternal truth that the Professor had described. I needed the sense that this invisible world was somehow propping up the visible one, that this one, true line extended infinitely, without width or area, confidently piercing through the shadows. Somehow, this line would help me find peace.“Няма да споменавам дребните неща, които не ми харесаха, защото при наличието на тази мила трио история не си струва. Извинявам се за английските цитати. Бих превела книгата, ако не се плашех от бейзбола. :)
A highly polished, smooth, shining surface of a novel that was exquisitely crafted from start to finish. The voice was so understated and matter-of-fact that I would have had little trouble believing that this was an actual account of a real housekeeper remembering her experiences. There were very few authorial flourishes and all of them were appropriately put into the mouth of the strange, afflicted Professor, a math genius whose short-term memory only lasts 80 minutes.A premise like that can be in danger of becoming a gimmick, a crutch for the plot to rely on to provide tension, as reliable as a countdown clock in an apocalyptic film. However, that did not happen here. If anything, sometimes Ogawa blurred time together- she only used the premise when needed. The time-bomb ticking mattered less than Ogawa's use of it to demonstrate the selfless care and devotion of a housekeeper and her son to this debilitated, nervous old man. The other quirk of the Professor's memory is that he can remember everything that happened to him before 1975. This means it will always be that year in his mind. This was interesting as well because it allowed Ogawa to explore, with a very light touch, what "time" is made up of- her answer seems to be a combination of objects, people, and the sort of pop culture that connects you with a wider world, the famous figures that help you see time passing in your own life.The housekeeper's tale is self-effacing and modest, with only the barest of facts given to let the reader know why her relationship with the Professor is possible, and why it means so much to her. The rare moments where she breaks down and tells a story about her emotions mean that much more because of it. Her life is one of work, hardship, frequent disrespect and degradation, and she has no opportunity to really escape it. Thus her interactions with the Professor, who only remembers the last 80 minutes, and will therefore explain things again and again and still feel just as excited about doing so, allow her a share in beauty and kindness and higher understanding that has never been within the possibilities of her experience. The 80 minutes is about exploring and re-exploring, having the freedom to try again and be secure that there will be no judgement of your failures. What would that be like? What sort of gift would it be for a woman whose whole life has been judgment and avoiding judgment and getting by with her head down?Her joy is quiet and contained and hidden, subject to the permission of authority figures for its existence, not to be depended on, as likely to quickly disappear as not. But for some little time, this woman is able to look into "God's notebook," with a patient teacher and precious privacy: "In my imagination, I saw the creator of the universe sitting in some distant corner of the sky, weaving a pattern of delicate lace so fine that even the faintest light would shine through it. The lace stretches out infinitely in every direction, billowing gently in the cosmic breeze. You want desperately to touch it, hold it up to the light, rub it against your cheek. And all we ask is to be able to re-create the pattern, weave it again with numbers, somehow, in our own language; to make even the tiniest fragment on our own, to bring it back to earth."This ethereal daydream represents the height of the emotion that this book reaches. It is a whispering sort of book, a calm and nostalgic Sunday with nowhere to be sort of book. It is the sort of book I actually think would benefit from being read aloud by a woman with a wise old voice and a solid, but sometimes somewhat fragile demeanor. The major fault I found with this book was that... there were no faults. The author seemed perfectly separated from her subject, at her observational best, understanding, but uninvolved. I liked that, in a sense, after reading so many books where authors are clearly working out their own issues on the page. I liked that this seemed like a genuine attempt to understand something outside of the Self. I also liked that this never bowed to our modern, confessional needs to know everything- she always left the mystery, always respected the limits of what her tale would reasonably know or respectfully want to know, and left it to us to guess the rest or to be discreet enough to leave the characters' secrets alone.However, her skill was such that the story was told so smoothly. So smoothly, too smoothly for my taste. You could almost miss the bumps in the road- the language almost never changed, the tone didn't alter, nor, I think most importantly, did your sense of being well taken care of by the author. I felt so safe in Ogawa's hands that I never feared for the characters, nor was able to consequently work up a great passion about any of them in any way. I knew that each of them would be given a fitting, lovely conclusion that wrapped up the tale with dignity, ending it not with a bang, but a whisper. It made me respect Ogawa's skill so much. It made me pay attention, and I understood that certain scenes had more power because of this almost never changing tone, and her plain, even language, even in moments of stress or crisis for the characters.I confess that I was looking for ragged edges by the end- looking to find fault with her for not keeping to her 80 minutes, looking for some outbursts or ill-chosen words. She receded so much from me that I wanted some of the author back- and she refused to appear.I will say that it has been a long time since I've wished for that. I've not often had the need.Ultimately, I think that when I see this book on my shelves I will remember a sense of quiet, smile a little bit remembering the unique passion for mathematics, and I will think of the word "polished", but that will be all. It shone softly, not a hair out of place, and I can already feel it fading from my mind. That's why I can't rate it higher, even though, as I've stated, I can't find a single flaw with the writing. Oh well book. As a favorite character of mine almost said- perhaps it is your perfections that make us imperfect for one another.
Do You like book The Housekeeper And The Professor (2009)?
I hate baseball, a game full of statistics and numbers. I hate math. But how could I possibly not love this writing and this book about love but not a love story?"...The pages and pages of complex, impenetrable calculations might have contained the secrets of the universe, copied out of God's notebook. In my imagination, I saw the creator of the universe sitting in some distant corner of the sky, weaving a pattern of delicate lace so fine that that even the faintest light would shine through it. The lace stretches out infinitely in every direction, billowing gently in the cosmic breeze. You want desperately to touch it, hold it up to the light, rub it against your cheek. And all we ask is to be able to re-create the pattern, weave it again with numbers, somehow, in our own language; to make the tiniest fragment our own, to bring it back to earth." "He treated Root exactly as he treated prime numbers. For him, primes were the base on which all other natural numbers relied; and children were the foundation of everything worthwhile in the adult world"
—Rose
If it weren't for my goodread friends I'd never know about this little gem! I bet 50 years from now it'll be a classic. It's not on 1001 books to read before you die, but it should be. A housekeeper accepts an assignment to care for a mathematics professor who can't remember more than 80 minutes at a time as a result of a car accident. Would you be able to clean, cook, wash, etc around a man who 6 or 7 times a day re-introduces himself to you without going batty? As a cook, wouldn't you be tempted to give him the same meals over and over? I admit, I skimmed some of the math talk--it's been decades since I've heard of some of those terms. It's even more amazing that he was able to enter contests when he had to re-familiarize the proofs multiple times a day. The housekeeper (no names are ever given) was so patient.
—Sterlingcindysu
On originally reading a description of this novel I wondered if it was really for me. Did I want to read about a Professor with a memory span of 80 minutes and the Housekeeper who assists him? I'm so glad I decided to read it and I'm happy to have my own copy. This story of memory, math, building a pseudo-family where no relationship has existed before is full of love and compassion. The emotions are mostly expressed in mathematical theorems, cooking and random touch, but it is palpable throughout the book. I had to remind myself repeatedly that this is a novel, not a memoir. It feels like life, a life beautifully lived. The emotions are still high as I write this review.The blending of the math into the arc of life is amazing. I am a math-phobe and always have been. I could feel my resistance wearing down while reading and a subtle understanding of why others love the world of numbers beginning to grow. The Professor, and the housekeeper, would be pleased.Highly recommended for its sensitive treatment of relationships.Addendum 1/5/13: I realize that I truly love this book and it has only risen in my esteem over time. Therefore I am going to change its rating to the 5 stars it probably should have been initially.
—Sue
