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The Housekeeper and the Professor

by Yoko Ogawa, Stephen Snyder (Translator)

3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 · rating details · 8,027 ratings · 1,767 reviews

He is a brilliant math Professor with a peculiar problem--ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory. She is an astute young Housekeeper, with a ten-year-old son, who is hired to care for him. And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship bl...more

Paperback, 180 pages

Published February 3rd 2009 by Picador (first published 2003)

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Jan 05, 2013 Sue rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: japan, literary-fiction, read-in-2012, favorites, to-re-read

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 througho...more

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Feb 15, 2010 Trish rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, character-driven

This is a quietly wonderful book. When I was reading it I really liked it. Now that some time has passed I still think of it, and any book that I still remember months after reading is a book that deserves 5 stars. Although there is some advanced math in the story the author doesn't expect the reader to understand all of it. The numbers and math are used more to show the magic of numbers and how math brings an unlikely group of people together to form meaningful relationships.
This is a characte...more

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Aug 28, 2011 JG (The Introverted Reader) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to JG (The Introverted Reader) by: Fiona

Shelves: fiction, 4_stars, author_japanese, covers_i_like, read_in_2011, reviewed, setting_japan, translations

The Professor is a brilliant mathematician who suffered some brain damage in an automobile accident years ago. He can remember his entire life up until the accident, but afterwards, he only has a memory of the past 80 minutes. Luckily, his sister-in-law steps in to help care for him. She hires housekeepers to come in to his little cottage and cook his meals. Needless to say, the Professor scares off many of these women. But then The Housekeeper comes along. She's something of a specialist in dif...more The Professor is a brilliant mathematician who suffered some brain damage in an automobile accident years ago. He can remember his entire life up until the accident, but afterwards, he only has a memory of the past 80 minutes. Luckily, his sister-in-law steps in to help care for him. She hires housekeepers to come in to his little cottage and cook his meals. Needless to say, the Professor scares off many of these women. But then The Housekeeper comes along. She's something of a specialist in difficult cases. She is patient with the Professor and introduces herself to him every morning, respects the days when he is thinking, and generally wins him over again every day.

This is an elegantly-written novel. There aren't any wasted words, but it is still beautifully written. Every word seems to be chosen with care.

I can't say that a lot happens in the story itself. There's no big, romantic love, no adventure, no heartbreak. But the story is beautiful too.

These are characters that I learned to care about. The Professor is overwhelmed by the world and seeks solace in his orderly numbers. He obviously has a huge heart. He adores the Housekeeper's son, and really all children in general. The Housekeeper is a single mom doing the best she can and finding the time to care for and about this slightly damaged man. They are both lonely and they find each other and they form their own unique kind of family. It's a beautiful story and I loved it.

Quite a bit of the book revolves around mathematics. Don't let that put you off. The Housekeeper tells the story, and she is not a mathematician. None of that is overwhelming.

I wouldn't change a thing about the book, but I do have to say that I am curious about the Professor's past. The Housekeeper finds an old photo that brings up a lot of unanswered questions. And I just get the feeling that there's some kind of tragedy that led to the Professor's intense concern for children's safety. I'm happy to leave my questions unanswered though. The Housekeeper and her son learn to care for the Professor just as he is, without any concern for his past, so it feels right that the past stays in the past.

The translator, Stephen Snyder, obviously did an amazing job. This kind of writing is rare from authors who write in English. It takes a very talented team of author and translator to produce it in a translation.

For a quiet, beautiful, feel-good book about friendship and families, pick this up. (less)

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Feb 18, 2013 Joan Winnek rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-read

About halfway through. Intriguing. Most of the math I understand, and I've forgotten algebra. My experience of my husband's post stroke cognitive decline, especially abrupt in recent months, makes me aware of short-term memory loss, and as I have become more disabled in the past seven months I know the challenges of caregiving and having to find help. The three main characters are touchingly portrayed.

I finished the book today, and I did enjoy it all the way through and want to read more of Ogam...more

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Joan Winnek My book club discussed this today, and had a lot of questions. The ending is abrupt, introduces eleven more years beyond the less than one year the re...more
updated Feb 18, 2013 09:42pm

Joan Winnek Joan wrote: "My book club discussed this today, and had a lot of questions. The ending is abrupt, introduces eleven more years beyond the less than on...more
Feb 18, 2013 09:43pm

Carol Leave it to book group to come up with questions I would never have thoguht of. I don't think I can answer about the sister-in-law, perhaps just being...more
Feb 23, 2013 10:35am

Feb 08, 2009 Holly rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sacramento-book-review

A great story, simple yet complex! The Professor has only eighty minutes of short-term memory, but can remember everything from before his car accident in 1975, including all kinds of complicated mathematical theorems and equations. His new housekeeper is a young woman with a ten-year-old son, who manages to see past his memory problems to the brilliant and sweet old man beneath. She soon comes to dote on him like a father. In turn, the Professor adores her son, whom he calls "Root" due to the f...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Judith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to me by an extensively-read friend who knows I love good, well-written fiction with interesting character development. This is a lovely little book. I recommend and/or gift with it often.

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Mar 04, 2013 Ashley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction

I’m not sure on which page I fell in love with the wrinkled, snowy-haired Professor in his rumpled suit with the scrap-paper reminders pinned all over it (the most important one being the note that reads “My memory lasts only eighty minutes”). I just know that about 50 pages from the end of the story, I found myself digging in my heels, wanting to linger over every last word. The Housekeeper and the Professor is a gently written, beautiful musing on the nature of friendship and familial love. An...more I’m not sure on which page I fell in love with the wrinkled, snowy-haired Professor in his rumpled suit with the scrap-paper reminders pinned all over it (the most important one being the note that reads “My memory lasts only eighty minutes”). I just know that about 50 pages from the end of the story, I found myself digging in my heels, wanting to linger over every last word. The Housekeeper and the Professor is a gently written, beautiful musing on the nature of friendship and familial love. And it’s a peek into a brilliant mind—one that sees the entire visible world in terms of the mathematics that underpins it; one that effortlessly finds a connection between his new housekeeper’s birth date and the three-digit number etched on the back of his wristwatch; one that is most alive in the world of formulas and theorems. (Several formulas appear in the narrative, but as someone who is definitely not a math person, let me assure you that you don’t have to be into numbers to appreciate the story. And you can always let your eyes glaze over a bit on the math if you want—you won’t miss anything crucial.)

With all of the little torn bits of paper I used to mark my favorite passages, before long my copy of the book started to look something like the Professor’s suit. I’ll leave you with a handful of them:

“I uncovered propositions that existed out there long before we were born. It’s like copying truths from God’s notebook, though we aren’t always sure where to find this notebook or when it will be open.” … The Professor picked up a branch and began to scratch something in the dirt. ... The withered stick gracefully carved [his] thoughts into the dry earth, and before long the lacy pattern of the formula was spread out at our feet.
(Possibly I like this passage so much because it reminds me of another Man I love who once stooped to write mysteries in the dirt.)

He treated [my son] 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.

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 our own, to bring it back to earth.

And maybe the best description of a thunderstorm I’ve ever read:

The trees suddenly began to tremble and the sky grew dark. The line of hills on the horizon, faintly visible just a moment before, disappeared in the gloom. There was a rumbling in the distance.

“Thunder!” we said together, as the rain began to fall in enormous drops. The pounding on the roof echoed through the room. I stood up to close the windows, but the Professor stopped me.

“Leave them,” he said. “It feels good to have them open.”

The curtains billowed in the breeze, letting the rain pour in on our bare feet. It was cool and refreshing, just as the Professor had said. The sun had vanished and the only light in the garden was the faint glow from the lamp above the kitchen sink. Small birds flitted among the drooping, tangled branches of the trees, and then the rain obscured everything.

(less)

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May 09, 2012 SilverRaindrops rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to SilverRaindrops by: Chrissie

Shelves: 2012-around-the-world-in-52-books, reviewstatus-reviewed

Yoko Ogawas novel "The Housekeeper + The Professor" tells the story of a woman coming to care for an elderly mathematics professor suffering from short-term memory loss.

While she has to introduce herself again every morning, she soons forms an attachment, based on him teaching her about numbers and her seeing his brilliance.
When she mentions her son, the Professor's love for children shines through and he expects her to bring him around after school or during vacations.

The love the professor h...more

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Mar 25, 2013 H.I. Al-Muhairi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, vintage-edition, japan-japanese, 2011, fresh, im-in-love-with-a-cover, psycological, aww, fiction

We called him 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. "With this one little sign we can come to know an infinite range of numbers, even those we can't see."[pg. 1]

I was about to pay for a couple of books at the counter when The Housekeeper and the Professer caught my...more

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Aug 16, 2010 Fiona rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Fiona by: Laura

Shelves: books-i-own, 2010, original-language-japanese, setting-japan, favourites

How can I possibly put this book into my own words? I can’t begin to imagine I could capture or convey to any of you, how this book made me feel. It took me two days to read and I wish I could have taken more time to read it – but I simply couldn’t put it down. The pages seemed to turn themselves and I didn’t really feel like I was reading at all.

This book moved me. It is a small ripple that travels a long way across calm waters. It is nothing ground shaking, nothing that makes you tumble and di...more

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Apr 28, 2010 Chrissie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, japan, kirkus, text-checked, relationships

This book is truly original, not your normal run of the mill. I highly recommend it. What is it about? It is about friendship and the beauty of numbers and baseball. And more..... Where should I start? I will start with the numbers. This is sort of the easiest to expalin. This book made me see and feel the beauty of math, of the laws that govern numbers. The world is so complicated. We understand nothing. Everything is always changing, but then you learn of a mathematical formula that is constan...more This book is truly original, not your normal run of the mill. I highly recommend it. What is it about? It is about friendship and the beauty of numbers and baseball. And more..... Where should I start? I will start with the numbers. This is sort of the easiest to expalin. This book made me see and feel the beauty of math, of the laws that govern numbers. The world is so complicated. We understand nothing. Everything is always changing, but then you learn of a mathematical formula that is constant, that is always true, and suddenly there is an order to the messy world around us. The author goes even one step beyond this. Three people, of which two are completely normal like you and me, the housekeeper and her son, come to understand the magic of numbers through their contact with the Professor (of math). I wish I had had had a math teacher like te Professor! Did you know that zero is a concept thought up by an Indian mathematician. Before him the Greeks thought this concept didn't need a symbol. You get history, and then the author pulls the mathematical concept into the story so you understand the true consequence of the concept. What it means to you and me. Infinity, a line, zero, amicable numbers. Honestly, math is made beautiful. Occasionaly, I was too tired to follow the full development of a formula, but usually the author never pushed the theoretical underpinings too far. It is definitely worth reading the book just so that you will learn about math, but there is more!

There is baseball. And there is true friendship. And there is a look at how people come to love each other simply by doing things together. Caring for each other. All the blurbs about this book tell you that the housekeeper is taking care of an elderly man who can only remember what has happened during the last 80 minutes. He can also remember everything before 1975, before a car accident. What does this lack if remembrance really mean? It means that every day when she and her son come to his door he doesn't know who they are. It means that when you spend a wonderful afternoon together, it is gone tomorrow. So are the frightful disagreements that can destroy a day. Gone - they never happened! What does this say to the reader? What's the lesson to be learned? You get a beautiful picture of a frail old man, who has three suits - one for winter, one for summer and one for the spring and fall. That is what he wears. He has little pieces of paper pinned all over his suit to remind himeslf of things he must remember. Soon he is not a man dressed in a suit, but a man dressed in fragments of paper. The image is beautiful and clear and wonderful. Why? Bcause you fall in love with the guy! What develops for realationship between these three people is extraordinary. Do you see why I say this book is original? It is NOT melodramatic, it is quiet and beautiful. Heartwarming - definitely. Read it. It's only 180 pages. Take time to read chapter 10, of the eleven chapters in the book, slowly. Savour it. It is so beautiful.

12 pages in and I already love the characters, the housekeeper and the professor! Why is that? Perhaps b/c they are each true to their own selves. They are not what society wants them to be but merely who they were born to be. I cannot help but compare this with the poor souls of Remarkable Creatures. Although both Elizabeth and Mary also followed their inclinations, they spent all their time judging themselves by the moral standards of their times. The housekeeper and the professor are too busy being themselves.(less)

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Apr 04, 2009 Marie rated it 5 of 5 stars

The book reads as if the Housekeeper is retelling the story of how she, long with her son, came to work in the Professor's little home and the way the three interacted. The Professor's mind is stuck in 1975, with only a plethora of numbers to keep him occupied, and the housekeeper and her son try not to disturb the professor with the reality of the present day, 1992. The trio connect through mathematics and baseball, and the housekeeper herself soon finds comfort in numbers as the book relays th...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Lilisa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: around-the-world-2013

Interesting topic that could have been explored further - was hoping for a more complex story, although the simple and uncluttered story line is probably what garnered it a higher rating than I'm willing. Following an auto accident, a professor of mathematics lives in the present - every 80 minutes his mind recycles, not allowing him to retain his memory. The bond that develops between the professor and the housekeeper and her young son is a touching and caring one as they protectively help the...more

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Aug 25, 2009 Maria rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book on first reading because the premise intrigued me and reminded me of the movie "Memento" where a man has tattooed himself with things he must not forget because he has no memory. In this case, a math professor can only remember 80 minutes at a time so clips notes to his suit to remind him of this fact and other things he must not forget.

I'm still thinking about the book and processing, but for me, liking a book about math says a lot. Granted, I'm sure for others, the ma...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Katherine rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, general-fiction

A sweet story with an interesting premise. This book gave me a very brief flash (oh I get it, oops, now it's gone) of how an individual with true mathematical aptitude must feel about solving math problems. Unfortunately, anything with numbers, or sports (strike two), is guaranteed to cause this reader's eyes to immediately glaze over, so this would be a much better read for those who consider math an adventure instead of a chore.

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Oct 08, 2012 Brenda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012

Cuando empecé a leer este libro en verano, lo dejé por la mitad. El único motivo que tenía para abandonarlo fue el momento. No pude con él, no era mi libro en ese instante. Pero ayer domingo, lo cogí por la mañana y no pude soltarlo hasta que lo acabé a las 11 de la noche. Tiendo a calificar un libro por la sensación que me ha dado cuando lo finalizo. A pesar de que durante la historia, el libro en ocasiones se me hacía pesado, los dos últimos capítulos y el último fragmento me dejaron un sabor...more

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Feb 24, 2009 Steph rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a very intimate book. If you have ever dealt with somebody that has memory problems you will feel the connections and how personal those issues are.

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Mar 10, 2009 Ernie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wonderful story. A housekeeper is hired to care for a mathemathics professor who had been in a car accident 18 years previously, and who remembers everything up to the accident but only the most recent 80 minutes since then. Each day the housekeeper introduces herself to him. Shortly after that, the housekeeper's son joins them. It is an amazing examination of how relationships can be built even in such circumstances. A delightful aspect is the daily activities of the professor who relates to li...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Prowisorio rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Briljant, elegant, ontroerend... maar pas nu ik het boekje heb dichtgeslagen, begrijp ik de dubbele betekenis van de volgende uitspraak over The housekeeper and the professor: het boek is "what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family where one before did not exist."

De wiskundeprofessor heeft in 1975 een ernstig auto-ongeluk gehad en kan sindsdien alleen nog maar beschikken over zijn herinneringen tot aan het auto-ongeluk en die van de laatste 80...more Briljant, elegant, ontroerend... maar pas nu ik het boekje heb dichtgeslagen, begrijp ik de dubbele betekenis van de volgende uitspraak over The housekeeper and the professor: het boek is "what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family where one before did not exist."

De wiskundeprofessor heeft in 1975 een ernstig auto-ongeluk gehad en kan sindsdien alleen nog maar beschikken over zijn herinneringen tot aan het auto-ongeluk en die van de laatste 80 minuten in het heden. Hij was een briljant wiskundige, maar woont nu bij zijn schoonzuster in de tuin in een apart huisje en lost wiskundeproblemen op in tijdschriften. Via de Akebono Housekeeping organisatie zorgt zijn schoonzuster ervoor dat er doordeweeks een huishoudster beschikbaar is voor hem, die de boel schoonhoudt en voor zijn maaltijden zorgt. Dat het niet makkelijk is, blijkt uit het feit dat hij er al negen 'versleten' heeft, voordat de moeder van Root (van square root = worteltrekken) bij de professor wordt ingezet. Het verzorgen van de professor valt haar niet zwaar, ondanks dat ze zichzelf elke morgen weer bekend moet maken aan de professor en hij nogal kortaangebonden is, als hij aan het denken is. Integendeel, er ontstaat zelfs een heel speciale band tussen hen.

Behalve het ontroerende verhaal van de huishoudster, haar zoontje, de professor en de schoonzuster, is er ook het verhaal van de getallen. Over perfectegetallen, bevriendegetallen, priemtweelingen en ga zo maar door. Voor het eerst van mijn leven begin ik te beseffen dat wiskunde mooi is... en dat komt door dit elegant geschreven boekje, door deze professor.

Yoko Ogawa's professor mag worden aangerekend dat ik Euler's identiteit vanaf nu niet alleen herken, maar de schoonheid ervan zelfs ervaar. Ik. Een alfa.

"Like a Shakespearean sonnet that captures the very essence of love, or a painting that brings out the beauty of the human form that is far more than just skin deep, Euler's equation reaches down into the very depths of existence."
(Keith Devlin)(less)

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Jan 19, 2009 Shaindel rated it 5 of 5 stars

I recently read this book so that I could interview the translator, Stephen Snyder, for my radio show, _Translated By_. I read this book and two out of the three novellas in _The Diving Pool_ (also by Yoko Ogawa and translated by Stephen Snyder). I LOVED both books. (The only reason I didn't finish _The Diving Pool_ is that I was under deadline for the show and teaching, and reading two books in two days is tricky business.) I will try to read the final novella in _The Diving Pool_ today.

Ogawa h...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction, 2013, book-club

4.5 stars. What an engrossing but completely different book this was, about a housekeeper sent to care for a man only referred to as "the professor". Years ago, an accident left him with only an 80-minute memory, and he has no recollection of anything that happened after 1975 with the exception of the previous 80 minutes. Despite his memory loss, he's a brilliant man and professor of mathematics, and he and the housekeeper strike up a friendship, one that's probably as deep as it can be on both...more 4.5 stars. What an engrossing but completely different book this was, about a housekeeper sent to care for a man only referred to as "the professor". Years ago, an accident left him with only an 80-minute memory, and he has no recollection of anything that happened after 1975 with the exception of the previous 80 minutes. Despite his memory loss, he's a brilliant man and professor of mathematics, and he and the housekeeper strike up a friendship, one that's probably as deep as it can be on both ends despite his memory problems. Her son, who he nicknames Root, comes over to the house as well, and the three of them form a different sort of family unit.

I hadn't heard of this novel before my book club selected it as the monthly pick, but I'm glad I read it. This was a quick read - just shy of 200 pages! - but it was extremely thoughtful and thought-provoking. Throughout the novel, no real names were given, making it seem as if you never truly knew who the characters were, but their emotions were so real that you felt like you nevertheless knew them. I loved the friendship that developed between the professor and the housekeeper, as well as the one that bloomed between the professor and Root.

The professor talked a lot about math, teaching them secrets of numbers and calculations, and it was easy to understand how they felt a connection to this man who couldn't remember them because he'd opened their eyes to new ways to view the world. He continually used numbers to find a connection between people, and his passion for them rubbed off on the housekeeper and her son, making them feel special because they had learned numerical secrets. I also loved the way the professor challenged them to figure out answers for themselves and how eager they were to conduct research just to better understand his world.

Some of the backstory, I think, could have been fleshed out a little more, particularly in regard to the professor's history - just because he couldn't remember anything after 1975 didn't mean nothing happened before then that was pertinent to his life! Some of his history was sort of hinted at, with the housekeeper finding snippets of secrets around the house, but nothing was explored in detail and I was left with more questions than I would have liked. But perhaps that's what the author was getting at - that just because you can't remember everything or don't know everything about the past doesn't mean the present isn't important.

Lots of good stuff to think about in here, a book perfect for discussion. I loved the relationships between the characters and the emotions that came off the pages despite how short the novel was and how anonymous the characters stayed. Themes of friendship and family stood out strongly, and this was definitely a bigger book than its length would seem to suggest. This is actually a translation of the original Japanese novel, and the translator did an excellent job turning this into a very smooth read. I saw that he translated other novels by this author, so I'm curious to read some of them now!(less)

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Apr 18, 2013 Farnoosh Brock rated it 4 of 5 stars

Opening paragraph of Yoko Ogawa‘s short story:

“What is your shoe size?”
“How much did you weigh when you were born?”
“What is your height?”
“When is your birthday?

These were some of the questions the housekeeper encountered every morning from the professor whom she cared for. He asked because he loved mathematics and because he could not remember her. They were introduced anew every morning. The answers to these questions, all of which she happily returned every single time, comforted the professor...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Pheobe rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 04, 2013 Kiera Healy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Ogawa's trio of novellas, The Diving Pool, a couple of weeks ago, so I was eager to check her novel. It didn't disappoint. The Housekeeper and the Professor is a beautiful book. It tells of the friendship that grows between the a housekeeper, her son, and her client (the titular professor).

The story is slight: don't expect a great deal of plot here. The beauty of the novel is in the telling - and, remarkably, it survives the translation very well, to the point that I didn't feel...more I really enjoyed Ogawa's trio of novellas, The Diving Pool, a couple of weeks ago, so I was eager to check her novel. It didn't disappoint. The Housekeeper and the Professor is a beautiful book. It tells of the friendship that grows between the a housekeeper, her son, and her client (the titular professor).

The story is slight: don't expect a great deal of plot here. The beauty of the novel is in the telling - and, remarkably, it survives the translation very well, to the point that I didn't feel like I was reading a novel in translation. It's very character-driven, and fortunately the central three characters are all interesting. The narrator became a housekeeper at the age of eighteen, after falling pregnant and being kicked out of her home. She is worried to take on a job for the client she comes to know as the Professor, because he has proven difficult for many of the other women in her agency. However, she soon realises that the difficulties stem from his disability: since a car accident in 1975, he has been unable to form new memories, and his memory only lasts eighty minutes. He's a mathematical genius, but the accident has left him frozen in time and unable to relate to the rest of the world.

The other main character is the narrator's ten-year-old son. Interestingly, none of the characters in this novel are given names, and the boy is always referred to by the nickname the Professor gives him, Root (because his head is flat like a square root symbol). A friendship soon blossoms between Root and the Professor, who bond over their shared love of baseball.

For a novel in which nothing really happens, this is a beautiful read. The tone here is completely different from The Diving Pool; that was dark, while this is melancholy. The housekeeper comes to appreciate the Professor's love of mathematics, and to understand his way of viewing the world. His condition is dealt with practically, but is heartbreaking at times - like when the Professor hears that his baseball hero did in fact leave his beloved Tigers, and has since retired.

There's a lot of focus in this novel on mathematics and baseball. I did very well in maths at school but that was ten years ago, and I have no real interest in it, and like most people outside of the US and Japan, I think baseball is so boring it should be banned. However, Ogawa's power of description is strong enough that I overcame my natural distaste for some of the subject matter. This is an excellent novel, and I highly recommend it.(less)

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Mar 31, 2013 Vera Choo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I first read the introduction initially, I was thinking "Shit, are the remaining chapters going to be all about formulas and mathematics? Urgh!". However, as I continued reading it, I was thrilled by the turn of events when the housekeeper went to the professor's house for the first time.

The way the professor treats Root truly amazes me as I have always thought that since he could not remember much, he must be a heartless creature locked in his own world. However ,I thought wrong. In fact,...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Tracy King rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this book for book club. I gave this book 3 stars. It was a nice story & easy read, but I fear that I may have missed the point somewhere along the way. It left a lot to interpretation.

Here are my "positives" and "interesting" things for the book:

It looks at the importance of "Living in the Moment" (the Professor could only remember the last 80 minutes)and it made me think how important that is.

I found it interesting that there were no actual names used in the book.

The ability of The...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Jon rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book starts off in a little town with a young mother and an unexpected son living in a small apartment. During the first part of the book the mother is in a tough financial struggle and is looking for work to support her and her son "root." Her whole life all she has done was clean houses from her mother all the way to her neighbors. With that ability she natuarlly goes to what she knows best housekeeping. She eventually lands a job with the agency and notices multiple blue stars on this per...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Janet Leszl rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novel is a brief, enjoyable reading experience. The main characters remain nameless as they appear to be representative of people in similar circumstances. The housekeeper unexpectedly finds herself in the role of caretaker for a former math professor with short term memory that lasts only in 80 minute intervals. Despite his disability, the professor shines as he shares his love of intricate math concepts with the housekeeper and her young son; inspiring them both to love and respect him.

At...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Ugh rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found this book while looking for a Christmas present for my girlfriend in Foyles. I'd been looking since A, so had considered and passed over many books by this O point, but I didn't need to deliberate long over Ogawa's offering. It struck me as perfect.

And indeed my girlfriend enjoyed it very much, but I'd always been intending to read it myself too, and it didn't take me long to get round to it.

And it is lovely. I don't want to oversell it, because it's a quiet loveliness, not a dazzling or...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Jasmine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Five Stars! (I would give it more)

Ogawa's writing style is subtle and light, yet strong. It is very elegantly written and is unique to readers. She captures the moment of impulse and movement, yet keeps the "flavor" kind and heartwarming. It is much different than her other books when the style is similar but darker and more disturbing. The Housekeeper and the Professor is her happy book, you could say.

This is a small novel and quite an enjoyable read. It is quick to finish, but stays in your m...more

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About Yoko Ogawa

Yoko Ogawa (alternate spelling Yôko Ogawa; Japanese: 小川洋子) was born in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, graduated from Waseda University, and lives in Ashiya with her husband and son. Since 1988, she has published more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction. Her novel The Professor and his Beloved Equation has been made into a movie. In 2006 she co-authored "An Introduction to the World's Most E...more Yoko Ogawa (alternate spelling Yôko Ogawa; Japanese: 小川洋子) was born in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture, graduated from Waseda University, and lives in Ashiya with her husband and son. Since 1988, she has published more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction. Her novel The Professor and his Beloved Equation has been made into a movie. In 2006 she co-authored "An Introduction to the World's Most Elegant Mathematics" with Masahiko Fujiwara, a mathematician, as a dialogue on the extraordinary beauty of numbers.

A film in French, "L'Annulaire" (The Ringfinger), directed by Diane Bertrand, starring Olga Kurylenko and Marc Barbé, was released in France in June 2005 and subsequently made the rounds of the international film festivals; the film, some of which is filmed in the Hamburg docks, is based in part on Ogawa's Kusuriyubi no hyōhon (薬指の標本), translated into French as L'Annulaire (by Rose-Marie Makino-Fayolle who has translated numerous works by Ogawa, as well as works by Akira Yoshimura and by Ranpo Edogawa, into French). (The dockland setting and a significant subplot owe nothing to Ogawa's novella. Interestingly, in conversation with the audience after a showing of the film at the Edinburgh Film Festival, 2006, Diane Bertrand said that she was not sure that she understood the book.)

Kenzaburō Ōe has said, 'Yoko Ogawa is able to give expression to the most subtle workings of human psychology in prose that is gentle yet penetrating.' The subtlety in part lies in the fact that Ogawa's characters often seem not to know why they are doing what they are doing. She works by accumulation of detail, a technique that is perhaps more successful in her shorter works; the slow pace of development in the longer works requires something of a deus ex machina to end them. The reader is presented with an acute description of what the protagonists, mostly but not always female, observe and feel and their somewhat alienated self-observations, some of which is a reflection of Japanese society and especially women's roles within in it. The tone of her works varies, across the works and sometimes within the longer works, from the surreal, through the grotesque and the--sometimes grotesquely--humorous, to the psychologically ambiguous and even disturbing. (Hotel Iris, one of her longer works, is more explicit sexually than her other works and is also her most widely translated.)

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“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” — 16 people liked it

“Solving a problem for which you know there’s an answer is like climbing a mountain with a guide, along a trail someone else has laid. In mathematics, the truth is somewhere out there in a place no one knows, beyond all the beaten paths. And it’s not always at the top of the mountain. It might be in a crack on the smoothest cliff or somewhere deep in the valley.” — 13 people liked it

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