Decoded

by Mai Jia 麦家

One of China's bestselling novels, an unusual literary thriller that takes us deep into the world of code breaking

In his gripping debut novel, Mai Jia reveals the mysterious world of Unit 701, a top-secret Chinese intelligence agency whose sole purpose is counterespionage and code breaking.
Rong Jinzhen, an autistic math genius with a past shrouded in myth, is forced to abandon his academic pursuits when he is recruited into Unit 701. As China's greatest cryptographer, Rong discovers that the mastermind behind the maddeningly difficult Purple Code is his former teacher and best friend, who is now working for China's enemy―but this is only the first of many betrayals.
Brilliantly combining the mystery and tension of a spy thriller with the psychological nuance of an intimate character study and the magical qualities of a Chinese fable, Decoded discovers in cryptography the key to the human heart. Both a riveting mystery and a metaphysical examination of the mind of an inspired genius, it is the first novel to be published in English by one of China's greatest and most popular contemporary writers.

Genres: Fiction, China, Mystery, Historical Fiction, Asia, Novels, Espionage

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Mai Jia is arguably the most successful writer in China today. His books are constant bestsellers, with total sales over three million copies. He became the highest paid author in China last year with his new book, Wind Talk. He has achieved unprecedented success with film adaptation: all of his novels are made - or are being made - into major films or TV series, the screenplays of which are often written by Mai Jia himself. He is hailed as the forerunner of Chinese espionage fiction, and has created a unique genre that combines spycraft, code-breaking, crime, human drama, historical fiction, and metafiction. He has won almost every major award in China, including the highest literary honor - the Mao Dun Award.

Reviews

[BlackOxford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Educating Genius

Mai Jia is a Chinese Borges. Using documents presented as factual he constructs a fiction that is the truth of a culture. For Borges, it was European culture and its influence in South America that was a primary topic. In Mai's case the culture is that of China: driven, obsessive, clever, and secretive. The relationship between Europe and China is more complex than what Borges had to deal with, and Mai has come up with a brilliant metaphor in cryptography to investigate that complexity.

Some of the most interesting parts of Decoded are about what is presumed to need no explanation: the significance of family-relations, the necessity to sacrifice oneself for the national good, an acceptance of the fateful chance involved in life, the spiritualisation of chance as divinely sourced luck, and the reluctance to challenge authority as unjust, balanced by a profound sense of fairness. This is the sort of existential backdrop of things that just 'are' in China. These 'gaps' make the metaphor both more pointed and more compelling.

Ostensibly, Decoded is about the life and fate of an autistic mathematical savant, the bastard child of a family of intellectuals. He, like China itself, is passed from one controlling authority to another. Each transfer involves a renaming as well as new conditions of existence. He is even somewhat 'Christianised' into a distinctly Pauline view of the relation between life and after-life. Crucially, he is intellectually influenced most by a foreign mathematician who is married to a Chinese woman and enculturated deeply into the country. Through him, the savant is drawn into the life of the mind and into decades-long cultural as well as cryptographic warfare.

The Chinese ability to temporise about their history is presented as a rule of the game of cryptography. Knowing history is only confusing for a cryptographer, the author contends. It makes progress difficult by trapping one's thinking in the past, in the patterns that have already been established and discarded as obsolete. The invasion by Japan and its horrors are, therefore, footnotes to the main story; the Korean War mentioned en passant; the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution are asides; the emergence of entrepreneurial China doesn't merit even a comment.

The other "Iron-clad rule" in ciphers, according to Mai, is that one should never attempt to be on both sides of a code. A good encryptor risks not just his talent but also his sanity by engaging in decryption; and vice-versa. The message, perhaps to Chinese authority, is plain: the ability to confuse others is incompatible with an ability to understand what others are really up to. The attempt to do both provokes cultural madness. Pointedly, the key to the most profound cipher of the time is that there is no key: The cryptographic key was the number zero! It was nothing! Absolute nothing! ... a cipher with no key."

The protagonist's internal state, his personality, is never revealed. He is incomprehensible, inscrutable even, to everyone he has known and worked with, including government officials. He is admired for his achievements, but also feared for his unpredictable behaviour. He is intimate with no one, among other reasons because his intelligence is so oppressively off-putting. One of his notebooks shows him to be a hidden religious obsessive. The protagonist's doctoral thesis considers mankind as the irrational number Pi, an eternal constant but ultimately indeterminant. China anyone?

Mai summarises his cultural perceptions in the mouth of one code-breaker,

"With respect to those working in cryptography, our collective fate is naturally tied up with the various games of chess – especially those with commonplace lives. Finally they will all be seduced by the art of chess, just like pirates and drug pushers are seduced by their own wares. It is just like how some people become interested in good works in their old age."

With this, Mai signals, subtly but clearly, a recognition of the generational differences that exist in China, as well as the tension between the Party-insiders and the rest of the population.

"Genius and madness issue forth from the same track; both are brought about by bewitchment," says the same decoder. Perhaps this is Mai's central message to his compatriots. As one of the main symptoms of democratic politics, this warning about bewitchment seems particularly apt at the moment to European culture as well.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am an avid reader of translated Chinese fiction and a long-time resident of China. Mai Jia is well thought of here, and many of my friends are devotees of his work. After reading this novel and discussing it with my friends who have read it in Chinese, it became clear to me that many of the problems that I have with the work are due to the translation - not so much the effort of translating the words, but in translating the nuances of meaning. The Chinese language and English are vastly different in terms of how things are expressed, particularly emotions. In addition, what Chinese people like in a novel, both in terms of content and style is quite different. This makes it challenging for a translator who is trying to keep things true to the original author, but still provide something interesting and readable for the non-Chinese reader. Another exacerbating factor lies in the fact that there are very few people translating Chinese that are fiction writers, and none that I'm aware of that are "good" fiction writers. So, you get technical translations by writers of non-fiction trying to translate literary fiction. Just doesn't work very well in my experience.

That said, the novel falls apart in the last Part of the book. The "narrator" attempts to explain this is intended with a long navel-gazing excerpt that looks wedged in with a crowbar. I understand the author's intent, but he simply doesn't pull it off and there are so many digressions that it gets intensely boring. As to the notion that this last part is like a cipher itself--don't buy it. All of the literary devices the author "dared" to use fall flat. Frankly, I think some of the reviewers that raved about this novel before it was actually released didn't read it completely. I think they skimmed parts of it, particularly toward the end. I saved a number of the reviews in Evernote and went back and read them after I finished, and I am even more convinced that some of them didn't read the novel completely.

The author also attempts to excuse the lack of a coherent storyline as being something that is not a big deal for Chinese readers (his intended audience). I don't buy it. Plenty of Chinese readers like translated foreign novels that have good stories. As for Chinese works, Chinese readers can only read what is written. Many Chinese writers have a habit of not being very good storytellers--I don't know whether this is merely following tradition or the belief that readers don't care about coherent plot, or some inherent problem with being able to construct a good storyline. I suspect that the real problem has to do with censorship. Writers end up having to use symbolism or work their way in circles just to get around the censors.

I think the book would have been better as a novelette, frankly. Much of the backstory in the beginning was, though interesting, irrelevant. There was far too much repetition--to the extent that I think the book could have been dropped by 10% of its size just to weed out the redundancy. There were lots of failures in translation, not so much from a technical aspect, but a failure to adapt Chinese style writing into English - which relates to my point above about most translators of Chinese fiction not being good fiction writers. Also, the translator has a penchant for using English cliches that don't reflect the meaning in Chinese, and that are simply just bad writing. Also, there were repetitive phrases that tended to drive me to distraction, the most needling one was "To be be honest...." about a hundred times. That's just bad editing. Lastly, to suggest this is a spy "thriller" is ludicrous. The word "thriller" connotes something fast paced that keeps you on the edge of your seat. This is not that kind of novel. It's ponderously slow...like a plodding elephant slow. It gets worse about 3/4 of the way through, and the only reason I continued reading is because I had invested time into it and I have a technical interest in translated Chinese novels. I'm glad I read it, but it doesn't do Mai Jia justice when translated into English, and I was disappointed in the end with the results.

Other people have done a good job of describing characterization in the novel. I don't think this was done particularly well, but in my experience, that's a failure of Chinese literature in general that loses even more in translation. I can't imagine anyone reading this novel and having any feelings for the main character at all, other than, perhaps, a curiosity of descent into madness. And there really are no other characters that get described enough for you to care about them. Point being, unless you are curious about descent into madness (and there are tons of books that deal with this in a much better way than this one), then don't bother reading it you have a need to feel anything other than "meh" for any of the characters. With regard to the descent into madness aspect itself, I think that failed completely. Just came off as silly and irritating to me--though it evidently worked in Chinese, from what my friends tell me. I know what the author was trying to do, but it just made me scratch my head and yawn and roll my eyes and bemoan my frustration with how difficult it is to find a Chinese novel translated into English that really works.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Decoded” is a brilliant and ambitious novel that begins as a fable and ends as an espionage thriller. Mai Jai’s style is lyrical with a judicious amount of analogies to beautifully communicate the overwhelming world of mathematics and cryptography.

It’s a story of the life of Rong Jinzhen, a mathematical genius on par with Stephen Hawkings. Jai uses the first person narrative in telling the story. It’s from an un-named reporter’s point of view, in a manner that is engineered to be a true account to the reader. It reminds me of Ann Rice’s style in “Interview With a Vampire”.

Rong Jinzhen life is of a misfit. He is definitely on the autism spectrum with few likable characteristics. Yet, Jai makes Rong loveable in his completely honest way of living his life. Rong is used by family members, professors, the government for his mathematical genius. It’s difficult not to feel compassion towards him. Treachery is everywhere in Rong’s life. His genius brings him to psychosis and to his ultimate demise.

As much as it’s a spy novel, Jai exposes the inner workings of China’s communism. I found this particularly interesting after just returning from a two week trip to China and learning about their culture and government.

It’s a spy novel, but it’s more than that. It’s a lyrical study of mathematics, Intelligence Agencies, families, devotion, tyranny, and basic humanity. It will be on the “Best Books of 2014” lists.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

DECODED, although about the life of a cryptographer, is not about the nuts and bolts of cryptography. You don’t need to be interested in the application of it; rather, it is more about one man in particular, whose life brought him to this secretive, isolating practice. Rong Jinzhen is a brainiac in mathematics and also likely a man with Asperger’s syndrome. Jia’s novel is a portrait of this unusual individual—an introverted, focused, and solitary genius. The narrative is subtle, unsentimental, yet tender and captivating. The translation by Olivia Milburn and Christopher Payne is so smooth and nimble that it reads like English was the primary language of the novel.

The story begins in 1873 with the youngest member of the seventh generation of the wealthy, salt merchant Rong family. He is leaving the (fictional?) city of Tongzhen to study abroad, the first academic in the family. The last pages of the novel indicate it is now 2002 (when this novel was published in China). In between is a combination spy, historical, and family drama. Most importantly, it is a character study of Rong Jinzhen, born in the 1930s. The story is lyrical and literary, but also page turning and suspenseful, ripe for espionage fans and literature lovers alike.

Rong Jinzhen’s life had inauspicious beginnings. His mother, Youying, an academic genius who had studied at Cambridge, died giving birth to him, and his profligate father was stabbed to death. Jinzhen was raised by an elderly European dream interpreter, Mr. Auslander, who recognized and encouraged the young boy’s mathematical abilities. When Auslander died, Jinzhen was taken back into the fold of the wealthy Rong family. Jinzhen’s intellectual gifts and emotional well-being are given support and stability, and he is educated at his patriarch’s university.

There are 150 pages before Jinzhen is lured into the secret cryptography Unit 701. The author’s detailed brushstrokes of Jinzhen paint a fully dimensional and often agonized man, who joins a group of other like-minded souls. By the time he joins the Unit, the reader has an animated, distinct profile of Jinzhen. He and his colleagues find their purpose and sanction inside the hallowed, secret life of cryptography. What vitalized the story even more was the emotional power given to the intellectual field of numbers. These professionals find comfort and solace in cryptography. The reader isn’t subjected to dry and abstruse text. Rather, Jinzhen’s work and the man himself are impassioned twins, a binary coupling that is both his strength and his weakness. (If there were an American cinematic example, it would be John Turturro in any number of movies where he plays a tortured genius).

Along the way, there are twists and turns, surprises in narrative form that Jia dared to execute. Part five of the novel is a collection of fragments, and, just like the riddles of cryptography, I was confronted with trying to decipher a cipher. Only an able, assured writer like Jia could persuade a reader in this direction. Not only that, I was haunted by the figure of Jinzhen even more. I wanted to penetrate the impenetrable. This is a sleeper of a novel, one that unexpectedly engulfed me and continues to corral my heart long after the last page.

[Lars Jerlach · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find Decoded by Mai Jia a somewhat tricky novel, not because it is closely related to a more conventional spy novel that completely ignores the fundamentals of all other spy novels, in that it doesn't contain violence, money, sex, drugs etc, but because the author often seems to be trapped in the same isolated cryptic universe as his protagonist Rong Jinzhen.

For some reason, perhaps the rather convoluted mathematical language, I found it demanding to penetrate beyond a few layers of the facade, before I became exhausted by the cold scientific narrative. After a while I found it difficult to really care what happened to Jinzhen, his wife and indeed any of the other characters. However, it might be a significant part of the author's strategy that the reader somehow creates and maintains a certain remoteness to the characters, especially to Jinzhen, throughout the book.

Decoded is not as much a book about cryptology as it is about writing a book that happens to contain a lot of information about the history of mathematics and specifically cryptology. I have a feeling that the extreme struggle of Jinzhen to break the ultimate code, is a poorly hidden reference to the isolated laborious task of the author of writing this book and indeed to that of many other writers who often grapple with similar conditions of working in isolation. However, I somehow wish that the author sometimes had left his door agape instead of hermetically locked, to allow a little more room for the reader to explore. Too often I was simply to exhausted to try a new key to unlock a door just to find another door.....You'll get the reference if you read the book.....

I believe this novel is more about an attempt by the author to ‘decode’ himself than anything to do with breaking an enemy encryption. The bottomline, and possibly the underlying problem, is that I read this as a thinly veiled autobiography, written under the cover of a spy novel. However, I did not find the extremely introverted and isolated investigation as fascinating as I would have liked, and certainly not as much as I had expected. With that said, there are still some beautifully written sequences and some extraordinarily vivid moments in the book, especially near the very end.
Three stars is a fair judgment I believe. Probably closer to three and a half if I have to be totally honest.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before you begin this book – the author’s 2005 debut and his first book to be translated in the West – you will have to put aside every preconception you have about spy novels. Although it is about a mathematical genius who is involved in breaking codes, it takes an awfully long time to reach that part of the story. Indeed, the first part of the book is involved mainly with the family history of the main character and most novels do not usually go into such detail. Mai Jia is a pseudonym for Jiang Benhu, who spent seventeen years in the People’s Liberation Army as an intelligence officer and is, therefore, perfectly placed to relate the story of his character – Rong Jinzhen (nicknamed Zhendi) – from his inauspicious birth to his University career and through to his recruitment at a research facility by the elusive intelligence officer, Zheng the Gimp. Rong Zinzhen is shown with almost autistic traits and we hear often from other characters about their reactions to him and other members of his family (genealogy certainly figures largely in this book), but our information is often through letters and diaries and, therefore, we have a distance from the action. In a way, we are almost with the narrator, discovering information alongside him, as he follows Rong Jinzhen’s path.

Once Rong Jinzhen is recruited, he becomes a cryptographer, involved in breaking a legendary code called Purple. This success causes him to become a Revolutionary Hero, but his attention then turns to the even greater matter of the code called Black. Although this is labelled a spy thriller, it is not in the usual form that you would expect from Le Carre, for instance. However, if you approach this with an open mind, you will find it a strangely compelling read. There is a reason why Mai Jia is such an enormous success in China – a bestselling author who has won China’s highest literary honour, and has had immense success. Before long, you find yourself totally immersed in the world and characters that have been created. His next novel is “In the Dark” and I hope that it will also be translated and appear in English soon.

[Sharon]

I found it hard to keep going with this one. I am in the minority here, but felt totally removed from the characters. They felt flat and the writing didn't flow well in my opinion. Maybe something was lost in the translation process. I didn't care for the book or characters. I also found it rather repetitive and indulgent giving far too much opinionated explanation in some areas. One such event took several pages describing a chess game.

After reading 30% of Decoded, I reluctantly decided to not finish the book at this time and therefore, do not feel that able to give a review or rating. I may pick it up at a later stage and try again.

There is no disputing that Decoded may well be a sensational piece of fiction (albeit based on the author's experiences) but I'm not seeing it.

This said, I will however have some knowledge of the story line and be able to recommend it to customers visiting our bookstore.

I would like to thank the publishers & NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this title.

[Betty · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is badly marketed to the US market; it is not, as the book jacket says, "combining the mystery and tension of a spy thriller with the psychological nuance of an intimate character study". Not a mystery, not tense as a spy thriller. Yes, a psychological study. A best seller in China, it was a bit opaque for this Western reader.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Questo romanzo è abbastanza strano. All’inizio sembra un bel romanzo storico-familiare, ma presto si concentra su un unico personaggio: il signor Rong del titolo.
Il primo conto che Rong Jinzhen si trova costretto a fare, ancora bambino, è affascinante e commovente. Scopriamo così che Jinzhen è un genio alla ricerca del suo posto nel mondo.
Non si deve usare una bella spada per tagliare la legna.
Lo troverà nella dimensione della crittografia e del servizio al suo Paese.
A questo punto il romanzo prende i tratti di una “spy story”, ma molto atipica. Al posto di intrighi ed azione ci troviamo di fronte ad una grande solitudine.
L’aspetto geniale del protagonista viene raccontato da più parti, ma resta abbastanza impenetrabile.

Non sono sicura di aver apprezzato lo stile dell’autore, che cambia spesso tecnica narrativa.

Una lettura interessante, dalla quale però, dopo l’entusiasmo per le prime due parti, mi aspettavo di più.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting book looking more at the person's life than a book really on cryptography but shows more an intelligent man's descent into madness while he searches for the answers. maybe some of the book also lost in translation too.

[Thomas Hübner · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.mytwostotinki.com/?p=2305

Mathematicians and cryptographers seem to have a strange fascination for most people. Although their work is highly relevant (think of the Enigma codebreakers, or the computer pioneers) their abstract world is far removed from the ordinary life we all lead, and the geniuses in that field often combine extraordinary intellectual abilities in their specific field with an obsessiveness that borders insanity; borderline disorders, autism, paranoia and schizophrenia seem to be much more frequent among them as in the average population; and even when they are not mentally challenged they seem to act frequently odd and helpless in everyday-life situations. Mathematicians and cryptographers make therefore potentially excellent characters for many books and movies (think of A Beautiful Mind, The Imitation Game - a mediocre movie that distorts the real story of Bletchley Park and its protagonists almost beyond recognition -, or the brilliant π by Darren Aronofsky).

Also the hero of Mai Jia's novel Decoded is a mathematician and codebreaker. Rong Jinzhen, the main character is an orphan that grows up in a provincial town in China under the guidance of a Mr Auslander, a foreigner that worked for decades in China as an English teacher. The rather isolated life of Mr Auslander and his advanced age seem not to be the best atmosphere for a child to grow up that shows already very early a rather strange and secluded character, although on the other hand, the old gentleman does his very best for the boy and is visibly very attached to him. (I was particular touched when the author mentioned that on the day when Auslander decided to take the orphan into his home, he - already a rather frail old man - climbed a latter and attached a swing for the boy at one of the trees in his garden.)

After Mr Auslander's passing, the boy is taken in by some relatives. Due to his fantastic talents in mathematics, Rong Jinzhen is allowed to enroll in the local university which has a quite famous mathematics department founded by a member of the family of Rong Jinzhen. One of the teachers there, Professor Liseiwicz, a Polish-Jewish emigrant and famous cryptographer and mathematician, becomes Rong Jinzhen's mentor. Liseiwicz, who wants to work in the field of artificial intelligence, sees in Rong Jinzhen a genius and treats him very different from other students - thereby creating suspicions that he wants to use the prodigy for his own work.

Although mathematicians of the calibre of Rong Jinzhen or Liseiwicz seem to live in an ivory tower, their work in a world of wars and secret communication is of extremely high importance to politicians and intelligence experts, and to secure their talents is a question of national security. And so we see Liseiwicz and Rong Jinzhen drift in different directions - while Liseiwicz leaves China in order to work in X country (Israel? The U.S.?) and perform work whose nature most people can only guess, Rong Jinzhen is taken away from his university to become part of a secret research unit which aims at decrypting ciphers of enemy nations; Rong Jinzhen soon becomes the most important person in this unit. He breaks the high-level cipher PURPLE in a very short time and with the most unorthodox approach. But when another high-level cipher BLACK pops up, a real nightmare starts for Rong Jinzhen.

I don't want to give away more of this story which is a real page turner. Mai Jia has been hailed as the Chinese answer to John Le Carré, and after reading this book I know why. Every comparison is a bit doubtful, but he for sure knows how to entice the readers with a fascinating story that encompasses more than half a century - turbulent times for China which had to face a civil war, a war with Japan, the communist revolution and the so-called Cultural Revolution that all left a deep mark on the characters of the book.

Books that are written by authors from such a complete different culture as the Chinese are for me are not always easy to understand. Therefore I was a bit sceptical in the beginning if I would grasp all aspects of the story. But Mai Jia is telling us a universal story, the story of an extraordinarily gifted man, a man who is burdened by the fact that he is a genius in his field.

The portrait of Rong Jinzhen is that of a man with many facets. Although introvert and deeply obsessed by resolving the tasks and challenges he is facing in the strange world of cryptography, he shows great attachment to Mr Auslander (whom he calls Daddy) and later to his adopted family, particularly to his adopted mother and sister (whom he later saves from the pogroms of the Cultural Revolution); he reads the Bible and becomes a Christian, he reads also novels and books on many other topics, he interprets dreams of his colleagues and shows a genuine interest in games, particularly chess. With Liseiwicz he is developing a chess variation that is so complicated that it is only played by a small group of mathematicians. Surprisingly for everyone Rong Jinzhen even marries, although this marriage proves to be very unconventional.

It is also a story of the rise and fall of an extraordinary person, and thanks to the fact that the author presents us Rong Jinzhen not as an "idiot-savant" with an insular talent, but as a person with its incredible strengths and also weaknesses, his hopes and dreams, and also his also almost unbearable loneliness (during his adult life he seems only to be connected with Liseiwicz and the only person he ever admired, the enigmatic German cryptographer Klaus Johannes, whose book is as it turns out a sophisticated cipher in itself and with whom he has a kind of dialogue in his dreams).

The description of the isolated life of Rong Jinzhen in the headquarter of the cryptographic complex which seems completely isolated from the rest of the world and in which he spends the biggest part of his conscious life without hardly ever leaving this complex, has something suffocating, deeply depressing. Mai Jia created with this novel a unforgettable hero and a fascinating story with many unexpected twists.

A few minor remarks about certain aspects of the books that prevent me from calling this book a masterpiece:

Liseiwicz supposedly met in his younger years an Austrian aristocrat with an interest in mathematics that wanted to build up and fund a research institute in Austria. While it is possible and therefore credible that such a person existed, it is extremely improbable that a member of the Hapsburg family (that was banned from entering Austria during that period and that would run into the risk of being arrested and have his property confiscated) would ever even have dreamt of doing this. This is simply impossible because of the particular legal position of the Hapsburg family in Austria after WWI.

ENIAC was one of the first computers to be built (in 1946), but of course not the first as the author claims. (Konrad Zuse completed the Z1 in 1938, and the Z3, the first Turing complete computer, in 1941.)

Chess and to a certain extent also Go plays a certain role in the book. Liseiwicz and Rong Jinzhen play a lot of chess (in which Liseiwicz has practically Grandmaster strength) and chess variations. But the explanation of the chess variation the two invented left me in the dark about the nature of this game. The same goes in general for the cryptographic part of the book. The descriptions are always very general, touching always more the surface of things - a little bit more information about how concretely the ciphers on which Rong Jinzhen worked would have been extremely interesting. As it is, the descriptions of the ciphers are as elusive as the main character of the book.

When the narrator meets late in the book Rong Jinzhen's replacement at the research facility, this man from which the narrator gets important information on the later years of Rong Jinzhen and the cracking of the cipher BLACK, this man is described as a Go player that has become so strong that it was allegedly difficult for him to find opponents - he was considered to be too strong by almost anyone. That is of course a rather ridiculous claim. Go has contrary to chess a handicap system that levels the chances of players according to their kyu/dan grade. When you play a very strong player it means that the chances are nevertheless more or less equal because the stronger player has to play with a very high handicap.

These are small misgivings I have about the book, but it is definitely an entertaining read, a well-crafted story and it makes me curious to read more of this author and probably also more fiction by Chinese authors. The translation reads very smooth, but of course I cannot compare with the Mandarin original edition.

[Martin Rondina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es el libro más curioso y particular que he leído, y eso me encantó!

En la historia conoceremos la vida de Rong Jinzhen, un criptógrafo brillante, con una inteligencia que supera cualquier límite, pero a la vez es muy reservado y solitario. Sus grandes capacidades, su "don" será un arma de doble filo, ya que luego se verá sumergido en un gran desafío en contra de su voluntad, descifrar un código que puede resultar muy peligroso.

Es una historia que abarca tantos aspectos diferentes, dentro de un contexto sociocultural de la segunda guerra mundial que me dejó sumergido en una fascinación que no podia soltar las páginas. La narrativa del autor me pareció muy prolija y cuidada, sobre todo porque en el libro hay una gran presencia de la matemática, pero Mai Jia hace que todo sea simple, claro y entendible, así que no es tema para preocuparse, de hecho nos hace sentir como unos grandes criptógrafos!

Lo amé, de mis mejores lecturas del 2019!

[Maziar MHK · Rating 3 out of 5]

از منظری، هر قدر که دامنه یِ هوشِ یک فردی در زمینه ای محدود باشد، هوشِ او در زمینه ای دیگر، آسان تر به مرزهایِ نامحدود نزدیک میشود
نوابغ، یکی از ابعادِ وجودیشان را آن قدر بَسط می دهند و به عبارتی می کِشَند تا باریک و باریک تَر شود، مانند یک تارِ ابریشم، شفاف و زُلال، آن قدر که دیگر در دست نیاید
صفحه 232

اولا
داستانِ زندگی یِ زنازاده ای چینی بنامِ "جین جِن"، مُنتسب به پدری شرور از خانواده یِ مُحتشم، دارا و خوشنامِ "رونگ" از یک سو و فاحشه ای بی نام و نشان از دیگر سو
همو که زیرِ دستِ مردی غریب و تنها-که مُعبِرِ خواب است- در باغی رازآلود و بِدور از تبارِ خوشنامَش، ده سالِ اولِ زندگی را سپری میکند و آنگاه به سفارشِ واپسین دمِ همان پیرمرد، که "جین جِن"، پدر صدایش میکند، به منزل پسرعمویِ پدرش نقل مکان میکند و جزئی از آن ها میشود و بعدها میفهمند که این پسرک، با آن کله یِ بزرگش، چه دُری است. همو که بعدها خدایگانِ کشفِ رمز در واحدِ سریِ 701 ارتشِ چین میشود

دوما
قسمت اول داستان بقدری سوپرگیرا بود که چونان تجربه ای غریب اما شیرین، باعث انبساطِ ذهنی اَم شد، بِگونه ای که عبارتِ ادعائی یِ اکونومیست -"بالاخره یک رمانِ بزرگِ چینی هم سَر بَر آورد"- را با یادآوری مجدد از عمقِ جان پذیرفتم، اما قسمت دوم کتاب، چنان توش و توانی را بروز نداد تا این را هم بپذیرم که، نویسنده، "مای جیا"، نسخه یِ چینیِ "دَن براون" است و این اثرِ داستانی-جاسوسی یِ نیمه مستند هم، "رازِ داوینچی". فلذا با دو تکه یِ ناهمگون از کتاب بلحاظِ گیرایی و کششِ داستانی مواجه بودم

سوما
به گمانم، زبان چینی برایِ خودش، اژدهایِ زردی ست بگاهِ ترجمه. در باب ترجمه اما عارضم که، ترجمه یِ جناب وفایی از زبانِ اصلی، اگر هم شایسته ی ستایش نباشد، حداقل باید گفت، خیلی خوب از کار درآمده بود، بی اندک دخل و تصرفِ بیجایی در برگردانِ ضرب المثل ها یا پیچیده نویسی های مخرب

[Linda Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much going on in this book, I'm sure it would take more than one reading to uncover all the gems. We learn of the duality and pain in being a genius, especially in a realm that will make use of its citizens for the nation's advantage. The tiny nuggets of Chinese superstition and wisdom are fascinating. Mai Jia makes chess seem interesting on both a strategic and philosophical plane. Once I stopped trying to sort out which was A and B City, which country was X, it was much more enjoyable a read. Now that I write that, perhaps the designations are part of a mathematical formula as well. Decoded is a 4 dimensional book: while we engage with Zhendi and the Rong family, we also experience another culture, a spiritually focused glance at mathematics, and a peek at the conflicted heart of cryptography.

[Vanessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wasn't keen on the two versions of the story running through the book - it was hard to keep track and I had a feeling all the way through that I was waiting for the story to begin. You never got to know the main character in depth - which meant that it was difficult to relate to the whole work. Otherwise an interesting view of the China's secret services of the time - but certainly not "a spy thriller with psychological nuances" nor a riveting read.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book may well get into your head, it got into mine. At core, it is a book about madness. More specifically, a book about exceptional intelligence, perhaps genius and what might sometimes be the steep, magnetic cliff that hovers too close to genius. For the main character, Jinzhen, life was duality. On the one hand, there was reality, specifically the realness of things, living in the physical world. On the other hand, inextricably linked were dreams, the dreams were a parallel virtual world, chaos. Ultimately chaos wins.

It is also a uniquely Chinese book richly woven with so much that is Chinese like shamanism, Confucianism undertones, the importance of stories and storytelling itself. To this end it is peppered with pithy folk sayings involving such things as toads and swans, oceans and ladles and more. An example helps:

"The fact is, Young Lillie was confronted with exactly the same problems that old Mr. Auslander had faced when he was asked to pick a name for the baby: this was not a difficulty that had resolved itself with time. Having thought about it carefully, Young Lillie decided to put all other considerations on one side and give the boy a name suitable for someone who had been born in Tongzhen and grown up in Tongzhen, and that way he came up with two names, both of which seemed to him a little forced: Jinzhen, meaning ‘Golden Sincerity’, and Tongzhen, meaning ‘Childlike Sincerity’. He decided to let the boy decide for himself which one of the two he would prefer."

A few lines later:

"To tell the truth, the reason that Young Lillie wanted to change the character in his name was purely out of superstition. In Tongzhen, just like in the rest of the Jiangnan region, there was a popular saying: ‘Even the devil is scared of a feminine man.’ That means that when a man has some feminine quality, he has both yin and yang in his nature and the two complement each other. Strength is complemented by pliability. They thought that this was the way to produce the very best kind of man – a truly outstanding individual. It was because of this that local customs developed a million ways to balance yin and yang, including the names that they gave to their sons. A father who hoped for great things from his son would often deliberately pick a girl’s name for him, in the hope that this would guarantee him a sterling future...."

You can see the folk belief, the need to keep yin and yang in balance and more duality – yin and yang, strength and pliability, masculine and feminine.

The book was translated from the Chinese. It is amazing writing and remarkable translation. At its best the storytelling is vaguely reminiscent of Scott Momaday. Much in the book is a wonderful illustration of why tradition, culture, myth and even food are so important in the Chinese literary tradition. Yes, this is a book that is ‘literary’ and complex. The food, especially the farewell meal as Jinzhen leaves his home to go to Unit 701 reflects the unique importance of food and ritual in Chinese culture. I am not sure if this book qualifies as great literature, but certainly it deserves consideration as such. This book is as much experienced as it is read.

Finally, and again, it is a book about the dark side. But, so many of us while perhaps not living on the dark side … well, we know the dark side is there. And, I suspect many of us have touched the dark side, maybe even stuck one foot in it. Certainly many of us have had thoughts that stray too close to and perhaps into the dark side.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book very much. A NYT review last Tuesday brought it to my attention as THE great Chinese epic (I think Dwight Garner wrote the review but cannot find it on-line to quote it).

It is the story of a mathematical genius, Rong Jinzhen ("Zendi") who becomes a cryptologist for Chinese Section 701 who becomes legendary for breaking "PURPLE,' a complex code developed by X Nation, and who very nearly breaks "BLACK," another code either highly complex or downright simple. The story is really his biography from his family's background, through his birth, orphaning, and education, into his profession and his life there. It may not sound like much but, as any fine novel is, it is what it is about, i.e., both the narrator/biographer and the reader are called upon to discover the significance of the cipher Jinzhen, something either very complex or very simple.

Much is made of an alternative career path in artificial intelligence, turning something inanimate into something very nearly human; the opposite occurs, as Jinzhen becomes very much an analytical machine with little effective emotion and a total dedication to working out cryptological conclusions. If he didn't bleed, there would be little evidence of his humanity, I think (on my first reading; the book may repay more attempts).

There are other plot elements, a dueling cryptologist in X Nation, a lost notebook, and a mental collapse (actually, two as another crypto analyst preceded Jinzhen in collapsing.

I have read a number of Chinese novels, all of very high quality, but this one has some truly fascinating qualities which bring the reader into a highly specialized and focused world which inevitably mimics our own.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read English translations of books the world over, so I know when talking about/reviewing a translation, we're partially reviewing the translator's work. Especially when there are huge differences in language, such as Chinese/English. I very much liked the first 2/3rds of this book, as the story of the lead character's childhood, education, etc., was fascinating. But the last 100 pages or so confused me. Just when I thought the author was about to explain why it was so important that a specific code/cipher be translated (a war is stopped, a battle is won, lives are saved, as examples) the story goes somewhere else. Writing or reading a book about a book, or a book about a film, or a book about a cipher is tricky when said book or film or cipher is fiction or perhaps not available itself. But still, I wanted to know more about how the ciphers PURPLE and BLACK were decoded. And toward the end of this book, the author/translator writes: "I have to accept that the ending is the most unreal part of the entire story. I sometimes feel regret for having fabricated it so." Is this an apology from the author/translator to the reader for not explaining everything? Or an apology for not writing a very good book? I almost want to start over with this book and try to figure everything out, but I don't think what I'm looking for is here. And that would be a resolution to the story. I'm looking forward to other's thoughts/reviews.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first half of this novel, but then the story sort of fell apart. The subject and characters were interesting; the structure tedious. Once the fate of the main character is revealed, there didn't seem to be any point to the rest of the book. At best, it was not a page-turner. I'm a bit puzzled why anyone would call it a "thriller," as there's very little action or tension. That said, it does convey a strong sense of the place and period, especially the paranoia and secrecy of Chinese society and military during and after the Cultural revolution.

[Kamakana · Rating 3 out of 5]

031019: i have had variable success with chinese literature though i have read a bit (57) that involve china in some way. i have tried but not engaged with 'classic' chinese work such as plum in golden vase, water margin etc, i have tried some more current alegorical/political (Fat Years), some sf (Three Body Problem), read daoism but neither confucius or mencius, know few myths, legends. i know little of the cultural revolution, of chinese history, have slight prejudice to western individualism etc... all this by way of saying these are possible barriers to my full appreciation of this work...

i have read book on 'chinese narrative strategies' https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... but that is some time past, and at any rate it is how the book works innocent of other reading that counts here. for me, the first two-thirds are a strange mix of family epic of intellectual sort, and very abstract political thriller that is not so thrilling but confusing. my math is not good. i hope my appreciation of the abstract is good. perhaps i need rather more recognizable human ciphers to carry the story but no, not usually, if i find ideas enough, but to this point the ideas are not...

the last third of the book is what makes this three, such i wonder why the author did not write the entire narrative this way, that is, inviting the reader to 'decode' the story through the various passages quoted from significant characters, rather than sort of repeating. as always it is for me often more ‘how’ the story is told, than ‘what’ the story is. i do not know if the reader is meant to 'break' the cipher of this book, if this is the meaning of the title, but it works for me... by the end, i feel i understand why the author recounts the long family history of the protagonist etc: to reveal this is exactly what is destroyed by the 'anti-science', the 'encryption' and 'decryption' forced in codes, and this is authentic humanity, the sort so tragically destroyed...

[Pedro · Rating 3 out of 5]

El protagonista se revela como un joven con un don especial para desarrollar métodos de encriptación, de manera de impedir que el eventual enemigo, que no cuenta con la clave, no pueda acceder a información confidencial.

El libro incluye una serie de antecedentes sobre los ancestros del protagonista, en los que se destacan una familia prestigiosa caída en desgracia y un nacimiento ilegítimo, que parecieran tener algunos visos de realidad asociados a la historia de China, aunque no logré ver la importancia de esta parte en el nudo de la historia: tal vez he tenido algún problema de desencriptación (ver más adelante).

La novela se centra en dos cuestiones: la primera de ellas es la esterilidad de la criptografía, cuyos resultados son siempre efímeros, ya que en algún momento el adversario, que también cuenta con talentosos expertos en métodos de encriptación, descubrirá la clave, que siempre está escondida dentro del propio mensaje encriptado, obligando a crear un nuevo método; y lo mismo ocurrirá con el método de encriptación del adversario, constituyendo una lucha de suma cero.

La otra, es el de la fragilidad del genio. Según Schopenauer el hombre de talento es quien es capaz de acertar con su flecha en el que nadie puede acertar; y el genio es quien es capaz de acertar en un blanco que nadie puede ver. Por lo cual la genialidad de una persona se puede presumir por métodos indirectos, y muchas veces no es valorado por los hombres de su tiempo.

Y por último, también insinúa que, de alguna manera, la literatura (y esta novela) son en mensaje en código a desencriptar. Un libro con consignas muy interesantes, pese a que la calidad de la narración no acompañó.

Esta reseña se ha escrito diez años después de la lectura, a partir de las anotaciones que había hecho en su momento.

[Adelais · Rating 4 out of 5]

Страшенно китайсько-комуністична історія про геніального математика, сина великої рахівниці, вихованого дивним іноземцем на грушевій воді і книжках. Звісно, коли хлопця таки забирають вчитись, а він демонструє надзвичайні здібності, цим цікавиться держава, бо любити найперше і беззастережніше треба уряд і батьківщину, а інших за рознарядкою. І хоча головний герой передусім любить математику (а уряд з батьківщиною просто вдало зайшли), прийомну сім'ю він також любить як може, і навіть намагається їм допомогти під час культурної революції. Та зрештою головна його задача в житті, яка так щасливо збіглася з побажаннями компартії - це розшифрувати код ворога. А потім другий, хоча за всіма правилами навіть найгеніальнішому дешифрувальнику вдається розгадати тільки один. Але там теж виринають особисті мотиви, і врешті герою залишається лише віддати самого себе.
Це така художня література під виглядом нехудожньої, коли автор ніби збирає свідчення про героя (наскільки це не порушує державної таємниці, бо знаєте, всяке трапляється), розмовляє з колегами і родичами і взагалі займається журналістським розслідуванням. Прихилитись до цього всього повністю не вдається, але мене більше інтригує оцей стишено полум'яний тон книжки. Так і не зрозуміла, чи це автор щиро пише, пов'язавши собі піонерський галстук на шию, чи настільки стилізовано іронізує з великою дулею в кишені.

[Rosava Doshchyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Сучасний китайський роман про геніального математика, який у часи культурної революції працював у спецслужбах дешифрувальником. Цікавий тут не сюжет, а сама форма. Це вже 90-і, коли оповідач дізнається про невідомого героя Жона Дзіньдженя і починає збирати матеріал, щоб написати про нього книжку. Роман і є результатом його праці. У ньому історія родини Жонів, якій присвячено перший розділ, міцно переплітається з подальшою долею головного героя. Текст — це така собі стилізіція під художню документалку із розшифровками розмов, тобто про Дзіньдженя ми знаємо лише з вуст інших людей і розвідок оповідача-автора. У "додатку" нам лишають кілька записів із нотатника головного героя, і це вперше ми можемо хоч трохи зрозуміти його почуття.
Читається на одному подиху, віддам належне. Додатковим плюсиком є тематика криптоаналізу (у тексті згадуються Пурпуровий та Чорний шифри). Утім в деяких моментах патріотизм зашкалює, я попередила.

Повний відгук тут.

[Mikko Saari · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curious book. Quite unlike the western standards, which feels fresh. The description had me expecting more of a traditional spy thriller, but instead I was served some kind of psychological study to a mind of a codebreaker.

That is all fine and interesting, but the author did take his time approaching the subject. Was all that prefacing and background necessary? I suppose the author thinks it was, as he went through all that, but I was left with a feeling it would be possible to condense this book a bit.

But the best part, the psychology of codebreaking, that sure was interesting.

[Anni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This ancestral saga, in the classic folk-inspired Chinese literary tradition, is both an intriguing glimpse into an alien culture and a psychological study of a mathematical genius's obsession with cryptography, leading to madness.

As well as a gripping tale of espionage, the surreal elements and use of symbolism can be seen as an allegory for censorship in Communist China, with a secretive all-powerful State monitoring its citizens.
A difficult but rewarding read.

Reviewed for Whichbook.net

[Kesa · Rating 2 out of 5]

At the beginning I thought I'd really like it. But the rest disappointed me.

[Al Bità · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this in the remaindered section of the local bookshop, and from the blurb at the back I thought I would give it a try. The fact that this translation was published in 2014 and that it was already on the remaindered pile did not inspire confidence, but the high praise and subject matter written up in the blurb made me think that it might be worth reading, if only to find out what all the fuss was about.

I’m sorry to say that, for me, this work simply did not gel on any level… neither as a “spy thriller”, nor as a “psychological study” of a genius, nor did it embody the “magical qualities of a Chinese fable”. Worse, the back page also tells us that Mai Jia (the pen-name/pseudonym of Jiang Benhu) is “hailed as the forerunner of Chinese espionage fiction, and has created a unique genre that combines spycraft, code-breaking, crime, human drama, historical fiction, and metafiction” — thus the bar is raised very high indeed… But for Western readers, the high promise of these claims can only result in a feeling of being let down. Is this the fault of the blurb writer? I suspect so — but then I suppose nowadays one should not take PR too seriously, since everyone is trying to maximise their market. But again, if one’s expectations are raised, then if the actual experience of reading the book does not meet those expectations, one can hardly be surprised if one’s potential enthusiasm for an author wanes…

Or is it just me? I delayed in writing up a negative report, and spent some time analysing the work to see if anything stood out. The dominant observation was structure of the novel. It is here, of course, that the “author” has a say (as it were) but who this author is (Mai Jia? or Jiang Benhu?) is hard to say — this is a classic case of the “author” deliberately removing himself as much as possible from the scene… (and that should have served as a warning to me…).

The work itself has about six “voices”.

The major one is that of the “narrator”, who is infatuated with the story of his “hero”, mathematical genius and code-breaker Rong Jinzhen, and has become obsessed with getting to the truth about who he was and what he did. The narrator seems to have a certain erudition (he refers, for example, to Jinzhen’s head as being “dolichocephalic”), and has a kind of journalistic approach, particularly to historical matters (whether real of fictional, I am not sure), but often the tenor of the “voice” seemed to me as if it were meant for very young people… An early excerpt will provide an example:
After the baby was born, even though the Lin family chose all sorts of names for him — nicknames, style names, formal names and what have you — they quickly discovered that it was all a wasted effort — his huge head and the horrible story of how he had come into this world ensured that everyone called him ‘Killer Head’.
‘Killer Head!’
‘Killer Head!’
It was a name that no one ever got tired of.
‘Killer Head!’
‘Killer Head!’
His friends called him that.
Everyone called him that.

Two other major voices are represented as injections into the narrative of extended transcripts of interviews: one by the (female) Master Rong, and another from Director Zheng. A third single entry is a transcript of an interview with Yan Shi. These are more academic representations from the espionage unit of cryptologists on the life and activities of Rong Jinzhen.

Also inserted are various letters from interested personae, perhaps the most significant those from the mysterious Jan Liseiwicz. And finally, there is the end section of the book which prints out extracts from Rong Jonzhen’s notebook. This is the final voice of the work…

Each of these voices reveal certain concerns: the espionage unit transcripts certainly are more specifically concerned with espionage matters in a post WWII China, and the problems with having a genius like the weird Jonzhen to deal with. Confucian concepts such as family, duty and responsibility can be found in the earlier stories of the “narrator”; while Daoist and other Eastern philosophical matters are mixed, surprisingly, with more modern Western influences such as references to the Bible, along with other philosophical and psychological concerns, in Jonzhen’s notebook excerpts, and they are introduced by the “narrator” as basically useless and meaningless as far as he is concerned. All these references and cross-references appear to reflect a certain amount of knowledge and erudition on the part of the “author”, but that’s about it. How they are or might be connected is left to the reader, presumably.

The trouble is that, by this time, any real interest in any of the characters (especially in Jonshen) has been dissipated. The book makes the cardinal sin of rendering the characters empty cyphers. The book is titled “decoded”; but nothing is decoded. Worse, the reader no longer cares! What is left, really, is the structure, and a certain amount of cleverness in the mixing up of genres. So in the end, what we have is not a fiction but a metafiction — i.e. a fiction about fiction. Now there are those who think such writing (writing for the sake of writing) as being in some way the bee’s knees of literature. I don’t. This was a big disappointment for me.

[CHORNOBROVA KAROOKA · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10

Насправді це не трилер. І навіть не детектив. Тут було досить мало напружених моментів, а відповіді на головні загадки лежали на поверхні. В цій книзі також немає стрімкого розвитку подій, несподіваних сюжетних поворотів та екшну.

Це роман, який поступово, дуже повільно, показує життя предків головного героя, а потім його власне дитинство, дорослішання та завершення його історії.

Головний герой - математичний геній, який, незважаючи на свій видатний інтелект, зіштовхується з самотністю та внутрішніми конфліктами. Автор розкриває теми ціни геніальності та пошуку сенсу в світі, де розум може бути як даром, так і тягарем.

Одночасно з особистою історією головного героя, Май Дзя висвітлює головні історичні події Китаю та світу.

Окремо хочу відзначити те, що книга зосереджена на темах криптографії, шифрування та розв'язуванні математичних задач. Я уявлення не маю, як автору вдалось так детально і просто написати про речі, які насправді є складними, але це було дуже цікаво.

Мені сподобався формат написання.
З одного боку, це біографія з великою кількістю свідчень очевидців, уривків з листів та документів, які створюють відчуття, наче це все було насправді, і де оповідач виходить з тіні тільки в другій частині книги, пояснюючи свій зв'язок з головним героєм.
А з іншого боку, стільки даних було змінено, що вже ніхто не може бути впевнений, що ця історія коли-небудь насправді мала місце бути.

Мабуть, початок книги встановив для мене занадто високу планку, тому що кінець трохи розчарував. Тим не менш, я була дуже приємно вражена і зрозуміла, що хочу читати більше інтелектуальної прози.

[Pedro L. Fragoso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is very much about the history of cryptography; "Alan Turing - The Enigma" is the unbelievable true biography of a cryptographer for the ages; this book is a reflection on the fundamental frailty of life and the random vagaries of existence, under a very Chinese (I can only presume!) approach to reasoning, and using a fictional cryptographer's life as pretext. It is an ambitious literary opus and a fascinating reading, even if ultimately I felt it somewhat lacking.

By the way, God makes an appearance and it's not nice. Christopher Hitchens would agree.

"With Rong Jinzhen we could have won pretty much any war we cared to fight! The nuclear programme was a way to show off our strength; like putting a flower in your hair to attract other people’s attention. What Rong Jinzhen was doing was to watch other people – he could hear the sound of other people’s heartbeat in the wind, he could see other people’s most treasured secrets. If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you will win every battle that you fight. That is why I tell you that from a military perspective, Rong Jinzhen’s work was of much more practical importance to us than any nuclear weapon. Rong Jinzhen was a cryptographer."

"He seemed to see it as a sign of the unfairness of fate."

[Vanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nesmírně zábavná a čtivá kniha, nedivím se, že je autor v Číně tak oblíbený. Není to detektivka. Není to spousta věcí a je těžké se rozhodnout, CO to vlastně je. Zprvu je to román o matematice, později o šifrování. Ze začátku je to příběh o jedné čínské rodině, kterak se prožívá první polovinou dvacátého století, později se děj soustředí na jednoho jejího člena - Ťin-čena Žunga, geniálního muže, který za své nadání platí jakousi formou autismu. Já jsem bohužel matematický antitalent, ale matematiku obdivuji a zdá se mi krásná, třebaže mi uniká. Možná právě proto mě natolik oslovoval způsob, jímž autor pojednává o prožívání matematiky matematiky :) Popisuje tuto vědu jako umění, jako něco skvostného, transcendentního a vábivého. Vyhovoval mi i zdánlivě chaotický styl vyprávění, kdy se nám příběh postupně odhaluje prostřednictvím úryvků a rozhovorů s účastníky dění, jak se autor obrací na čtenáře, mění někdy názor uprostřed kapitoly, jak se věci odkrývají podobně jako šifra, ale zároveň jsme limitováni množstvím a typem informací, jež je nám autor ochoten poskytnout a ostatní si můžeme domýšlet. Je mi líto jedině toho, že se jedná o překlad anglického překladu, na který si někteří čtenáři stěžují. Český překlad se mi četl báječně, ale pokud je pochybnost o předloze, kterou nakladatel použil, je to škoda.