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The Housekeeper and the Professor
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June 2023 - Fiction Group Read - The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa - (spoilers thread)
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Alannah
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May 19, 2023 01:47AM
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There are so many great things about this book for me. I love the understated style. I have always loved mathematics, and my father was a math genius. The interweaving of the wonder of numbers worked so well in story about relationships, memory, permanence, and transience. I loved baseball as a child and fondly and vividly remember listening with my Dad and sometimes my brother to staticky Vin Scully announce Dodger games on the radio. The book evoked the time I lived in Japan, a very happy time for me. As a father and grandfather, it gave me much to think about my role and influence.
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I had never heard of "amicable numbers" before even with all my semesters of math at university for the engineering degree. :)
Steve, had you heard of "amicable numbers" before?
I love the concept - it's such a pure science thing, about the elegance of numbers rather than practical applications. I like the various mathematical references and the equations and problems sprinkled throughout as well. That part is a lot of fun.
Greg wrote: "About 1/4 way done and starting chapter 3. It's enjoyable but very light so far with only some brief pieces of the backstory underneath. I love the relationship between the three of them, very touc..."I found this a very moving book. The lightness you refer to felt deliberate to me, like the simplicity of a Japanese rock garden.
My library copy came with some discussion questions at the end. One was "The characters in The Housekeeper and the Professor are nameless (Root is only a nickname). What does it mean when an author chooses not to name the people in her book? How does that change your relationship to them as a reader? Are names that important?"
I don't know what it means (in answer to the first question) but I didn't feel like it created any barrier between me, the reader, and the characters. Still, it is a bit odd so I will ponder about it some more.
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I think that's true Leslie, and I'm only 1/4 done too - lots more to come.
The question about names struck me too. It reminded me of Rebecca where du Maurier chooses not to give us the name of the second Mrs. de Winter. In that case it adds to the contrast between the two women, adds an air of mystery and suspense, and, at least for me, makes the reader slightly uncomfortable, which is the perfect atmosphere for that book. In the case of The Housekeeper and the Professor, I’m not sure what it means. I wonder if it adds to the “universality” of the book. I believe the original Japanese title of the book could be translated something like “The Beloved Equations.” Being without names the characters are slightly removed from the particular. The pure human relations, like mathematical relations, reveal the essence of the observed, experienced world.
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I love this Steve! Makes a lot of sense to me!
I was not aware of amicable numbers. Several quirky and interesting number facts in this book were new to me. All primes can be expressed as 4N +/- 1. Really?
Greg wrote: "Steve wrote: "I wonder if it adds to the “universality” of the book. I believe the original Japanese title of the book could be translated something like “The Beloved Equations.” Being without name..."I like this interpretation - sort of a literary equivalent to using x instead of a specific number :)
Steve wrote: "I was not aware of amicable numbers. Several quirky and interesting number facts in this book were new to me. All primes can be expressed as 4N +/- 1. Really?"I was also not aware of several of the mathematical terms. I had heard of perfect numbers before but amicable, abundant and deficient numbers were all new to me.
I wasn't surprised by that since my attitude towards math has been utilitarian; in school, I was impatient with all the proofs of why derivatives and integrals worked - I just wanted to know how to do it. One major reason that I was a scientist rather than a mathematician!
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I had forgotten you were in the sciences Leslie! What is your field of work again? Just curious.
Oddly, I knew that prime number quirk because I had to write a quick program to generate random numbers from seeds, and I wanted to feed in more primes than non-primes.
But I am weak in theoretical sciences as well - I find it fascinating now, but when I was in school, I was kind of artsy and in terms of engineering, only wanted to learn what I needed for the job I was going to get. Later I went back while I was working and re-took some courses out of interest, and I was surprised how much I'd missed.
I am a physical chemist by training (and inclination). I always felt that I learned more 'practical' math in my thermo and quantum mechanics classes than I did in my math courses but, looking back now, I suspect that I wouldn't have been able to learn that math in my chemistry classes if the foundation hadn't been laid already in the math class.Speaking of learning, I was a bit surprised by how readily the housekeeper became interested in math, given her situation. That is the most contrived aspect of the book. I don't mean that a high school dropout can't be interested in or good at math, but that this unusual person ends up working for the professor.
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I had forgotten you were a chemist Leslie!
And I completely agree that her interest is a little contrived, but it's like the appearance of a soulmate in a romance I guess. She is the perfect one to appreciate him, and she comes along at just the right time with her fatherless son. It's a coincidence, yes, but a very endearing one. And sometimes in life, surprising things do happen.
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The author acknowledges the unlikeliness of the relationship by making it clear that the previous nine housekeepers hadn’t lasted very long, and the housekeeper comments in more than one instance that she considers the professor to be an extraordinary teacher. The reasons why a particular teacher “clicks” with a particular learner is a mystery that most of us are familiar with. Some of my favorite, most influential mentors were not really “popular,” but they worked for me.
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Hope you end up enjoying it as much as I did Laura!
I finished it a few days ago and found it very charming. I think the maths was explained very well on the level of someone with basic knowledge but the interest to learn more, just like the housekeeper.To be honest I was more confused by the baseball references coming from a country where baseball isn't really played!
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Ha ha, that makes sense Jess. I can see how some of the baseball could have been confusing without knowing the game. Glad you enjoyed the book though. I thought it was charming too!
This was my first by Ogawa. I just looked up the descriptions of her other books, and it looks quite varied! I will definitely want to read more of her work at some point.
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That's true Steve, and I've had similar experiences with teachers. Sometimes it does just click.
Greg wrote: "Jess wrote: "I finished it a few days ago and found it very charming. I think the maths was explained very well on the level of someone with basic knowledge but the interest to learn more, just lik..."I read Hotel Iris years ago and it was very dark the opposite of this book!
I've read three novels by the same author. The Housekeeper and the Professor is by far my favorite. I also enjoyed The Memory Police. But Hotel Iris was just too dark for me. I found it hard to believe it was written by the same author who wrote the charming The Housekeeper and the Professor.
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Hope you end up enjoying it as much as I ..."
Quite a lot, yes. I find it really poetical
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Indeed! I remember my feelings wiith Underworld - and I was reading it in my first visit to New York!!!
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So glad Laura!
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Her son's tenderness toward the professor as they got older was especially touching! The professor became like a substitute father figure in the boy's life. Such an exquisite book!
This has definitely been one of our more universal club picks - it looks like everyone who has commented below that has finished and rated the book has given it either 4 or 5 stars.
I'm so glad that it was selected since I probably wouldn't have heard of it for several more years! I would like to read another book by this author though the prior discussion about how different Hotel Iris is gives me pause...
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