Review: The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa
She's hired to care for a man whose brain erases his short-term memory every eighty minutes.
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Contemporary Fiction | Literary Fiction
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yōko Ogawa
Description
She is an astute young Housekeeper who is hired to care for a brilliant mathematics Professor with a peculiar problem. Ever since a traumatic head injury, the Professor's brain has been like a tape that erases his short-term memory every eighty minutes. But his mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past, and every morning, the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew.
My Thoughts
Oh, my. What a touching story.
Thematic Numbers, Unusual Friendship
A different cultural flavor for me, as reading Eastern fiction is rare for this book lover. And as for the mathematics theme: because numbers have never been my language, I could only feel a sense of connection in regard to the broader ideas behind/surrounding the Professor's math in the story, rather than the actual workings of the problems.
But, oh. The reading had a way of tugging on my heart, sometimes breaking it a little. How curious, endearing, and poignant a story about family and an unusual friendship.
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