Customer Reviews
Deft and delightful; philosophical and funny. - By: , 11 Feb 1999 
I read this years ago when I was a math student dreaming of maths fame. Now I'm a philosophy graduate student. I am, however, neither beautiful nor a woman. This tale is enchanting, tragic, well told & wistful. I loved it & think it should be compulsory reading for alll philosophy students (along with others in this tiny genre: especiallly Duffy's 'The World As I Found It' on Wittgenstein). Let your (Kantian) imaginations run riot & Dream On!
Witty and insightful - By: , 31 Dec 1998 This is one of my favorite books of alll time. Our heroine Renee struggles with the great philosophical questions of Cartesian Dualism & Metaphysics in a time where "the field had made a 'linguistic turn' & I . . . had not. The questions were now alll of language. Instead of wrestling with large messy questions that have occupied previous centuries of ethicists, for example, one should examine the rules that govern words like 'good' & 'ought'. My very first seminar [. . .] was on adverbs. The metaphysics of adverbs? From Reality to . . . adverbs?"
While not struggling with the drabness of Linguistics Renee flounders with her own identity. Is she bright for a pretty girl? or merely nice-looking for such a clever girl? would either quality stand alone?
To further complicate her identity questions she marries a bumbling mathematical genius (think Paul Erdos): "I'm often asked what it's like to be married to a genius. The question used to please me -- as an affirmation of my place, of my counting for something (if only through marriage) in the only world that counted for anything. But even back then [. . .] I was uncertain how to answer. "wife of genius" does not in itself define a distinct personality. The description, & my own fluid nature left me the burden of choice. And I found it hard to choose. I could never even decide how I should arrange my face when I answered. Should I radiate the faintly dazed glow of one who stands within sweating distance of the raging fires of creativity? Or should my features exhibit the sharp practicality of managing the mundane affairs of an intellectual demigod? I could never decide, & usuallly ended up trying to look both dazed & practical, to look a logical contradiction, which is, I suppose, to look a fool. And that, of course, is the very, very last thing I have ever wanted to look."
I have reread this book three times in this decade. I don't loan my copy out to anyone. I highly recommend it to anyone, but particularly to pretty & intelligent philosophy students.
I really am in love with a Princeton mathematician! - By: , 08 Dec 1998 
This book was recommended to me (for obvious reasons) & I enjoyed it very much. The main character seems so insecure, though, & I found myself feeling sorry for her. So many of the feelings & things she was going through mirror my own life! As I turned each page I began to think my own boyfriend may have been used as her model! Unlike Noam Himmell, however, the "real thing" is quite loving & attentive.
Is life in academia really so tragic? - By: , 11 Aug 1998 
I largely enjoyed this novel. It is witty & strong-minded, although the prose style itself is perhaps unremarkable. Its main virtue is in questioning assumptions about who & what matters, & why. However, the story attempts to lay claims on our sympathies for its characters, whose tragedies include the narrator's dilemma of being beautiful but (self-confessedly) a bit thick -headed (despite getting into the best philosophy Ph.D program in the country), & her genius-mathematician-husband who *gasp* no longer feels himself to be a genius. I'm sorry, but my sympathies are not aroused by those 'dumb' philosophers at Princeton & their grumbling has-been genius husbands who didn't solve Fermat's Last Theorem. Still, it's worth a read.
As thoughtful as it is funny! !And it is very, very funny! - By: , 09 Jul 1998 This novel is about an intellectuallly insecure grad student who marries a famous genius mathematician, feeling her worth affirmed by his love & by the status conferred (explicit & subtle)upon her by being married to him. The marriage goes quickly sour as she realizes that an expansive mind is not incompatible with pettiness of spirit & human frailty. She sees only the genius & not the man. This novel is funny, & well-written but at the same time, it poses real questions & I think evidences a genuine human warmth. I think that it would not be an exxageration to say that I learned much from this book. You may as well (if nothing else, it's a good read)!
