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Title: The Wild Numbers: A Novel
ISBN: 1568581661
Author:
Philibert Schogt
Publicate Date: 2000-04-12
Publish: 2000-04-12
List Price: $18.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $0.01
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $18.00
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| Customer Review: |
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1: A Challenging Life
Isaac Swift is a mathematician who has had a long love affair with numbers. Throughout his life numbers have been what drives him, stimulates him and yet he is still just a middle of the road mathematician. Having never solved anything worth publishing in Numbers has been a thorn in his side. Giving up his love life and regular life to try and solve the Wild Number Theorem becomes an obsession.
I found this story to be heart wrenching, funny, and entertaining all at the same time. The characters are flawed, but in a very natural way. They are real living breathing people. You don't have to like numbers or math to find this story enjoyable!
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2: Not that interesting
I am sorry to say, I didn't like this book. The story is about a mediocre mathematician, struggling in his career, who thought he got a proof to the Wild Number Theorem. However it was flawed. But there is this eccentric old-age student of his who declares that the mathematician stole his proof. The story is not that attractive. Compared to this Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture is far more attractive - in narrative, in thrill, and in mathematics.
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3: Math is just a prop
I don't share the point of view of some reviewers that the book portrays the life of a mathematician or his/her mind in a way that I could feel comfortable to call it typical or illustrative.
To me the book uses the subject of Math more as a setting for the drama of a character who is frustrated by his mediocre life, both professional and personal than as the driving force for the story. The author passes to the reader a protagonist that is tired of being lonely, rejected, unproductive and helpless in a life that has passed him by, leaving him numb, taking shelter in observing and criticizing others around him to the point where he is forced to look on the guy in the mirror.When he gets a golden opportunity to make up for all his inertia, he obsesses and loses control, but despite of finding solace in his downfall, the plot gets somewhat diluted or even circular(as Larry would have said :).I expected more of the mathematical glitter to be explored and developed creatively without necessarily sacrificing the character's inner struggle. Some very good ideas like Vale's character, Larry's professional greed and even the several possible and potentially thrilling outcomes from the police inspector's investigation are used inefficiently or not at all and simply vanish towards the end, leaving the reader wanting.
It is a nice snapshot of a human anguish and, to a point, self-discovery, all having a mathematical backdrop,and it flows OK (the thinness of the book comes in handy on avoiding tediousness to take over) but I didn't feel that Math or mathematicians were as central to the essence of the work as I would like and expect from an author with such a technical baggage.
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4: Accurately portrays the mind of a mathematician!
As a pseudo-mathematician going through a mid-life career crisis, I empathized with the main character (Isaac Swift) in this book. After proving an enormously important result, Isaac reasons why he should be the one to prove it when so many superiors had tried and failed before. He checks and re-checks his work many times over, being afraid to present it to a superior mathematician for fear of making an embarrassing error. When he is eventually convinced that the result is correct, he takes extreme care to protect himself, as if conveying his new result is the purpose of his existence. There are several other characteristics of Professor Swift that I am sure many mathematicians can relate to, especially in social situations.
Just a cautionary note: at the beginning, I found the book a bit artificial and not so realistic. But as I read on, it got much better, and details were revealed that made the artificialness disappear. The book just gets better as you go on, and surprisingly accurately captures the mind of a mathematician. This is a definite read for anybody in mathematics, especially younger people who may be debating whether their career choice is right for themselves.
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5: Don't expect "A Beautiful Mind" solves "The DaVinci Code"
It's a quick read along the lines of "Uncle Petros" but not as sinister or incisive. Academics can see themselves or their colleagues in the math departments characters; satisfaction with the denouement might relate more to just deserts than the ingenuity of the author.
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