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October 27, 2007

Just read...

From Publishers Weekly
Ambitious, erudite and well-sourced, Leavitt's 12th work of fiction centers on the relationship between mathematicians G.H. Hardy (1877–1947) and Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920). In January of 1913, Cambridge-based Hardy receives a nine-page letter filled with prime number theorems from S. Ramanujan, a young accounts clerk in Madras. Intrigued, Hardy consults his colleague and collaborator, J.E. Littlewood; the two soon decide Ramanujan is a mathematical genius and that he should emigrate to Cambridge to work with them. Hardy recruits the young, eager don, Eric Neville, and his wife, Alice, to travel to India and expedite Ramanujan's arrival; Alice's changing affections, WWI and Ramanujan's enigmatic ailments add obstacles. Meanwhile, Hardy, a reclusive scholar and closeted homosexual, narrates a second story line cast as a series of 1936 Harvard lectures, some of them imagined. Ramanujan comes to renown as the the Hindu calculator discussions of mathematics and bits of Cambridge's often risqué academic culture (including D.H. Lawrence's 1915 visit) add authenticity. Hardy is hardly likable, however, and Leavitt (While England Sleeps, etc.) packs too much into the epic-length proceedings, at the expense of pace. (Sept.)
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A novel that combines mathematics, World War I, Indian food and beautiful (at least initially) writing. After the first fifty pages, I was arranging the names of my friends to whom I would lend the book once I am done with it. After two hundred pages, I knew the book would need to be finished as soon as possible to lessen the irritation. The moment I read the last paragraph, the book was placed for sale on amazon.com.
Now to some minor annoyances. Switching between the voice of Hardy and the author's gets very tiring, as does the invariable reminding that the lecture from which we learn most about Hardy's inner life has never been delivered by him. Hardy delivers the never delivered lecture to the American students, to remind them (incredibly for a Brit and an educated politically involved person)that the fate of the World War I was decided by the U.S. Serbia became Servia, Leavitt (or his eidtors) allow educated Brits confuse who and whom; and so much is made out of the Russian popular game "Vint" - the etymology is provided, the word is repeated completely unnecessary - to no avail, since the game is called Vist after whist. Whomever Mr. Leavitt was using as his source for this little bit of trivia, should have known better.
I am glad I read this book, so I would not have to read Leavitt's previous novels :)

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