The Housekeeper and the Professor: Summary and book reviews of The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, plus links to an excerpt from The Housekeeper and the Professor and a biography of Yoko Ogawa.
The Housekeeper and the Professor A Novel
by Yoko Ogawa
Paperback: Feb 2009,
192 pages.
He is a brilliant math Professor with a peculiar problem--ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory.
She is an astute young Housekeeper, with a ten-year-old son, who is hired to care for him.
And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them. Though he cannot hold memories for long (his brain is like a tape that begins to erase itself every eighty minutes), the Professor’s mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. And the numbers, in all of their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her young son. The Professor is capable of discovering connections between the simplest of quantities--like the Housekeeper’s shoe size--and the universe at large, drawing their lives ever closer and more profoundly together, even as his memory slips away.
The Housekeeper and the Professor is an enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family.
BOOK REVIEWS
BookBrowse
Ogawa's fine prose and enchanting characters easily wind their way into your heart as their simple story unfolds to give voice to complex ideas about
math, love, family and memory. The Housekeeper and the Professor will make you
smile, and leave you pondering its meaning long after you have finished it. (Reviewed by Diane La Rue). Full Review (809 words).
Media Reviews
Booklist - Donna Seaman
[A] mysterious, suspenseful, and radiant fable.
Kirkus Reviews
Ogawa's disarming exploration of an eccentric relationship reads like a fable, one that deftly balances whimsy with heartache. Simple story, well told.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Ogawa...weaves a poignant tale of beauty, heart and sorrow in her exquisite new novel.
Library Journal - Victor Or
This novel evokes the joy of learning, and, with its somewhat eccentric yet lovable protagonists, is a pleasure to read. Highly recommended.
The New Yorker - Stephen Snyder
Here, despite some touching scenes, the relationship never builds to any great revelations.
ShelfAwareness - Nick DiMartino
It's all exquisitely touching and impossible to read dry-eyed, an utterly masterful depiction of friendship, a warm-hearted tribute to the unexpected ways that damaged people can change our lives.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Hans The Beauty of Nothingness The book has high ambitions (explain the role of memory in love, or such) resting on odd plot devices (math professor with memory loss, uneducated housekeeper and 10 year-old son getting to love professor through their fascination with numbers... Read More
Rated of 5
by Rebecca Cox My favorite for 2010 I just finished my favorite book this year. Even though this book is short, only 180 pages, the prose is rich and sparse with nothing wasted. It took me longer than usual to read this book. I had to stop and savor what I had read, to digest it, to... Read More
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Vivid, daring, and unforgettable, The Printmaker's Daughter shines fresh light on art, loyalty, and the tender and indelible bond between a father and daughter.
I read The Healing in two sittings it is a fascinating story of plantation life at the beginning of the Civil War. Granada, a slave newborn child...
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The Uncommon Reader is a novella by novelist and playwright, Alan Bennett. The story starts with the Queen coming across the mobile library van...
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Amazon rumored to be opening bricks and mortar stores(Feb 03 2012) There are mumblings in the blogosphere that Amazon is to open bricks and mortar stores. Launch.it offers four possible scenarios:
B&N "declares war" on Amazon, stating that it will not stock Amazon titles in its stores(Jan 31 2012) Barnes & Noble has decided not to stock books published by Amazon in their physical stores.
According to Jaime Carey, B&N's Chief Merchandising...
Full Story
(809 words).
Booklist - Donna Seaman
of 5
by Hans
of 5
by Rebecca Cox
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