The Housekeeper and the Professor

"A very sweet story about friendship between a boy and an older mathematics professor, who suffers from dementia, and the boy’s mom, the housekeeper 4/5"

"Beautifully written, makes you want to study math which is literally insane. It’s kind of like no plot just vibes and the vibes are soft and airy, this is like light academia. And you can find life advice in mathematical equations, I think this is how some authors think they write when they try to break down something complicated and academic but come off pretentious. But not this book, we can just appreciate other people’s passion and devotion to the numbers without having to understand much. "

"Well, I didn’t realize this would have so much math. I suppose I could have assumed that, but it really dug deep into mathematical theorems. This wouldn’t be a problem, except for the fact I absolutely hate math. <br/><br/>So aside from that, I enjoyed this! The audiobook narrator is one of my favorites, and as usual she did a lovely job. The storytelling was engaging and the characters were easy to Root for (pun!), and while it wasn’t my favorite, I’m glad I read it."

"Beautifully vivid and pure"

"4,5"

"It’s a beautifully written, and a quick read! "

"For a book with no plot, this book also had no character build up. It felt like an acquaintance was reminiscing endlessly, pointlessly and to make it seem worthwhile they were repeatedly declaring how special and moving and amazing each memory was while very little of its emotional impact actually came across by itself. ("Oh you had to be there" well I wasn't) The protagonist lists incidents and says 'this moved me' and that's that. It's not that deep at all; this book was short and it could've been shorter. There's no follow through for several plot points, they are just introduced and then abandoned.<br/><br/>Perhaps the only thing you're expected to walk away with is a newfound love for math, but that's not new to me at all so I got nothing? <br/><br/>Everything was handled too simplistically too in my opinion. The mathematical themes explored seemed like they were picked from a random "Cool Math Facts You Never Knew" from a middle school article; barely scratches the surface. We got a backstory for the protagonist but I have no idea who she is as a person or why she needed to learn Math at that point in her life. She never develops any strong personal interest or connection to the subject. She has oddly strong reactions about things and it was not at all justified or built upon or anything. Most importantly, the Professor's memory is just a minor inconvenience? Is it because it's 1992? Why does he have to have high fever for the full-day housekeeper to realise what a struggle it must be to lose your memory 18 times a day and have no memories of the last seventeen full years?! And it's something that gets worse and nobody does anything really? She doesn't as much as report it. He gets super sick when she takes him to a stadium and that's just whatever? She faces consequences of staying the night, and not getting him sick? And the Widow is the Professors who? Are we just not going to address it? He never asks for her about her even though she's the only living person he remembers? What does she do all day?<br/><br/>Sure the story is sweet - any two people bonding to any degree over anything is sweet, and the Professor is pretty wholesome but I did not get any more from reading the book than I got from the blurb."