The Indian Clerk in Queereaders

Jan 03, 2008 David rated it did not like it

Shelves: read-in-2008

So how exactly are we to understand the phrase 'historical biography'? Apparently, as practiced by David Leavitt, it involves picking over the lives of his chosen victims - for some reason he has a predilection for gay English intellectuals - and tarting up the factual record with embellishments that appear to be more a projection of Leavitt's own unresolved issues than any kind of added insight into the character being assassinated. Maybe Professor Leavitt would be better served by seeking out So how exactly are we to understand the phrase 'historical biography'? Apparently, as practiced by David Leavitt, it involves picking over the lives of his chosen victims - for some reason he has a predilection for gay English intellectuals - and tarting up the factual record with embellishments that appear to be more a projection of Leavitt's own unresolved issues than any kind of added insight into the character being assassinated. Maybe Professor Leavitt would be better served by seeking out his own rough-trade liaisons in the academic groves of Gainesville than slandering the dead by inventing non-existent affairs in which his victims are portrayed as behaving atrociously. G.H. Hardy deserves better than David Leavitt's dehumanizing portrayal in this invented version of his life.

The reader should bear in mind that the last time Leavitt tried a similar stunt, he was sued for his efforts by Stephen Spender, and lost. The New York Times review of 'The Indian Clerk' comments that:

"Luckily, or circumspectly, Leavitt has chosen this time to portray people who are no longer around to file lawsuits."

Which is certainly one way of looking at it. An equally valid conclusion would be that this is an author with no shame whatsoever.

Ramanujan too deserves better than his portrayal by Leavitt, who is completely incapable of conveying the essence of his particular genius, despite the various equations spattered through the book. Nowhere does he manage to convey the fascination of the Indian's peculiar and prodigious talent, or why Hardy would be sufficiently excited to bring him to Cambridge. His treatment of Ramanujan as a person is equally murky. (An excellent account of Ramanujan's life is available in Robert Kanigel's "The Man Who Knew Infinity").

But then this hodgepodge of a book is stuffed with so much detritus that it becomes clear that Leavitt would rather pad things out with semi-salacious gossip about various other Cambridge luminaries, the amorous dalliances (both real and invented) of various secondary and tertiary characters, and the obligatory meanderings about the love that dare not speak its name than attempt to cast any real light on the relationship between Hardy and Ramanujan.

Fortunately, the genius of Hardy, Littlewood and Ramanujan is such that their names will live on long after Leavitt's work has been consigned to the dustbin of history. ...more

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May 10, 2009 Zweegas rated it liked it

solid story-telling
mildly entertaining

The characters are based on real people who are mostly British professors and academic types. It's set mostly on a college campus during one of the world wars. Therefore, you have Britain and British people, academia, world war, and oh yeah, high-class homosexualry -- just those elements of this story make me feel like I've somehow read something important even though it's not.

How many novels are there about complex mathematical theorems?
...more

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