The Housekeeper and the Professor in Bound Together

Aug 10, 2012 Dem rated it liked it

3.5 Star

The Housekeeper + The Professor by Yoko Ogawa is a heart-warming story about a housekeeper, a professor and the housekeeper’s ten year old son but also and most importantly a story about what it means to live in the present, and about friendships, family and respect and a little Math thrown in for good measure.

"He is a brilliant maths professor who lives with only eighty minutes of short-term memory. She is a sensitive and astute young housekeeper who is entrusted to take care of him"

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Apr 29, 2009 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, kirkus, japan, relationships

This book is truly original, not your normal run of the mill. I highly recommend it. What is it about? It is about friendship and the beauty of numbers and baseball. And more..... Where should I start? I will start with the numbers. This is sort of the easiest to expalin. This book made me see and feel the beauty of math, of the laws that govern numbers. The world is so complicated. We understand nothing. Everything is always changing, but then you learn of a mathematical formula that is constan This book is truly original, not your normal run of the mill. I highly recommend it. What is it about? It is about friendship and the beauty of numbers and baseball. And more..... Where should I start? I will start with the numbers. This is sort of the easiest to expalin. This book made me see and feel the beauty of math, of the laws that govern numbers. The world is so complicated. We understand nothing. Everything is always changing, but then you learn of a mathematical formula that is constant, that is always true, and suddenly there is an order to the messy world around us. The author goes even one step beyond this. Three people, of which two are completely normal like you and me, the housekeeper and her son, come to understand the magic of numbers through their contact with the Professor (of math). I wish I had had had a math teacher like te Professor! Did you know that zero is a concept thought up by an Indian mathematician. Before him the Greeks thought this concept didn't need a symbol. You get history, and then the author pulls the mathematical concept into the story so you understand the true consequence of the concept. What it means to you and me. Infinity, a line, zero, amicable numbers. Honestly, math is made beautiful. Occasionaly, I was too tired to follow the full development of a formula, but usually the author never pushed the theoretical underpinings too far. It is definitely worth reading the book just so that you will learn about math, but there is more!

There is baseball. And there is true friendship. And there is a look at how people come to love each other simply by doing things together. Caring for each other. All the blurbs about this book tell you that the housekeeper is taking care of an elderly man who can only remember what has happened during the last 80 minutes. He can also remember everything before 1975, before a car accident. What does this lack if remembrance really mean? It means that every day when she and her son come to his door he doesn't know who they are. It means that when you spend a wonderful afternoon together, it is gone tomorrow. So are the frightful disagreements that can destroy a day. Gone - they never happened! What does this say to the reader? What's the lesson to be learned? You get a beautiful picture of a frail old man, who has three suits - one for winter, one for summer and one for the spring and fall. That is what he wears. He has little pieces of paper pinned all over his suit to remind himeslf of things he must remember. Soon he is not a man dressed in a suit, but a man dressed in fragments of paper. The image is beautiful and clear and wonderful. Why? Bcause you fall in love with the guy! What develops for realationship between these three people is extraordinary. Do you see why I say this book is original? It is NOT melodramatic, it is quiet and beautiful. Heartwarming - definitely. Read it. It's only 180 pages. Take time to read chapter 10, of the eleven chapters in the book, slowly. Savour it. It is so beautiful.

12 pages in and I already love the characters, the housekeeper and the professor! Why is that? Perhaps b/c they are each true to their own selves. They are not what society wants them to be but merely who they were born to be. I cannot help but compare this with the poor souls of Remarkable Creatures. Although both Elizabeth and Mary also followed their inclinations, they spent all their time judging themselves by the moral standards of their times. The housekeeper and the professor are too busy being themselves. ...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Irene rated it really liked it

A single mother of a 10 year old son becomes the housekeeper for a brilliant math professor who lost his sort term memory in a car accident nearly 2 decades ago. I am at a loss to put my review into words. The author gently creates tender intimacy, demonstrates the dignity and purpose of every human life, no matter how broken, and teaches us about real love, eternal truth and maybe, even gives us a glimpse of God.

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Jul 14, 2021 Anna rated it really liked it

If someone had told me that I would ever enjoy a book which features both maths and baseball I would have laughed. However, whilst a reasonable portion of this novel is about just that, I was utterly enchanted by it.

For my full review please visit my blog at:https://leftontheshelfbookblog.blogsp... ...more

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Jan 30, 2014 Pat rated it it was amazing

What do you get when you have a housekeeper, a child called Root for square root, mathematics, baseball and a professor who forgets everything every 80 minutes????? A great little book! Yoko Ogawa tells an beautiful story about family, the nature of memory, and the poetry of mathematics! A sample quote - "Eternal truths are ultimately invisible, and you won't find them in material things or natural phenomena, or even in human emotions. Mathematics, however can illuminate them, can give them expr ...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Mercè rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, own-it-on-kindle

I enjoyed this book very much.

I gave it five stars because I thought the characters of the story were extremely well developed, the story flows beautifully mixing concepts as diverse as mathematics, baseball and brain damage. Personally coming from a scientific background I found the idea extremely original. The book is all about relationships, it is character driven and it touches you in many different ways. It is very inspirational and explores relationships that are formed and become stronge ...more

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Jun 16, 2010 Karen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-5-star-reads

I loved this book and anyone who knows me well won't be surprised. I love math (& baseball) and I found this to be a very touching story! It was a quiet and charming little book and the ending was bittersweet. ...more

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