WEEK OF JANUARY 9 -15
The Housekeeper and the Professor
by Yoko Ogawa
Fiction
Picador
February 2009
Meet an unlikely threesome. Join the predictable world of a 60-year-old, eccentric mathematician who has a memory span of 80 minutes, a young housekeeper with a gift for orderliness and her 10-year-old son nick-named “Root” because of his flat-shaped head.
Author Yoko Ogawa creates a trio of nameless, but memorable characters in “The Housekeeper and the Professor.” The Akebono Housekeeping Agency sends another employee to the disorderly and dusty cottage of a man who has lost most of his memory in a horrific accident. Housekeepers, hired in the past, have stayed only briefly. How long will this one last?
The dutiful housekeeper narrates an unexpected and unique love story that begins with an awkward meeting between her and the Professor who asks, “What’s your shoe size?” Maybe “love” is the wrong word to describe the bond that develops between them. Familiarity blossoms into a relationship where employer and employee lines are blurred and agency rules don’t exist. But what clue reveals the close relationship that exists between the Professor and his overprotective sister-in-law?
In this simple world of routine, mathematics is romantic; and baseball, America’s pastime, is more appealing than ever. The Professor’s obsession with numbers and Root’s passion for baseball reminds us that a meaningful relationship can develop from a myriad of emotions:
The starting pitcher, Nakagomi, was greeted with a tremendous cheer as he was announced and headed out to the mound. At the same moment, the Professor said, “The height of the mound is 10 inches, or 25.4 centimeters. The infield slopes at a rate of one inch per foot for the first six feet toward the plate. He noticed that the first seven men in the order for Hiroshima hit left handed: “left-handed hitters against left-handed pitchers have a cumulative batting average of .2568. Right-handed hitters hit .2649 against right-handed pitchers …
Ogawa suggests that memory loss has both benefits and consequences. But the Professor creates his own imperfect system for remembering important things, and for those who love him, helping him remember is a daily struggle.
If poetry exists in prime numbers, fractions and square roots; and beauty follows the path of a soaring baseball, readers will find that both qualities exist in “The Housekeeper and the Professor.”
And even if you hate math and believe that baseball is boring, you’ll still love this book!”
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