Customer Reviews

The Wild Numbers: A Novel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A highly entertaining, accurate portrait of a particularly bizarre social scene: the real life of mathematicians. Yes, these people tend to be brilliant, but they're also neurotic, romantic, histrionic, and silly. Schogt clearly knows this world intimately -- and gives us just enough information to flesh it out, without going over the non-math head.

The Wild Numbers is a darkly comic tale of envy and ambition, set in an environment that (to most of us, anyway) is deeply alien: the hottest of intellectual hothouses. That Shogt pulls this off without once condescending, or lapsing into the standard tropes of the Academic Novel, is a startling feat.

It seems counterintuitive, but Schogt is of course right: the math novel should be a thriller. After all, this is a dangerous place. Kissinger once said that the most vicious politics he'd ever witnessed were in academia, because "the stakes are so small."

Geniuses and lunatics each inhabit exotic, self-made worlds, with entry strictly limited by the resident's own "passport control." Perhaps this is why genius and madness are called different sides of the same [foreign] coin by the vast majority of people, who have "citizenship" in neither. In this overly ambitious first novel, mathematician/philosopher Schogt, with no claim to the former and no experience with the latter, attempts to portray the nature of each, and the differences between them. The result -- like a travelogue by someone who has never visited the places he is describing -- is predictably unconvincing.

The title of the book refers to the last of the riddles devised by the legendary 18th-century French prodigy and philanderer Anatole Millechamps de Beauregard, who would bet his circle of admirers that they could not solve his puzzle of the week before their next meeting, when he would "reveal all" and take their money. The riddle in question was the vain genius's last because, before he could reveal the solution, he and his mistress of the moment were strangled by the woman's jealous husband, and so "Beauregard's Wild Number Problem" became one of the great challenges of mathematics.

The "Problem," as Schogt describes it, "involved a number of deceptively simple operations, which, when applied to a whole number, at first resulted in fractions. But if the same steps were repeated often enough, the eventual outcome was once again a whole number. Or, as Beauregard cheerfully observed: 'In all numbers lurks a wild number. Guaranteed to emerge when you provoke them long enough.'"

In time, and especially after the advent of computers, the process of discovering new "wild numbers" became mundane, and so the "Problem" was rephrased: Is the set of "wild numbers" finite or infinite? The discovery of a proof one way or the other would secure its finder a seat in the mathematicians' Hall of Fame.

Which brings us to the present day in a modern university mathematics department -- the setting of Schogt's novel.

Isaac Swift is a newly divorced 35-year-old mathematics professor, afraid that his best days (and even his best days were nothing to write home about) are behind him. He clings to the hope that he can become something other than the dull, socially inept mediocrity he is by doing something truly astonishing, such as finding the long-sought proof.

Leonard Vale, a former high school math teacher enrolled as a mature student in Swift's class, has suffered an undiagnosed mental breakdown, and is in the process of reeducating himself from the perspective of "the grander plan" to which he now feels himself privy. One way in which this "crank" can demonstrate the validity of his imagined near-superhuman perspective would be to knock off a brilliant solution to a long-standing challenge such as the "wild number" proof.

And so the two men, within three weeks of each other, produce what each claims is the long-sought proof. In his description of their thinking processes - the way in which each comes upon and sets out his solution, and the way in which each responds to criticism - author Schogt attempts to describe genius and madness, and to draw the line between them.

A noble goal, to be sure, and one seldom even attempted. In the process of struggling toward it, Schogt does, however, achieve two notable successes. In his description of Swift's struggles with the elusive proof, he provides his readers with a rare glimpse at the intellectual beauty of pure mathematics, and the way in which it can seduce its practitioners.

And for those who may have harbored doubts on the subject, he proves that mathematicians are people too.

Many, probably most, novels that feature mathematicians or scientists have a genius as protagonist. There are many variations on that theme (the unrecognized genius, the failed genius, the temporarily failed but ultimately triumphant genius, the evil genius, the genius who doesn't recognize his/her true talent until given proper encouragement, etc.). However, reading about geniuses can eventually become tiresome.

The striking thing about this book is that the main character is perfectly ordinary. Of course, there are lots of novels about ordinary people, but very few about ordinary _mathematicians_, and that subject matter gives this book a peculiar charm. It's rather well written, too.

Overall, I'd say it's not a masterpiece, but well worth reading.

What a charming book about a young mathematician who set out to prove a famous mathematical conjecture. Sounds boring? You will be surprised: this is not only a book that explains the inner drama of a person who obsessively tries to realize a most ambitious goal, but also a tale full of unexpected twists, with an attempt of a murder and a love story.

Schogt writes in the crystal clear prose of Paul Auster. The obsessive drive of the hero resembles that of "Hunger" of Hamsun but the book is much lighter in tone with occasional witty observations.

Strongly recommended to the wives of mathematicians and everybody else.

Isaac Swift is a mediocre mathematics professor who hasn't come up with significant research since his thesis years ago. In the publish or perish world of academia, he increasingly feels pressure to produce. Desperate, he attempts to solve the famous Wild Number Theorem, a feat that would bring him fame and glory. Schogt offers the reader insight into the seldomly explored world and mind of a math professor but, don't worry, you need not know number theory to enjoy this well-written novel. We are with Isaac through his unexciting and lonely social life (his wife has left him), his interactions with students and rival professors, and his titanic struggle to solve the Wild Number problem. In the end, Isaac's problems do get solved in an unexpected and satisfying way. This is an excellent novel; the prose is accessible and the story moves forward quickly. Having an MS in Mathematics myself, I enjoyed the references to number theory that Schogt, himself mathematically trained, cleverly uses to make the non-existent Wild Number Theorem almost seem like a real problem in mathematics. I wanted to get out my pencil and, like Isaac, plunge into solving this problem! Still, all readers, including the math-challenged, will enjoy this universal human story. I give this novel four theorem proofs out of five.

As a pseudo-mathematician going through a mid-life career crisis, I empathized with the main character (Isaac Swift) in this book. After proving an enormously important result, Isaac reasons why he should be the one to prove it when so many superiors had tried and failed before. He checks and re-checks his work many times over, being afraid to present it to a superior mathematician for fear of making an embarrassing error. When he is eventually convinced that the result is correct, he takes extreme care to protect himself, as if conveying his new result is the purpose of his existence. There are several other characteristics of Professor Swift that I am sure many mathematicians can relate to, especially in social situations.

Just a cautionary note: at the beginning, I found the book a bit artificial and not so realistic. But as I read on, it got much better, and details were revealed that made the artificialness disappear. The book just gets better as you go on, and surprisingly accurately captures the mind of a mathematician. This is a definite read for anybody in mathematics, especially younger people who may be debating whether their career choice is right for themselves.

I don't share the point of view of some reviewers that the book portrays the life of a mathematician or his/her mind in a way that I could feel comfortable to call it typical or illustrative.
To me the book uses the subject of Math more as a setting for the drama of a character who is frustrated by his mediocre life, both professional and personal than as the driving force for the story. The author passes to the reader a protagonist that is tired of being lonely, rejected, unproductive and helpless in a life that has passed him by, leaving him numb, taking shelter in observing and criticizing others around him to the point where he is forced to look on the guy in the mirror.When he gets a golden opportunity to make up for all his inertia, he obsesses and loses control, but despite of finding solace in his downfall, the plot gets somewhat diluted or even circular(as Larry would have said :).I expected more of the mathematical glitter to be explored and developed creatively without necessarily sacrificing the character's inner struggle. Some very good ideas like Vale's character, Larry's professional greed and even the several possible and potentially thrilling outcomes from the police inspector's investigation are used inefficiently or not at all and simply vanish towards the end, leaving the reader wanting.
It is a nice snapshot of a human anguish and, to a point, self-discovery, all having a mathematical backdrop,and it flows OK (the thinness of the book comes in handy on avoiding tediousness to take over) but I didn't feel that Math or mathematicians were as central to the essence of the work as I would like and expect from an author with such a technical baggage.

As a phd student currently in the midst of academia, this book felt good to me. I could relate to the lonely mental battles, the struggle of exploring new terrain, and the odd world of the professor. Schogt pulled off some page turning moments as well.
An issue I had was with the brevity of the book. Also the use of a Hollywood type action scene was a bit much, although it did get my heart pounding in spite of myself.

Isaac Swift is a mathematician who has had a long love affair with numbers. Throughout his life numbers have been what drives him, stimulates him and yet he is still just a middle of the road mathematician. Having never solved anything worth publishing in Numbers has been a thorn in his side. Giving up his love life and regular life to try and solve the Wild Number Theorem becomes an obsession.

I found this story to be heart wrenching, funny, and entertaining all at the same time. The characters are flawed, but in a very natural way. They are real living breathing people. You don't have to like numbers or math to find this story enjoyable!

It's a quick read along the lines of "Uncle Petros" but not as sinister or incisive. Academics can see themselves or their colleagues in the math departments characters; satisfaction with the denouement might relate more to just deserts than the ingenuity of the author.