After Math (Paperback)

by Miriam Webster (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover
WHO KILLED PROFESSOR RAY BELLWETHER? Some sociopathic graduate student, disgruntled over prelims? A jealous colleague? Unhappy lover? The police want answers. So does a motley crew of inebriated grad students, eager to play detective. And so does Ray Bellwether, who hasn't been able to catch forty winks since being murdered. Ray doesn't yet know the rules for ghosts, but he's pretty sure he's supposed to be haunting his murderer if he could only figure out who that is. As he sets forth in gossamer form to track down the unknown fiend who did him in, Professor Bellwether is swept onto curious landscapes, and encounters some equally curious fellow mathematicians, living, dead, and marginal, who join him in the quest A TALE OF INTRIGUE AND MURDER IN THEDEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

About the Author
"Miriam Webster" is the pseudonym of Amy Babich, mathematician, classicist, and advocate of human-powered transportation. She lives in Austin, Texas, where she rows on the river, swims year-round, bicycles everywhere, and would never dream of driving a car. After Math is her first novel, The Age of the Bicycle is her second, and she is at work on her third.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Zinka Press Inc.; 1 edition (June 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964717115
• ISBN-13: 978-0964717114
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,276,264 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A spoof on the entire graduate math experience, ghost stories and some mathematics thrown in, January 20, 2007

By	Charles Ashbacher "([e-mail])" (Marion, Iowa United States([e-mail])) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This book is s spoof on the workings of a university math department, the graduate experience in mathematics and ghost stories. The story begins with Ray Bellwether, graduate student advisor in the mathematics department, being murdered in his office. Being of the rational, mathematical sort, he takes it all in stride and is puzzled by the sensations. It takes him some time to determine that he has in fact been murdered. Once that conclusion was reached he then reaches the second logical conclusion that the reason he is a ghost is so that he can torment his murderer. The problem is that he has no idea regarding the identity of the murderer. Therefore, he sets out on a confused quest for the real killer(s). Not having been a ghost before, he is uncertain as to how to proceed and exactly what he is capable of doing.
This plot line is interspersed with the actions of many other people in the department, some stringers such as the investigating police officers and a few others that happen to be encountered. The spoof of the departmental secretaries, how graduate students relate to each other and their professors and how the mathematicians interact with each other is priceless. Webster captures and lampoons all of this in a manner that is a true stroke of genius. As is fitting for a ghost story, the main area of mathematics mentioned is topology. Towards the end, the murderer tries to free himself from his troubles by attempting to topologically relocate to another location. It was amusing to read how the ghosts and material people try to explain things by referring to concepts in topology.
This is a very funny mystery book with a mathematical base. However, unless you have spent some time in a mathematics graduate program and know some of the mathematics, there are parts of the book that you will not understand. Even if you have, it will be necessary to slow down your reading on occasion or you may miss an ironical moment.