Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

Photo courtesy of amazon.com

Mathematics becomes prose

By Genai Hall

“Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession,” is a work of fiction by mathematician and director Apostolos Doxiadis. It is the story of Petros Papachristos, a prodigy and mathematician, who spends his life attempting to give an answer. The question: Can every even number be expressed as the sum of two primes? The answer is simply, yes or no – but in mathematics, even the simple must be accompanied by proof!

Most of the story is told through the reminiscence of Papachristos’ “most favored of nephews.” While family members view Uncle Petros as eccentric and “one of life’s failures,” the nephew attempts to understand him. The nephew cannot decide whether to admire his uncle or to pity him. Ultimately we are allowed to hear from Uncle Petros himself. Petros Papachristos tells a cautionary tale of passion, pride and urgency.

“Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture” was a captivating book, but it left me wanting. I had hoped that through Petros the author would have addressed the difference between passion and compulsion. I am a student of mathematics. I am not a mathematician. I make this statement with absolute certainty, but I have sat with pencil in hand, amid math books, calculators and scratch paper working on what appeared to be a simple problem, only to discover that six hours have passed and I have not wanted for food, or water or companionship. I am amazed. How was that possible? After a chuckle and a little stretch of the legs, I am eager to get back, because I am certain that the answer is attainable. In the answer there is bliss and within the next few moments all will be revealed. Is this passion compulsion or just plain stupidity?

If those who hear the word “mathematics” and run the other way, can get past the cover, they will be treated to a peek inside a world of simultaneous pleasure and pain. Doxiadis does not beat the reader over the head with mathematics. He presents mathematical theorems in a simple manner and introduces the reader to a few gods of Number Theory: Kurt Godel, G.H. Hardy, J.E. Littlewood and Srinivasa Ramanujan. Fact or fiction, the story is worthy of a Sunday afternoon.

A page turner? No.

A lovely read? Yes.