A Doubter's Almanac by Ethan Canin
Milo Andret is a boy who grows up near Cheboygan, Michigan. His parents raise him in a solitary and unemotional home. He's a mathematical genius who is content to spend time alone in the woods exercising his passion for numbers and formulas in his mind.
The story leads us through Milo's life, first as a college student at Berkley to a professorship at Princeton. His goal is to solve the world's greatest math problem to which he throws in every ounce of his being. Milo ultimately wins the prestigious Fields award, the math equivalent of a Nobel prize but his love of women and booze quickly arrest his ability to advance further in the world of advanced mathematics.
The second half of A Doubter's Almanac is written from the point of view of Milo's son, Hans, who has inherited both Milo's good and bad qualities. His struggles with life are the same as Milo's only updated for a new generation. We come to understand Milo through his son's eyes.
I've read several books lately that deal with alcoholism. That aspect of any story is always painful for me since I have walked down that road myself. I see in the character's actions, where I may have ended up if I hadn't dealt with my problem. And that can be scary, to think of what might have been. I initially chose to read this book after I saw Ethan Canin on the PBS show, Well Read. He spoke of writing about life. Even though A Doubter's Almanac is long and I didn't know anything about solving complex math theories, I couldn't stop reading it. And that is the story of life.
Milo Andret is a boy who grows up near Cheboygan, Michigan. His parents raise him in a solitary and unemotional home. He's a mathematical genius who is content to spend time alone in the woods exercising his passion for numbers and formulas in his mind.
The story leads us through Milo's life, first as a college student at Berkley to a professorship at Princeton. His goal is to solve the world's greatest math problem to which he throws in every ounce of his being. Milo ultimately wins the prestigious Fields award, the math equivalent of a Nobel prize but his love of women and booze quickly arrest his ability to advance further in the world of advanced mathematics.
The second half of A Doubter's Almanac is written from the point of view of Milo's son, Hans, who has inherited both Milo's good and bad qualities. His struggles with life are the same as Milo's only updated for a new generation. We come to understand Milo through his son's eyes.
I've read several books lately that deal with alcoholism. That aspect of any story is always painful for me since I have walked down that road myself. I see in the character's actions, where I may have ended up if I hadn't dealt with my problem. And that can be scary, to think of what might have been. I initially chose to read this book after I saw Ethan Canin on the PBS show, Well Read. He spoke of writing about life. Even though A Doubter's Almanac is long and I didn't know anything about solving complex math theories, I couldn't stop reading it. And that is the story of life.
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