The Housekeeper And The Professor

Title: The Housekeeper And The Professor
Author: Yoko Ogawa
Translated By: Stephen Snyder
Genre: Fiction, Japanese Fiction
Publisher: Picador
Pages: 180

The Gist: He is a brilliant math professor with a peculiar problem — ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eight minutes of short-term memory.

She is an astute young Housekeeper, with a ten-year-old son, who is hired to care for him.

And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them. . .

The Review: I discovered Yoko Ogawa’s The Housekeeper And The Professor at a fellow book reviewer’s site In Spring It Is The Dawn. I wanted to read something different and I have an interest in Japanese literature although I’m just beginning to explore this interest.

Ogawa’s The Housekeeper And The Professor is a short work — only 180 pages, but it’s a powerful story.  And it’s the kind of story that made me see the world in a different way and made me think of my relationships with people differently as well.

Ogawa uses two main tools to tell this unique story: math and baseball.  Both of these elements bring the housekeeper and the professor closer together even though the professor has limited short-term memory.  And math and baseball brought the housekeeper and her son closer together, too.  Admittedly, there are sections of long mathematical equations and my eyes glazed over a bit at these sections, but I found the housekeeper’s continued interest in numbers intriguing.  Math is not her subject, but the Professor has such a unique approach to teaching and such enthusiasm for his subject, one cannot help but become fascinated about the role of numbers in everyday life.  Who knew prime numbers could be so exciting?  Numbers and their formulas become living beings themselves.

Ogawa moves the story along, but does not waste time with too many descriptions.  She paints vignettes to highlight the important moments in the story and the particular message she wishes the reader to receive.  And these moments and messages are often bitter-sweet.  In this way, the story itself seems to follow the Professor’s eighty minute memory cycle.  Everything in the story is moment to moment to moment.  And yet, everything in the story builds upon each previous image — relationships build and the plot develops.

I enjoyed reading Yoko Ogawa’s The Housekeeper And The Professor.  I wish I had had more teachers like the Professor in my life.  Or maybe I did but never realized it.  If you want to read a story about eccentric characters who manage to build relationships with each other give this story a try.