Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
U.C. Berkley mathematician Frenkel reveals the joy of pure intellectual discovery in this autobiographical story of determination, passion, and the Langlands program—a sort of Grand Unified Field Theory of mathematics. As a teenager Frenkel was converted from math hater to eager theorist by a mathematical friend of the family, enough to pursue it despite his struggles against an unapologetically anti-Semitic Soviet educational system. Frenkel writes casually of climbing over the fence to sit in on advanced classes at Moscow State University, a top school that didn&'t accept Jews. With the help of mentors, he worked hard and eventually found his way to Harvard and the freedom to focus on his research. Frenkel balances autobiographical narrative with enthusiastic discussions of his own work on the Langlands program, a web of algebraic conjectures named after a Canadian mathematician that is noted for its usefulness in organizing seemingly chaotic data into regular patterns full of symmetry and harmony, and its applications to quantum theory. While the math can be heavy going, Frenkel&'s gusto will draw readers into his own quest, pursuing the deepest realities of mathematics as if it were a giant jigsaw puzzle, in which no one knows what the final image is going to look like. B&w illus. (Oct.)
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
After Rick and Isla meet at a dinner party and fall in love, what’s next? For Frenkel, it is the mathematical charting of the Rick-Isla relationship as a trajectory on the x-y plane. The surprising notion of a “formula of love” fits into the remarkable understanding of math Frankel unfolds as he recounts his labors on conceptual frontiers where an audacious new master theory, the Langlands Program, is linking geometry, number theory, and algebra. To qualify for a role in those labors, Frenkel defied the anti-Semitism pervading the Soviet academic world in which he came of age and then won appointment to a Harvard professorship. Aware that few of his readers share his academic training, Frenkel pares the technical details to a minimum as he reflects on the platonic transcendence of mathematical concepts and marvels at their mysterious utility in explaining physical phenomena. Not merely dry formulas in textbooks, the math Frenkel celebrates fosters freedom and, yes, even distills the essence of love. A breathtaking personal and intellectual odyssey. --Bryce Christensen
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
More About the Author
Edward Frenkel is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, which he joined in 1997 after being on the faculty at Harvard University. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, and the winner of the Hermann Weyl Prize in mathematical physics (2002). Frenkel's recent work has focused on the Langlands Program and dualities in Quantum Field Theory. He has authored 3 books and over 80 scholarly articles in academic journals, and he has lectured on his work around the world. His YouTube videos have garnered over 3 million views.
Frenkel's latest book "Love and Math" was a New York Times bestseller and has been named one of the Best Books of 2013 by both Amazon and iBooks. It is being translated into 14 languages. Frenkel has also co-produced, co-directed and played the lead in the film "Rites of Love and Math," which French newspaper Le Monde called "a stunning short film... offering an unusual romantic vision of mathematicians," and co-authored a screenplay for a full-length feature film "The Two-Body Problem." He has contributed articles to The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Slate, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, and Scientific American, and has been interviewed on The Colbert Report and numerous radio programs.
Visit http://math.berkeley.edu/~frenkel/
Frenkel's latest book "Love and Math" was a New York Times bestseller and has been named one of the Best Books of 2013 by both Amazon and iBooks. It is being translated into 14 languages. Frenkel has also co-produced, co-directed and played the lead in the film "Rites of Love and Math," which French newspaper Le Monde called "a stunning short film... offering an unusual romantic vision of mathematicians," and co-authored a screenplay for a full-length feature film "The Two-Body Problem." He has contributed articles to The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Slate, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, and Scientific American, and has been interviewed on The Colbert Report and numerous radio programs.
Visit http://math.berkeley.edu/~frenkel/
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
145 of 150 people found the following review helpful
By
Irfan A. Alvi
TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on December 20, 2013
Format: Hardcover
1 Comment
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First of all, let's be honest and not mislead the general reader - this book covers a lot of highly advanced math. The author, Edward Frenkel, likely does as well as anyone could to outline the math in a way that a non-specialist audience can usefully grasp if they put in considerable effort and re-reading, but even then the reader needs to be comfortable with math at least at the undergrad level (calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, etc.). Don't expect to really 'understand' what Frenkel is talking about unless you have considerably greater math background, say grad school level and prior familiarity with the particular areas of math Frenkel covers.
Being an engineer, I fall into the former category and came to this book already loving math, and I found the math in this book to often be quite tough going (especially in the second half of the book), though I did get a rough sense of what he was talking about (and I followed the advice to keep going in the tougher parts rather than getting bogged down). True, I could re-read the whole book to get a better understanding, but realistically it would make more sense to bone up on the prerequisite math using other books and then return to this book in a few years (yes, that long). Because I feel that the accessibility of this book for the general reader has been overstated by the book's endorsers and overestimated by the author, I'm deducting a star.
That said, I did enjoy this book greatly and am glad that I read it.Read more ›
Being an engineer, I fall into the former category and came to this book already loving math, and I found the math in this book to often be quite tough going (especially in the second half of the book), though I did get a rough sense of what he was talking about (and I followed the advice to keep going in the tougher parts rather than getting bogged down). True, I could re-read the whole book to get a better understanding, but realistically it would make more sense to bone up on the prerequisite math using other books and then return to this book in a few years (yes, that long). Because I feel that the accessibility of this book for the general reader has been overstated by the book's endorsers and overestimated by the author, I'm deducting a star.
That said, I did enjoy this book greatly and am glad that I read it.Read more ›
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179 of 193 people found the following review helpful
By
Aaron C. Brown
TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on September 26, 2013
Format: Hardcover
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Edward Frenkel is one of the great mathematicians in the world, and in this book he voices an ancient complaint: "Intelligent people would never say, 'I don't care about art, or music. But it is totally okay to say, 'I hate math.'" The usual antidote is to show people that math can be fun and useful as in The Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, or even exciting and sexy as in Numb3rs. Another species of popular math books and movies (such as Perfect Rigor, Pi, A Beautiful Mind and Good Will Hunting) imply (in Frenkel's words), "a mathematician is on the verge of a mental illness."
Love and Math takes a novel approach. The author loves math with a deep intensity that has animated an extraordinary life story, and he has the rare ability to explain why. The only comparable work I know is Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Both Frenkel and Hawking discuss work normally considered too advanced even for non-specialist professionals in their fields, in terms any serious reader can comprehend, without resorting to trite analogy or oversimplification.Read more ›
Love and Math takes a novel approach. The author loves math with a deep intensity that has animated an extraordinary life story, and he has the rare ability to explain why. The only comparable work I know is Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Both Frenkel and Hawking discuss work normally considered too advanced even for non-specialist professionals in their fields, in terms any serious reader can comprehend, without resorting to trite analogy or oversimplification.Read more ›
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57 of 64 people found the following review helpful
By
T. S. Sally
on September 30, 2013
Format: Hardcover
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Frenkel's book tackles a difficult challenge, that of writing a mathematics book for a popular audience while still actually writing about mathematics. In my mind Frenkel succeeds. He does so through unbridled passion and the telling of engaging autobiographical stories. Not all readers will be able to understand all of the mathematics on the first try but you will still come away with curiosity and excitement about mathematics. Aside from the popularization of mathematics, I found the book valuable because it describes in comprehensible terms Langlands program, a very exciting ongoing research effort. An understandable overview from an expert in a specialized field is a rare thing.
Anyone who reads Love and Math will be richer for it.
Anyone who reads Love and Math will be richer for it.
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By
Salvatore R. Mangano
on January 4, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
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In the preface Frenkel hooks you by explaining that all the Math you ever learned in school was only a small part of the story and most of us have never been shown the masterpieces. He makes the analogy of learning about art without ever being shown a da Vinci or Picasso. There is truth to this. But as the book progresses Frenkel drags the reader through murkier and murkier waters until all but the most well schooled mathematician could hope to see but a fraction of what Frankel is trying to show.
It also does not help that Frankel writes badly. His prose is truly boring and uninspired. So even the autobiographical parts of the book, which the non-mathematician could easily follow, are tough to slog through.
I do give the author credit for the choice of subject matter. Group Theory, Topology, Reimann Surfaces and ties to Quantum Physics and String Theory are some of the jewels of Mathematics. However, Frenkel lacks what many genius mathematicians lack: empathy. He is unable to empathize with the plight of the mathematically unsophisticated reader and hence leave even the motivated lost, dazed and confused.
It also does not help that Frankel writes badly. His prose is truly boring and uninspired. So even the autobiographical parts of the book, which the non-mathematician could easily follow, are tough to slog through.
I do give the author credit for the choice of subject matter. Group Theory, Topology, Reimann Surfaces and ties to Quantum Physics and String Theory are some of the jewels of Mathematics. However, Frenkel lacks what many genius mathematicians lack: empathy. He is unable to empathize with the plight of the mathematically unsophisticated reader and hence leave even the motivated lost, dazed and confused.
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