The Housekeeper and the Professor

Some people would never be caught dead reading a book about an endearing pet. “No cheesy Marleyxploitation for me!” they sniff. And yet they have no qualms throwing themselves into equally sentimental novels: those in which two apparently mismatched, brainy-but-socially-inept outcasts connect through some kind of highbrow pursuit. Some authors can spin this premise into something that reaches beyond mere clichés (Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog comes to mind), but most only settle into cozy routine.

Such is the case with The Housekeeper and the Professor, in which the former gets to know the latter—and in the process inevitably also learns valuable things about herself, her young son, Root, and the world at large. As if this weren’t enough, Japanese novelist Yoko Ogawa throws in extra added value in the form of a very-now neurological issue: After an accident, the math professor suffers brain damage and his short-term memory is wiped clean every 80 minutes. He keeps track of basic details—such as the fact that he has a housekeeper, for instance—by appending notes to his clothes. One thing that seems to stick, however, is his innate bond with Root.

Ogawa occasionally succeeds in evoking the cosmic beauty of amicable numbers and natural logarithms, the thrill of problem-solving, and the excitement of baseball—a sport apparently enchanting to both children and math brainiacs. But in the end, this isn’t enough to distract us from the underlying formula. Unlike the professor, for whom everything is new again at regular intervals, it’s hard for readers not to be plagued by a constant feeling of déjà vu. —Elisabeth Vincentelli

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