A Beautiful Mind
"A legend by the age of thirty, recognized as a mathematical genius even as he slipped into madness, John Nash emerged after decades of ghostlike existence to win a Nobel Prize and world acclaim." ~ from cover of book
Though not a good selection for someone looking for a quick and light read, A Beautiful Mind is an intense biography of John F. Nash, Jr., a mathematician who rubbed elbows with the likes of John von Neumann and Albert Einstein. His arrogance was outweighed by his eccentric genius, which eventually won him a Nobel Prize in economics.
Before this award, however, Nash slowly lost his grip with reality and, by his thirties, fell into full-blown schizophrenia.
I have no particular interest in the field of mathematics. Nevertheless, I found this biography fascinating and poignant despite its occasional slow parts. Perhaps because biographies/autobiographies deal with the lives of real people, I overlook the "slow parts" by simply remembering that I am a voyeur into someone's life. Now that I have read the book, I have added the movie starring Russell Crowe to the top of my Netflix queue :)
2 comments:
I have seen the film (I enjoy Ron Howard's directing) and I wikipedied Nash afterward, but I never delved into the biography . . . sounds like I may want to. I like to hear people accomplishing stuff in their 30s!
Speaking of films that deal with mental illness--have you read any reviews for _Ponya_? There's one on NPR that has sparked my interest, but I don't believe they are showing the film in our area . . .
As a last note, I'm just getting around to reading Annie Dillard's _Pilgrim at Tinker Creek_ and its just as marvelous as everyone's told me for years . . . :-)
I haven't heard of Ponya. There've been several books/movies mentioned on NPR that sparked my interest, but I can't remember the names of any but Snow Falling on Cedars, which is already on my To-Read List.
I have to movie A Beautiful Mind now from Netflix, but I haven't gotten around to watching it this weekend.
Hope you had a great weekend!
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