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|  | Author: Masha Gessen
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
List Price: $26.00
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Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 25985
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 015101406X
Dewey Decimal Number: 510.92
EAN: 9780151014064
ASIN: 015101406X
Publication Date: November 11, 2009
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Showing reviews 16-20 of 55
 A Great Story, Even For the Math-Challenged December 3, 2009
Robert in NY (New York, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book really kept my interest, even though I did all I could in high school to escape math (they're still looking for me in geometry class).
While not avoiding the complexities of the mathematical challenge involved (solving the Poincare Conjecture), the Russian mathematician's personal story is really what makes this such a good read. The author knows how to tell a good story. Yet the book is also meticulously researched and foot-noted (even though, true to his personality, the subject never agreed to be interviewed).
Glad I came across this one.
 75% = interesting, a little boring, 25% = very engaging December 1, 2009
J. GARRATT
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman supposedly solved a million dollar problem just a few years ago. The problem in this case is a math theorem that has to do with topology. Yeah, I didn't know what topology is either, but it has to do with geometric shapes existing in various dimensions being used to prove the shape of the universe. You know what, don't listen to what I just said about topology. I really don't know what I'm talking about. I'm sure I just gave a mathematician a heart attack with that "definition."
Journalist Masha Gessen is on a mission to unravel Perelman. She wants to know how his mind works, what he's like, how he solved something so difficult, and why he just doesn't feel like talking to anybody anymore (thereby making her job harder). So she circles the perimeter by talking to many important people whom Perelman knew along the way; fellow Russian mathematicians and various instructors and professors who fostered Perelman onto the world stage of math.
Something that "Perfect Rigor" sheds light on is how the practice of mathematics and academia in Russia/Soviet Union changed so much after the fall of the iron curtain. The prior era wasn't exactly purgatory and the after era wasn't exactly paradise. And anti-Semitism held fast for many years. Undeterred, and uninterested in anything else, young Perelman quietly did his math and became somewhat of a mathematical superstar over time.
Unfortunately the bulk of the book, about Perelman's slow and steady rise, is a little on the slow and dry side. You need to persevere through about 150 pages before it really picks up speed and gets interesting. Gessen's description of the "problem" is, ahem, problematic. Not her fault though. Using the English language (she's a pretty good writer, by the way) to describe another language that seems to exist on a variety of geometric planes is tough. But when Perelman solves a math problem that people weren't expecting to crack for another hundred years or so, BAM! In comes the drama. The warts of academia were revealed. That's what kept me reading. Until then, the book felt more like an edifying chore.
Step inside the world of mathematicians.... November 24, 2009
K. M. (California)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Masha Gessen, author of Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century, makes clear from the outset that she has never met or talked with her biographical subject, the increasingly isolated mathematician who solved the Poincare Conjecture, Grigory Perelman. Her book, as a result, largely concentrates on the environments and people who shaped him: the highly competitive math clubs for youngsters in the Soviet Union/Russia, high school and university education for those gifted in math, and then the international professional circles of those with doctorates in mathematics. Perelman himself is known through the guarded disclosures of those who taught him, mentored him, studied with, invited him abroad, communicated via email with him, etc.
What emerges from Gessen's outline is a person genetically equipped for the single-minded attention he gave mathematics for at least the first four decades of his life. His ability to solve math problems was detected by his mathematician mother and it was carefully advanced by dedicated math coaches and men of esteemed reputations. The Jewish Perelman might have faced more difficulty obtaining entrance into university, due to the unwritten but practiced quota system, had he not won a gold medal at the 1982 International Mathematics Olympiad. After he completed his education at Leningrad University, choosing to concentrate on geometry, he visited the U.S. in 1991 and gave some lectures on Alexandrov spaces. Princeton offered him a track to tenure, which he turned it down, believing he should not have to prove his abilities to obtain a professorship. Then he spent eight years working on his own, and in 2002 he posted online the preprints of the first part of his work solving the great problem, the Poincare Conjecture. Gradually, after that, Perelman backed away from mathematics and his colleagues and few friends. The ensuing publicity, the necessity for collegial verification of his work (and an attempt by others at plagiarizing his work), and various offers of monetary reward (such as the Clay Mathematics Institute Millennium award of one million dollars), apparently drove Perelman into himself. He even told former associates that he was giving up mathematics entirely and trying something else, although he didn't say what.
Gessen hypothesizes that Perelman's idiosyncratic behavior throughout his life indicates Asperger's Syndrome, and she makes a good case. Whatever the situation, Perelman, if and when the Millennium Prize for the Poincare Conjecture is awarded, is expected, by those who know him best, to decline the money, whether he is the sole awardee or shares the prize with American mathematician Richard Hamilton.
PERFECT RIGOR is an informative primer on the mathematical world, both in Russia, where author Gessen was also born and from which she emigrated with her family in 1981 to escape anti-Semitism, and internationally. Even though the field is relatively unburdened by divisive politics, one can see that the egos of mathematicians can be as fragile as in any other discipline. But one can also admire Perelman's brilliance and his determination to live by his own code. The biography is very good at explaining these considerations.
The book also gives an explanation of the Poincare Conjecture for laymen, but otherwise it avoids detailing mathematical problems and, aside from one exception, it does not contain any mathematical notation or graphs. And since it deals with Perelman at a distance, it cannot present insights regarding his thought processes when he attacked the Poincare problem.
Overall, this is a worthwhile work for anyone who is interested in learning about the small, elite group that makes breakthroughs in mathematics, and in one of its most eccentric stars, Perelman. As the president of the Clay Mathematics Institute noted, Perelman's work is like a " 'flash of light that allows you to get through the forest.' " Hopefully, Perelman still has more to contribute to mathematics...or to some other discipline.
Overall good book that has done its research. November 23, 2009
Sean Marrone (Shanti on a mountain)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I think it should be noted that Grigory Perelman doesn't do interviews and has not been spoken to since he has taken a life of obscurity. Taking this into account, it is quite a feat what Masha did--piecing together information from everybody but the Grigory himself, to come up with a story featuring surprising depth in its execution. The book says that Masha didn't have contact with him; however the book is written as if he had ghost written this tale., which is a substantial compliment.
Being that this book focuses on mathematics and nothing but, it would seem that only those with an interest in numbers would be responsive to the story itself. It does start off in the field of mathematics and it ends there; however anyone who finds themselves seeking out certain subjects that they may have not been introduced to or if they are interested in being drawn into a new subject, I think this might be your book.
I will say that I felt the story a tad dry--but then I reminded myself: "This is a book about mathematics". Although a tad dry, it is presented in such a way that builds up a back story and anticipation appropriate to a light drama, and this should be given credit to the author--for the actual story itself is hardly anything similar to a drama.
This book gets my recommendation to readers with an appreciation for intelligence and the intellectual puzzles of the world. It's an easy read, a fast read, and very well structured by the author.
Insightful and informative look at a genius November 20, 2009
Sreeram Ramakrishnan (Lynnfield, MA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Despite the fact that the biographical sketch drawn by the author is handicapped by the use of second-hand information and perhaps the author's own biases, Gessen provides an engaging, informative and entertaining look at one of the geniuses in recent history. In many aspects, the narration and the structure of the book reminded me of another engaging book - A Brilliant Darkness: The Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Ettore Majorana, the Troubled Genius of the Nuclear Age. While the relentless pursuit of logic for its own sake and the unending quest for the most elegant proof may only be fully appreciated by readers with a strong academic bent, the discussion of the Russian system facilitating such genius's development is quite informative. Despite the difficulties in understanding the nuances of the academic field itself, the reader is left pondering on the vagaries and sometimes dichotomous nature of human behavior, especially when it comes to geniuses such as the appearance of ego at the least required circumstances(Perelman's interviews for academic positions); in the end, one just marvels at what the human mind can do, whether or not Gissen thinks of Perelman as suffering from Asperger's Syndrome as if that has anything to do with genius.
Showing reviews 16-20 of 55
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