AN EXCEPTIONAL PIECE OF WORK

BOOK REVIEW

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A Certain Ambiguity (A Mathematical Novel)

Gaurav Suri and Hartosh Singh Bal

Hardcover, Princeton University Press

US$27.95, 281 pages

ISBN-13: 9780691127095

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“It is true that absolute certainty may lie outside our reach, but we live for that magic moment of discovery when we are attuned to this sense of order and connectedness. And the existence of this order and connectedness is a leap of faith.”

         

A certain ambiguous feeling came upon me while reading the title of the book itself. A search in the dictionary led me to an ideal meaning of ambiguity. It is an attribute of any concept, idea, and statement or claims whose meaning, intention or interpretation cannot be definitively resolved according to a rule or process consisting of a finite number of steps. It seemed like a good boost to keep me going on this book.

          It all started with a calculator! This book kicked off in an entirely exceptional approach in delivering to the readers the delight in mathematics. The authors, Suri and Bal, made the book more interesting by coming up with a very bright idea of relating mathematics in amazing fictional autobiographies of a grandfather and his grandson who were both indulged in mathematics. Who would not be astonished on the great effect of a mere math problem on the life perception of a boy? Indeed, what was instilled to a young mind of a person would really affect one’s decisions in the future. The plot of the story revolved in the life of the main character, Ravi Kapoor, an Indian student in Stanford, who decided to follow his grandfather’s footsteps towards a career in mathematics rather than a more affluent one in economics.

As he took the course “Thinking about Infinity", he bumped at the course professor Nico, who happened to specialize in the same field of Ravi's deceased grandfather. A shocking truth came upon him as he uncovered that he was confronting similar mathematical philosophies and dilemmas faced by his grandfather, Vijay Sahni that landed him in jail in the hands of an incredulous judge under a case against blasphemy. Ravi’s grandfather defended his belief on the extent of mathematical knowledge which would include religion. As the trial went on, the two men discovered the zenith of human certainty which was Euclidean geometry.

In an attempt to figure out the mathematical investigation on the existence of absolute certainty in mathematics or life, both the grandfather and the grandson’s life beliefs and choices were challenged. Twists and turns were made as they struggled and battled against bunch of mathematical concepts and ideas with regards to geometry and infinity and so on. Besides the fact that the book mixed fiction with factual mathematics, the authors still managed to end it with an open ending that would leave the readers think for themselves.

          I noticed that just like Reuben Hersh’s What is Mathematics Really, my first book review, Suri and Bal also presented mathematics in a humanistic approach which took its form in a novel. It is in this way that humans would feel more and appreciate mathematics for they can relate with the lives of the fictional characters involved.

         

          Although I got carried away with some of the entertaining and fictional parts of the book, it still made me realize some of the important points in mathematics I think the authors would most likely want to express.

          When reading novels, I somehow prefer romance and the like, but this kind of novel made me want to read more unusual novels. Although the goal of explaining more mathematical concepts was not achieved by this mathematical novel, it still leaves a mark in the hearts of the person who might want to take the thrilling endeavour of reading this book.

I hoped that somehow the authors would have figured out on how to expound the developing romance and the marriage of Ravi and Claire, in order to have a more interesting sequel of this book just like all the other books available in the market.

I recommend that this book would be read by other people most especially young minds like me for they might not change their lives just as what Ravi did, but some points might enlighten and help them value mathematics more just what it did to me. This book would definitely make them wonder about what it means to face the extent and limits of human knowledge.