A New Genre it is

                A review on A Certain Ambiguity

What I admire about this book is that it’s different from what other math books is all about. Reading a book suffocates me, how much more reading a book with all those mathematical concepts I really would not be happy to talk about. Actually, I feel it burdensome that we have been required to read books about mathematics, I mean, the burden I’ll feel tends to be doubled. Honestly, I did not quite enjoy reading this book but still I admired it since it does not bore me. I did not enjoy it but It did not bore me as well. Its plot is captivating since it rotates on a life of someone. It talks about mathematics, about its philosophy, its beauty and about its relevance to the human understanding of the surrounding world.

Ravi Kapoor, the main character of this mathematical novel, was given a mathematical problem to try on a calculator by his grandfather. The grandfather died the next day, but the reader is left with the realization of the importance the memory of the grandfather played in Ravi's life. In the absence of the grandfather's wise guidance the boy grows indifferent to mathematics. Later on, Ravi is accepted in Stanford and chose economics as his career to which he is inclined. Ravi takes a course "Thinking about Infinity" and befriends the course professor Nico, who incidentally specializes in the field of Ravi's grandfather. He then realized that he is confronting the same mathematical and philosophical dilemmas that his mathematician grandfather had faced many decades earlier which had landed him in jail. Ravi's research into his grandfather's imprisonment produces transcripts of philosophical discussions on the nature of truth, certainty and mathematics that the grandfather conducted in jail with a judge assigned to investigate his case. Many mathematical topics was discussed in the book including philosophies and the oh-so-many axioms. It questions the validity of those axioms and its possibility to be falsified or justified.

This was the rough summary of the novel, A Certain Ambiguity. As it can be observed, I did not much included those mathematical philosophies, mathematicians and the like that was stated in the book. Since, what captured me is the story and the approach that was used to better explain or make the readers understand the authors’ point.  It bothers me thinking of those mathematical concepts in which I am really not fond of. What I wanna say is that the author had a great approach on trying to reveal their ideas by basically connecting it to a person’s life. In my opinion their approach was simply amazing since they’ve tried to capture every readers heart, which was true to me. Indeed, this was a new kind of genre.