Edward Frenkel

This book had a split personality. It was a mix of history and insights on the author's journey to becoming a world-class mathematician and solving difficult mathematical issues. However, much of it was was incomprehensible and the author does a poor job explaining the math that he is obsessed with. He uses words in atypical ways with no explanation and the reader is left puzzled. For example, what is "gauge theory" and why the word "gauge"? Why "Program" in "Langlands Program"? Some stuff is well-explained (string theory) but much isn't. I was a math major but I have trouble believing that more than a very limited # of mathematicians in the entire world can understand everything in this book - and they surely aren't bothering to read this book as they already know the material.

As a computer scientist, I was also disappointed in the passing references to the value of his field in secure banking. He says this several times but with no explanation leading me to believe he's overinflating a claim, doesn't understand it, or can't explain it. Another passing reference to Haskell, again with no explanation, was a disappointment.

In summary, I recommend the early chapters of the book. The rest is a waste of time.… (plus d'informations)

I picked this book up at the library because I have been interested in pure and applied math for a long time now, although I was unacquainted with the author. He has two main subjects he wanted to convey in the book. The first one the story of how hard he had to struggle in the old Soviet system with its semi-official anti-semitism when it came to career advancement and which ended up forcing him to leave just at the time when the country was opening up to the West under Gorbachev. He had some references to mathematical ideas in this section, to provide background on the kinds of problems he was trying to solve, but at a relatively popular level. The second subject begins when he starts to work as a professional full-time mathematician in the West pursuing the Langlands program of unifying three far-flung fields in math along with the allied field of quantum physics. This was quite a bit more technical. At the very end, he talks about a couple of collaborative art projects he has been involved with. He wrote for a film project giving the proper context for the word "Love" in title of the book: which refers not to the ordinary emotion between people but the feeling a mathematician has for the beauty of mathematical truths.

I thought the book was interesting, though it seemed odd to think that it would be of widespread appeal with the rather lengthy technical sections with many pages of footnotes. He steers well clear from talking much about his domestic life with his parents and at home during his marriage, preferring to concentrate on what he did professionally. I didn't really know anything about the Langlands program as such before I read this book but had read with interest something about recent theorems connecting number theory, harmonic analysis, and Riemannian surfaces, so this was a good introduction.
… (plus d'informations)