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Alex
The Glass Room
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If I Can't Have You: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children
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The Housekeeper and the Professor
3.5 StarThe Housekeeper + The Professor by Yoko Ogawa is a heart-warming story about a housekeeper, a professor and the housekeeper’s ten year old son but also and most importantly a story about what it means to live in the present, and about friendships, family and respect and a little Math thrown in for good measure.
"He is a brilliant maths professor who lives with only eighty minutes of short-term memory. She is a sensitive and astute young housekeeper who is entrusted to take care of him"
The premise for this novel is very simple a young women is assigned to a job caring for an elderly, brain damaged professor of mathematics. He has only eighty minutes of short-term memory, so he doesn't remember her from one day to the next, but his memory pre his accident of 1975 remains intact. He continues to function and live his life from day to day with the help of his housekeeper, his notes and most importantly his love of numbers. The story is narrated by the housekeeper.
I did enjoy this story and came to really like the unique characters and quirky story of this book. While it is a quick read it has a slow release plot and a story that your will read with care and perhaps re-read some chapters twice.
However I was disappointed a little in the sense of time and location of the novel. The novel is set in Japan but for me I never got the sense of location and this was a disappointment in the story. I really need the scene to be set and the little details and place descriptions are as important to me as the plot.
I think this would make a good book club read as there is so much to discuss about this story.
I enjoyed the story and especially the characters.
