The Mind-Body Problem

Some readers of Rebecca Goldstein's THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM will find it "a very funny novel" (NEWSWEEK) or "clever and funny" (THE NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF BOOKS). Perhaps. While there is a scintilla of humor in this brain-teaser of a novel, the risible may, whether it is a mother's misogyny, a husband's egomania, unrequitted love, the perseverance of ancient tribal rites, the dilemma of marriage v. career or historic atrocity, grab you and as likely make you wince. Goldstein herself, with a PhD in Philosophy from Princeton and a MacArthur "genius award", lived out the writing of this first novel in more profound terms: "To me the process is still mysterious. I had just come through a very emotional time, having not only become a mother but having also lost my father, whom I adored. In the course of grieving for my father and glorifying my daughter, I found that the very formal, very precise questions I had been trained to analyze weren't gripping me the way they once had. Suddenly, I was asking the most 'unprofessional' sorts of questions...such as how does all this philosophy I've studied help me to deal with the brute contingencies of life?...I wanted to confront such questions in my writing, and I wanted to confront them in a way that would insert 'real life' intimately into the intellectual struggle." THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM engagingly weaves the tortured choice out of Plato's cave, the tangled skein of Leibnitzian monadology (the novel's antagonist is a card-carrying Platonist and Fields Medal mathematician), Cartesian dualism (the novel's heroine is aptly named Renee) and Shroedinger's positivism (What, after all, is life?), into the bits and pieces of everyday perception, belied by its uncommonplace ivy-walled setting. But, not to worry, if you have never taken a course in philosophy. At one level or another, RASHOMON-like, you will probably find yourself and others you know in the novel's moving pace and surprising denouement. If you are ignorant of geometry, you may also enter, read, and enjoy.

How original! I loved this book with its vibrant language and intelligent, yet humorous, observations of human nature, science, religion, academia, love/lust etc...The main character, Renee Feuer - a beautiful philosophy graduate student drop-out and wife of a "certified" mathematical genius , is so elegantly presented with her conflicting self-perceptions, her existential struggles, her longing for roots and cultured heritage, and, of course, her battles with love versus lust. Tackles some heavy philosophical material without becoming lecturous and the descriptions of "super-math" seems believable. Also interesting in its dealings with traditional Jewish faith in relationship with the rational sciences and even philosophy - I learned more about Jewish customs from this book than from any religion class I ever took. The relationships between Renee and her husband, best friends, lovers and familiy members are richly presented in all their details and colorful descriptions. The end is lovely - except for the fact that the story is over...

I just finished reading this book & enjoyed it very much. It is smart, funny, thought-provoking & well written. You may identify with the subject matter if you are NY Jewish & /or familiar with with university society, but neither are necessary to enjoy this book. It is necessary to like to be made to think. I especially liked her concept of the "mattering map" and its implications for the subjective vs objective nature of social reality.

I read this years ago when I was a math student dreaming of maths fame. Now I'm a philosophy graduate student. I am, however, neither beautiful nor a woman. This tale is enchanting, tragic, well told and wistful. I loved it and think it should be compulsory reading for all philosophy students (along with others in this tiny genre: especially Duffy's 'The World As I Found It' on Wittgenstein). Let your (Kantian) imaginations run riot and Dream On!

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Our heroine Renee struggles with the great philosophical questions of Cartesian Dualism and Metaphysics in a time where "the field had made a 'linguistic turn' and I . . . had not. The questions were now all of language. Instead of wrestling with large messy questions that have occupied previous centuries of ethicists, for example, one should examine the rules that govern words like 'good' and 'ought'. My very first seminar [. . .] was on adverbs. The metaphysics of adverbs? From Reality to . . . adverbs?"While not struggling with the drabness of Linguistics Renee flounders with her own identity. Is she bright for a pretty girl? or merely nice-looking for such a clever girl? would either quality stand alone?To further complicate her identity questions she marries a bumbling mathematical genius (think Paul Erdos): "I'm often asked what it's like to be married to a genius. The question used to please me -- as an affirmation of my place, of my counting for something (if only through marriage) in the only world that counted for anything. But even back then [. . .] I was uncertain how to answer. "wife of genius" does not in itself define a distinct personality. The description, and my own fluid nature left me the burden of choice. And I found it hard to choose. I could never even decide how I should arrange my face when I answered. Should I radiate the faintly dazed glow of one who stands within sweating distance of the raging fires of creativity? Or should my features exhibit the sharp practicality of managing the mundane affairs of an intellectual demigod? I could never decide, and usually ended up trying to look both dazed and practical, to look a logical contradiction, which is, I suppose, to look a fool. And that, of course, is the very, very last thing I have ever wanted to look."I have reread this book three times in this decade. I don't loan my copy out to anyone. I highly recommend it to anyone, but particularly to pretty and intelligent philosophy students.