Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture

Uncle Petros and Golbach's Conjecture was originally a best selling Greek novel and has now been published over 20 languages so don't get switched off by the title and subject matter. Forget about it being about maths and in fact think of Moby Dick to place this book. It's about obsession and pride in chasing the impossible dream. You understand the thrill and terror of chasing impossible dreams. Right now let's get the maths out of the way. Golbach's Conjecture first stated in the 18th century suggests that: Every even integer greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two primes. But mathematicians lack proof that in all circumstance it would hold. For example think about Physics where if dealing with the very big or the very small ordinary scientific understanding ceases to work. So could this be the case in Mathematics? Yes over my head as well! But the author is a childhood mathematical genius who submitted original research at 15 before even starting his degree and also an acclaimed film maker and writer. So he both understands the mathematical issues and can write so that we understand and care. We first meet Uncle Petros in the 1970's through the eyes of the beloved favourite nephew as a teenager. Petros is dismissed as the family failure that supports him through the family business while he does nothing but read books and plays chess. He leaves his home only once a month to do the books of a charity founded by his father. The beloved favourite nephew is met by a wall of adult silence when he tried to find out what the anger of the family is about. A chance phone call and a subsequent letter lead him to discover that far from a failure Uncle Petros had been a professor of mathematics in the 20's and 30's at a prestigious German University. This makes him as obsessive as his Uncle as he struggles to discover the Truth of the family scandal. He tries to become a mathematician to help him challenge and understand what had obsessed his Uncle. This causes huge family problems- this is a Greek family remember where honouring your family and Father is a top rule in life. He finally manages to get the story of his Uncles obsessive hunt out in the open but at a high personal cost to his own ambitions. It is clear that Uncle Petros is a genius who will never be known as his hopes are dashed in the 30's by the publication of Kurt Godel's Theorem. Yes more maths but not much so don't leave. This solves the problem of completeness by showing that any theory of numbers will contain unprovable propositions. Alan During (him of how do we know a computer has human intelligence- asked before computers were developed- now that's what being clever is about) then demonstrates that theorists have no idea which proposition is merely hard to prove and which are impossible to prove. Hence, Uncle Petros has no way of knowing if spending all his life in trying solve the Golbach's Conjecture is a possible but hard task or impossible task. He gives

A young boy decided to find out the truth about his mysterious, eccentric uncle Petros, a retired professor of mathematics. As he grows into his teens, his obsession with the old man does not diminish, on the contrary, it tempts him into pursuing a career of mathematician himself. Page after page, we follow him as he unveils secrets about his uncle and his life-long struggle with a mathematical hypothesis known as Goldbach's conjecture.With Petros and his nephew, the reader enters the arcane and exciting area of number theory, a pandemonium of Goldbach's Conjecture, Riemann Hypothesis, Prime Number Theorem, to name a few, with Goedel's Incompleteness Theorem being a guest star. Apostolos Doxiadis, a mathematician by his formal education, stands firmly on his ground - science-wise, there are no apparent flops in the book, which happens so often with writes less acquainted with the locale they put their protagonists in. The title of this review, borrowed from Plato, is an exaggeration - no prior mathematical knowledge is required to enjoy this novel; some love for mathematics, however, is.Doxiadis - ......... - first published Uncle Petros (O Theios Petros ...) in Greek in 1992, one year before Andrew Wiles announced that he found the proof of the Fermat's Last Theorem. One out of the three most difficult problems in mathematics has thus proven to be solvable, after 350 years. To this day, Goldbach's Conjecture is still "only" 250 years old, and not solved yet. However, the publishers of Uncle Petros, Faber & Faber (UK) and Bloomsbury (USA) have issued a $1,000,000 challenge to prove it. Would you like to pick up where Petros Papachristos left it?

Or rather, with the gods reborn in psychological terms as our inner motivators and inhibitors.At its simplest, this is a short, well written, light, detective story. It is a little like Sherlock Holmes, a set of stories read by Uncle Petros, with Mathematics as an environment rather than a subject.If taken at this level it is an enjoyable read that should have a wide audience.However, it is a multifaceted novel. For me it has its origins in Ancient Greece, its heart in the theme of `Pride" (hubris) and is constructed in terms of Greek Tragedy, complete with protagonist (Uncle Petros) / antagonist (unnamed nephew narrator). It has all the intensity and economy needed to make a wonderful opera.There are many allusions to the myths, philosophy and history of Ancient Greece. Pythagoras, his mathematics (especially his opinion of the number 2 and the Pythagorean idea of rules imposing limits on the unlimited) and his views on beans seem to lie behind a several of the book's images. Plato is specifically referred to and the location of much of the story in Uncle Petros's semi-rural cottage is reminiscent of the original Academy.Of the myths, Oedipus is central: The solving of the sphinx's riddles (the second riddle, about two sisters, links with Petros's dream), Oedipus being destroyed by `truth', his apotheosis at Colonus all have parallels in the novel.There are references to more recent literature and other arts forms: The choice of Isolde (Wagner's Eros driven opera), as the name of Petros's only human love is typical - and Hamlet, complete with ghost, make an appearance too.All this is treated with a light hand, there to be seen and enjoyed but not essential to understanding (unlike, for example, in TS Eliot!).Another major facet is an exploration of creativity and originality. Apostolos Doxiadis clearly demonstrates the visual imaging many great thinkers experience (Kekule and the tail-biting snake being a classic example) and reflects contemporary views on dreams and the role of the sub/unconscious. The book looks at the social and political consequences of original creativity: The tremendous self belief and lack of doubt needed to drive the mind to real creativity; the politics surrounding the individual in institutions and the need for peer recognition; the isolation from the family and the way we define "self". Scattered through the book are characters driven `mad' by too close a knowledge of the pure form - the sad image of Kurt Godel in the `shabby', `genteel', Oppenheimer created Institute of Advanced Study is quite horrifying in some respects. Other real mathematicians appear, all `The Greats' bent from the norms of the society they lived in in some way, all seeking immortality, a place in the museum of mathematics. The book opens with the bold claim (in a quote) that mathematicians have a greater chance of immortality than poets: It ends in the `poetic' First Cemetery of Athens with Goldbac

This literary page-turner, subtle and concise, is set in the poetic world of pure mathematics, with finely crafted cameo appearances by real-life heroes of the field. The title character is a tragic hero in the great tradition and the "clueless" ambivalent narrator/antihero a worthy equal of Ishiguro's butler. VERY readable, with knowledge or understanding of mathematics NOT required. I read it at one sitting. One of the aesthetic pleasures for me was that the,technically flawless, English text (the authors own rendering), through nuances of formality, hints of stilted syntax and combinations of slang with slightly foreign idiom, never lets you forget that you are reading a novel by a Greek author. It added a dimension that is most often missing from translated texts.

To those of you who maybe hesitate reading a book by a relatively new Greek author,I say only this: Order now! "Unkle Petros" is a fascinating human story evolving around advanced mathematics, nevertheless accessible even to people like me who only know that 2+2=4. Doxiadis has written one of the true originals of the year 2000, with knowledge, humour, style and true love for his hero. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!