A Beautiful Mind review by Amogh Joshi

 

A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar covers the life of mathematician John Nash, most known for his contributions to game theory and differential geometry, from his rise to prominence surrounded by many of the greatest minds in mathematics and physics, to his sudden fall into madness only to rise back up and win numerous awards. In a contrast to usual biographical novels, which tend to edge on the side of praising or at least straying from criticism of the person in question, this biography didn’t hesitate to question and even sometimes point out significant flaws in Nash, and yet managed to pull full circle and paint an incredible portrait of his life.

 

This is a unique biography, being that it was never authorized by Nash to be written, which of course brought up ethical questions upon its release but nevertheless was written masterfully. It is clear that a lot of research was put into this, because Nasar never had an opportunity to interview Nash or his close family–as in most prominent biographies–and had to recreate his life’s story only from published works. Even with these obstacles, the novel has a great amount of emotion present.

 

Being that there was no input from the subject himself, I at first expected the biography to be focused directly on factual information and from the perspectives of an observer of Nash’s life. However, I was surprised to see how the novel still managed to put me in Nash’s shoes and walk me through his emotions during different events in his life. The book seemed to switch between perspectives, first giving a glimpse of it in Nash’s eyes, and then swapping to the perspective of an observer. I liked this, as it was an interesting take on a biography. Nonetheless, it is quite literally impossible to recreate a person’s perspective without input from a person themselves, which is where this biography loses its points, but for what the author had I definitely feel that it was executed masterfully.

 

Now, this is the biography of a mathematician who made contributions into quite advanced fields (as mentioned above), so in order to understand Nash’s life appropriately, one would have to have an understanding of the mathematics. I found that Nasar managed to deliver the mathematical explanation quite well, sticking to the actual mathematics but explaining it in a a way that anyone reading could understand properly. Especially with game theory, many little analogies were present, explaining the deceptively simple yet fairly complex concepts using the tool that was best suited for them: Games. No reader will have a problem understanding what Nash did.

 

Overall, this is a really great read. There are some dark spots, especially when the biography covers Nash’s descent into madness, a fair portion of his middle-age years, but it isn’t necessarily that harsh and the rest of the novel is much lighter. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read a great biography, but wants a different kind of life story, which this delivers.