Product Description
This is the story of three generations of women who live with the conflict of their own genius as mathematicians, and the competing responsibilities of bringing up and relating to their own children.Amazon.com Review
Sue Woolfe's biography states that she knows nothing about mathematics. With the central event of her novel set in 1994, she ought to have had a fairly easy job of finding out how math is done and discussed nowadays, and who does it and why. However, Woolfe's determination to humiliate her main character, middle-aged prodigy Frances Montrose, with the scorn of a unanimously badly behaved, testosterone-driven male mathematical establishment leads to her to untruth, fatally undermining the premise and effect of her novel. Deliberately demonizing men as mates and as mathematicians is sexism of the worst kind. The multigenerational familial dissonance and harmony of this book, its redeeming features, are lost in Woolfe's caricaturing of men and women and a science she does not understand. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Unengaging
I was disappointed in this novel with its layers upon layers of women and their daughters - chains rather than layers. And one of the women - shock, horror - had invested her hopes in her son who mysteriously disengages himself from the family. Of course I tried not to be influenced by the feminine in the message - and I have read many women writers (Anna Kavan is one of my favourite dozen writers and 'Let Me Alone' one of my top ten novels) - but I found myself trying to suppress the masculine in me, trying not to object to the way many men are portrayed in this novel.
In the end there were too many tears, too many disappointments, not enough mathematics, too many twists and turns, too many identical viewpoints. I have never actually attended a mathematics convention (and I wonder if Ms Woolfe has either), but I found the one described in 'Leaning towards Infinity' totally unconvincing.

Infinite reading
I wanted this book to continue. I loved it. I read it about the same time as some other books ...Hanna's Daughters was one, and I thought it had every bit as much to say about mother-daughter relationships. Also 'GutSymmetries' by Janette Winterson, which I did not like...this had more tosay about the mathematical woman genius.

It makes the point renderedover and over by Dale Spencer in 'Women of Ideas and What Men have Done ToThem' but in a fictionalised account, well plotted and without thehyperbole to which Spender is prone.

Woolfe is a good writer, and her useof language approaches the delights of Arundhati Roy in God of mall Things(but never surpasses).

Beautiful piece of writing
I loved it. Beautiful piece of prose. Funny, sad - some of the relationships heart-wrenchingly so. Haunted me for a long while after.

I think Carol Shields fans would like it.

Demanding, rewarding, stunning
A demanding, but very rewarding exploration of the destructiveness of unrecognised genius, through the lives of three generations of women. The mother is on the verge of discovering a new form of mathematics, but is driven mad by social isolation and betrayal. The narrator, her daughter, attempts to piece together her work. Meanwhile, her daughter is trying to get her attention ... A stunning novel. ... Read more

Product Description
"Succeeds in integrating Kovalevskaia's science, radical leanings, and literary writings . . . especially fine reading for those with a contemporary interest in women in science."--Science "A biography worthy of its subject and respectful of its reader. . . . Koblitz's understanding of Russian and European social, political, and intellectual history permeates this enjoyable biography, and her analysis and conclusions are particularly enlightening."--Physics TodayTo inaugurate its series, Lives of Women in Science, Rutgers University Press reissued this much-acclaimed biography of Sofia Kovalevskaia (1850-1891), the renowned nineteenth-century mathematician, writer, and revolutionary.Sofia Kovalevskaia's interests in mathematics was aroused at an early age--her attic nursery had been wallpapered with lecture notes for a course on calculus. She spent hours studying the mysterious walls, trying to figure out which page followed from the next. Kovalevskaia became the only woman mathematician whose name all mathematicians recognize. Indeed, she was the first professional woman scientist to win international eminence in any field: the first woman doctorate in mathematics, the first to hold a chair in mathematics, the first to sit on the editorial board of a major scientific journal. She was also an accomplished writer, a proponent of women's rights and education, a wife and mother in an unconventional marriage, and a champion of radical political causes in Russia and Western Europe. This sympathetic portrait of a remarkable woman will appeal to all readers, non-mathematicians and mathematicians alike. Ann Hibner Koblitz is an associate professor of history at Hartwick College and founder of the Kovalevskaia Fund, which supports women scientists in the Third World. She has won the History of Science Society's prize for outstanding work on the history of women in science. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Computer Sciences, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 771 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Reviews the history of the discipline and its concepts, and profiles contributors in the field. The impact of computers on society is explored, with examples in literature and film to illustrate and support trends. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Mathematics, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 261 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Explores the functions of math in daily life, as well as its role as a tool for measurement, data analysis, and technological development. This illustrated set also explains basic concepts of math and geometry, and provides information on historical milestones, notable mathematicians, and today's career choices. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Science and Its Times, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 576 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The histories of science, technology, and mathematics merge with the study of humanities and social science in this interdisciplinary reference work. Essays on people, theories, discoveries, and concepts are combined with overviews, bibliographies of primary documents, and chronological elements to offer students a fascinating way to understand the impact of science on the course of human history and how science affects everyday life. Entries represent people and developments throughout the world, from about 2000 B.C. through the end of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Science and Its Times, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 643 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The histories of science, technology, and mathematics merge with the study of humanities and social science in this interdisciplinary reference work. Essays on people, theories, discoveries, and concepts are combined with overviews, bibliographies of primary documents, and chronological elements to offer students a fascinating way to understand the impact of science on the course of human history and how science affects everyday life. Entries represent people and developments throughout the world, from about 2000 B.C. through the end of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Science and Its Times, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 676 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The histories of science, technology, and mathematics merge with the study of humanities and social science in this interdisciplinary reference work. Essays on people, theories, discoveries, and concepts are combined with overviews, bibliographies of primary documents, and chronological elements to offer students a fascinating way to understand the impact of science on the course of human history and how science affects everyday life. Entries represent people and developments throughout the world, from about 2000 B.C. through the end of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Mathematics, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 514 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Explores the functions of math in daily life, as well as its role as a tool for measurement, data analysis, and technological development. This illustrated set also explains basic concepts of math and geometry, and provides information on historical milestones, notable mathematicians, and today's career choices. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Science and Its Times, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 470 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The histories of science, technology, and mathematics merge with the study of humanities and social science in this interdisciplinary reference work. Essays on people, theories, discoveries, and concepts are combined with overviews, bibliographies of primary documents, and chronological elements to offer students a fascinating way to understand the impact of science on the course of human history and how science affects everyday life. Entries represent people and developments throughout the world, from about 2000 B.C. through the end of the twentieth century. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Mathematics, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 310 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Explores the functions of math in daily life, as well as its role as a tool for measurement, data analysis, and technological development. This illustrated set also explains basic concepts of math and geometry, and provides information on historical milestones, notable mathematicians, and today's career choices. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Computer Sciences, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 776 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Reviews the history of the discipline and its concepts, and profiles contributors in the field. The impact of computers on society is explored, with examples in literature and film to illustrate and support trends. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Computer Sciences, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1309 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Reviews the history of the discipline and its concepts, and profiles contributors in the field. The impact of computers on society is explored, with examples in literature and film to illustrate and support trends. ... Read more