We often think of mathematics and literature as polar opposites. But what if, instead, they were fundamentally linked? Professor Sarah Hart shows us the myriad connections between math and literature, and how understanding those connections can enhance our enjoyment of both.
Wide-ranging and thoroughly winning ... Hart is biting and funny in her critique of this too-common literary depiction of the mathematical mind ... That, in the end, is Hart’s message: that here in the third dimension, people are pretty much alike, and strive for beauty and meaning in similar ways whether they’re finding those things in words or sounds or equations.
The Gresham professor often sounds as if she were conducting a class and pausing occasionally to scribble formulas on a blackboard ... Her prose throughout is clear, direct and jokey ... Once Upon a Prime is generally awesome... though some parts may require patience and close attention.
The author makes an entertaining case for the importance of math in literature, but literature lovers may or may not share her fascination. Genuine insights appear throughout along with a great deal of information that would be classified as oddball ... Scattershot but often ingenious.
