The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder Review

Everything about the experience of reading and consuming The Housekeeper and the Professor was beautiful, the writing style, the plot, the relationships and the pacing were all masterful, and has to be one of my top reads of the year. Every time I reflect on my time reading this book, which felt like a work of art, I am struck by how beautiful everything about it was, and am reminded of how I read it slowly, with breaks in between, to extend the longevity of my enjoyment. 

I will be thinking about this book long after I have finished it and for good reason, I have no complaints. I loved how this touches on platonic love, although the housekeeper and her son, Root, are self proclaimed friends of the professor, their relationship feels more familial with how close they are, and the extent of their shared experiences and care for each other. The housekeeper is drawn to the professor and gets sucked into his world of mathematics and it is described as feeling like an awakening, like an introduction into a new life touched by the simple yet complex beauty of numbers which is touching to read. Ogawa has a way with arranging ideas into words and paragraphs that is delicate as is deliberate. It was nice to read something so beautiful that doesn’t reply on pain to carry its meaning; Although it is painful at times to witness the way the professor deals with his memory loss, that doesn’t make it a painful or tragic book, it feels more like a quiet triumph. 

I particularly enjoyed how the housekeeper and the professor remain unnamed, as it adds to how their names and ultimately their identities are not relevant to their relationship, although their titles are the premise and title of the book, they are there to set the scene, and are not relied on to continue or add to their relationship, as by the end of it, it is irrelevant how they met and their professional relationship, figuratively and literally.