Reviews - Begalinė lygtis

6.17k reviews for:

Begalinė lygtis

Yōko Ogawa

4.11 AVERAGE

is_it_a_journey's review against another edition

4.5

medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Yes

jhay1518's review against another edition

3.75

inspiring fast-paced

abandonedmegastructure's review against another edition

3.75

emotional informative lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

A breezy character-focused piece, meandering throughout a dozen-or-so chapters detailing a single mother's unfolding friendship with an amnesiac mathematics professor.

Typically, when a book aims to be a 200-page poem more than a novel, I don't like it very much, but this was an exception. Strong character writing, a compelling viewpoint, charming descriptions that don't get over-indulgent, and math! If that last bit concerns you, rest assured it's all made very accessible, and even people whipped into a panic by words like 'differential' or 'exponent' should be able to appreciate the beauty on display here.

I liked this book, and I'd recommend it, but I will say that ultimately, its scope is small and its contents hardly innovative. These aren't flaws as much as constraints on its quality, but they do make me settle on a final score of 3.75.

stories_of_the_soul27's review against another edition

5.0

emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This was such a beautiful book! There was so much of love, consideration, empathy and warmth in this story that it melted my heart. It is amazing that you never know what fate has in store for you, that someday you might happen to meet a person who changes your life in unimaginable ways that are neither grand nor complex but you feel the change in your thinkings, habits, etc.
The book was so simple. It was about a Housekeeper getting assigned to work for a Maths Professor with a memory loss problem where in he can retain only 80 minutes of his memory before it getting rewritten. The housekeeper also has a 10 year old boy and the professor and the boy develop a grandfather-grandson relationship. The story follows their daily life featuring maths, baseball, homework, housework etc yet the story flowed so gently. There is beauty in the mundane life and time and again Japanese authors have shown it to me and Yoko Ogawa perfected it in her book.