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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
(audiobook)
I really enjoyed this book. While there are a number of interesting storylines that weave together, the book is primarily character-focused rather than plot-focused. The protagonist, Katherine, explores her identity and recounts her early career trials and tribulations as she first comes into her own as a female mathematician (at a time when that was even rarer than it is now). That makes it sound more boring than I actually found it - this book really had me mesmerized. I studied math so I really liked the mathematical context, but this book isn't math-heavy and I think would be enjoyable even without some of that background.
I really enjoyed this book. While there are a number of interesting storylines that weave together, the book is primarily character-focused rather than plot-focused. The protagonist, Katherine, explores her identity and recounts her early career trials and tribulations as she first comes into her own as a female mathematician (at a time when that was even rarer than it is now). That makes it sound more boring than I actually found it - this book really had me mesmerized. I studied math so I really liked the mathematical context, but this book isn't math-heavy and I think would be enjoyable even without some of that background.
medium-paced
This was the story of a mathematician tracking back the story of her parents, a Jew woman and a Chinese man in the WWII Germany. It was very interesting to see the maths interwoven there, themes of sexism, race, responsibility of the consequences of WWII... all interwoven with science.
I picked this book up for a break from the typical stuff I was required to read. I needed something solid and good and refreshing. This was just what I needed.
I loved and connected with Katherine. She was going on this emotional journey to find herself and her past. It was a unique journey through math and history which was right up my alley. I thought the writing was so delicious and good. I loved exploring Germany in the 1950s in the aftermath of WWII. It was unique and great.
Also, the perspective from an adopted daughter with Asian heritage was one I hadn't read before. I enjoyed it and found myself learning so much. Finally, it was a great book about a woman in a predominantly male field of work and study. This was so relatable, even in 2019. Some of the drama between her and her lover was uninteresting and I don't think the book really picked up until she had the courage to semi-leave him and go to Germany. That's really the highlight of the whole story.
All in all, I really liked this book and definitely want to get a copy. Something to add to your historical fiction collection for sure!
Conclusion: To Buy
I loved and connected with Katherine. She was going on this emotional journey to find herself and her past. It was a unique journey through math and history which was right up my alley. I thought the writing was so delicious and good. I loved exploring Germany in the 1950s in the aftermath of WWII. It was unique and great.
Also, the perspective from an adopted daughter with Asian heritage was one I hadn't read before. I enjoyed it and found myself learning so much. Finally, it was a great book about a woman in a predominantly male field of work and study. This was so relatable, even in 2019. Some of the drama between her and her lover was uninteresting and I don't think the book really picked up until she had the courage to semi-leave him and go to Germany. That's really the highlight of the whole story.
All in all, I really liked this book and definitely want to get a copy. Something to add to your historical fiction collection for sure!
Conclusion: To Buy
I found The Tenth Muse to be an even better book than Catherine Chung's Forgotten Country and I rated that book with 5 stars too. So 6 for The Tenth Muse? Perhaps.
Being someone who likes genealogy and tracing my family history, this book held my interest right out of the gate. As Katherine's story unfolds and gets more complicated and heartbreaking the story becomes all that more interesting and surprising. I wanted to keep reading just because I wanted to figure out the mystery with Katherine. There is a point, when more revelations about Katherine's ancestry are revealed, that you realize Catherine Chung's character has familial and ancestral connections with two theaters of war, forced sexual slavery of the Japanese army, the gender preference issue in Chinese culture and, finally, the holocaust. What struck me about this was just how deftly Catherine Chung wove together this story line and it all seemed plausible and real.
First and foremost, however, this is a book about the unequal treatment of women in many cultures, in the sciences, the workplace and in education. To me, as a fifty something white male, Katherine's encounters with chauvinism and misogyny were eye opening and enlightening. It seems to me, many times, that well-written fiction has a more emotional impact on a reader than simply reading a non-fiction book about gender inequality.
This is a more skillfully constructed story, in my opinion, than Forgotten Country. I like Forgotten Country because of the Korean cultural context and my connection with it, but I also like that Catherine Chung went in a completely different direction with The Tenth Muse.
Being someone who likes genealogy and tracing my family history, this book held my interest right out of the gate. As Katherine's story unfolds and gets more complicated and heartbreaking the story becomes all that more interesting and surprising. I wanted to keep reading just because I wanted to figure out the mystery with Katherine. There is a point, when more revelations about Katherine's ancestry are revealed, that you realize Catherine Chung's character has familial and ancestral connections with two theaters of war, forced sexual slavery of the Japanese army, the gender preference issue in Chinese culture and, finally, the holocaust. What struck me about this was just how deftly Catherine Chung wove together this story line and it all seemed plausible and real.
First and foremost, however, this is a book about the unequal treatment of women in many cultures, in the sciences, the workplace and in education. To me, as a fifty something white male, Katherine's encounters with chauvinism and misogyny were eye opening and enlightening. It seems to me, many times, that well-written fiction has a more emotional impact on a reader than simply reading a non-fiction book about gender inequality.
This is a more skillfully constructed story, in my opinion, than Forgotten Country. I like Forgotten Country because of the Korean cultural context and my connection with it, but I also like that Catherine Chung went in a completely different direction with The Tenth Muse.
Very interesting and often compelling but after a while you just feel like you're listening to someone with a really interesting family history who hasn't quite figured out how to tell it without a linear narration. Might have worked better with a 3rd-person perspective.
Elegantly written, intriguing and compelling.
Katherine is a maths prodigy living in the US. She believes her mother was an immigrant Chinese and her father white American.
The conflict comes as she tries to forge a path through education and on into academia as a woman in the late twentieth century (is much different now?), while also unfolding the mystery of who her real parents were.
Chung's writing doesn't draw attention to itself, allowing the reader's focus to remain on the narrative and the intricately woven plot. She pays homage to historical mathematicians - mainly women but also including Alan Turing - who were ignored, patronised or abused by their peers and society during their lifetime.
Such a beautiful book.
Katherine is a maths prodigy living in the US. She believes her mother was an immigrant Chinese and her father white American.
The conflict comes as she tries to forge a path through education and on into academia as a woman in the late twentieth century (is much different now?), while also unfolding the mystery of who her real parents were.
Chung's writing doesn't draw attention to itself, allowing the reader's focus to remain on the narrative and the intricately woven plot. She pays homage to historical mathematicians - mainly women but also including Alan Turing - who were ignored, patronised or abused by their peers and society during their lifetime.
Such a beautiful book.
There was a time when a woman lived in the shadow of a man. This is the story of one woman striving to find her own identity.
”There is the story you think you are living in, and then there is the invisible, secret, unguessed-at core of that story, around which everything else revolves.” . My favorite line of the book! I rarely give 5 stars but this one is worth it. I flew through this novel about Katherine, a mathematician of some renown who looks back at her life and recounts her search for who she is and where she came from, while trying to make her own mark in the world of academia. Layered into the story is a good dose of historical fiction about WWII, interwoven with fascinating stories about the many unsolved mathematical theories that have puzzled the worlds most dazzling minds, and illustrates the challenges and roadblocks for women in a field that long resisted women as equals. It’s a story that shows the sacrifices made for love, and what kinds of tales that may have existed for others and are often lost to the sands of time.
It was masterfully told and I highly recommend it.
It was masterfully told and I highly recommend it.