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A review by rafaela_borges
The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician by Andre Weil
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
During my long, ongoing obsession with mathematicians and physicists, I've read quite a few things (mostly negative) about André Weil, whose famous sister, Simone, I knew nothing about. So I decided to check out his autobiography, which left me pleasantly surprised.
Weil knows how to write and paint a colorful picture of the places he has been, and he has smart (and sometimes quite funny) insights about different cultures and people. I love his irreverence, his intellectual curiosity and his sense of humor, which permeate the narrative. India has never caught my interest, but André made it sound so rich and alive. It's very beautifully written and informative! I wish it had been longer.
On the not-so-positive parts:
- The self-censorship. Given his famous arrogance, I wasn't expecting him to be open and vulnerable about some parts of his life he may not have been proud of. But it's quite odd how his wife just suddenly appears in his life, without him mentioning that she was married to another remember of Bourbaki when they got together. He also spent a few paragraphs using the Bhagavad Gita to explain/justify his decision to avoid the draft, which irked me and felt not so honest to me.
- I wish he had included his experiences in the US too. He said in an interview that he decided against it, because nothing interesting happened since he got a job in Chicago, but I disagree and wish he had had a more positive view of the second part of his life 😕 And being Brazilian, I definitely wanted more details about his years in São Paulo.
I missed reading about the less glamorous side of his life: his marriage and kids, his relationship with his parents after Simone's death (which he talks little about), his views (mostly negative, afaik) about the US and his colleagues in Chicago and Princeton, the future generations of Bourbaki members, Bourbaki's legacy, his frustrated desire to return to France, what made Japan and the Kyoto Medal so special to him, etc. I didn't feel like I got the full(er) picture I wanted, but it was worth the read.
(There isn't as much math as I thought there'd be, which I appreciate. I don't know much about it, so I prefer to read about his personal life and relationships. However, some people might be disappointed, especially because of the title)
Anyway, I loved his autobiography, but now I wish we also had a bio about André Weil written by a third party. He travelled a lot, served time in prison (where he made one of his best works lol), experienced different cultures, knew several languages (including Sanskrit), was very erudite, had a very interesting famous sister who died too young, possessed a famously difficult personality, engaged in the good old academic bullying, made controversial choices (wrt the draft, the Taniyama-Shimura-Weil conjecture, etc.)... In some ways, he reminds me a lot of Oppenheimer and I could read a 700-page long book about him as well.
I also can't wait to read his daughter's book "At Home with André and Simone Weil" someday, even if it's not the proper biography we need. Sylvie Weil is a good writer too, although of a different kind.
Weil knows how to write and paint a colorful picture of the places he has been, and he has smart (and sometimes quite funny) insights about different cultures and people. I love his irreverence, his intellectual curiosity and his sense of humor, which permeate the narrative. India has never caught my interest, but André made it sound so rich and alive. It's very beautifully written and informative! I wish it had been longer.
On the not-so-positive parts:
- The self-censorship. Given his famous arrogance, I wasn't expecting him to be open and vulnerable about some parts of his life he may not have been proud of. But it's quite odd how his wife just suddenly appears in his life, without him mentioning that she was married to another remember of Bourbaki when they got together. He also spent a few paragraphs using the Bhagavad Gita to explain/justify his decision to avoid the draft, which irked me and felt not so honest to me.
- I wish he had included his experiences in the US too. He said in an interview that he decided against it, because nothing interesting happened since he got a job in Chicago, but I disagree and wish he had had a more positive view of the second part of his life 😕 And being Brazilian, I definitely wanted more details about his years in São Paulo.
I missed reading about the less glamorous side of his life: his marriage and kids, his relationship with his parents after Simone's death (which he talks little about), his views (mostly negative, afaik) about the US and his colleagues in Chicago and Princeton, the future generations of Bourbaki members, Bourbaki's legacy, his frustrated desire to return to France, what made Japan and the Kyoto Medal so special to him, etc. I didn't feel like I got the full(er) picture I wanted, but it was worth the read.
(There isn't as much math as I thought there'd be, which I appreciate. I don't know much about it, so I prefer to read about his personal life and relationships. However, some people might be disappointed, especially because of the title)
Anyway, I loved his autobiography, but now I wish we also had a bio about André Weil written by a third party. He travelled a lot, served time in prison (where he made one of his best works lol), experienced different cultures, knew several languages (including Sanskrit), was very erudite, had a very interesting famous sister who died too young, possessed a famously difficult personality, engaged in the good old academic bullying, made controversial choices (wrt the draft, the Taniyama-Shimura-Weil conjecture, etc.)... In some ways, he reminds me a lot of Oppenheimer and I could read a 700-page long book about him as well.
I also can't wait to read his daughter's book "At Home with André and Simone Weil" someday, even if it's not the proper biography we need. Sylvie Weil is a good writer too, although of a different kind.