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A review by marleah_a
The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano
3.0
This book made me think of my younger sister, who is a super math genius, although she won't admit it and is entirely too modest about it.
Mattia is a super math genius as well, and he bases his work on "twin primes": pairs of prime numbers that are close to each other but have an even number in between them, keeping them from touching (an example: 41 and 43). This idea parallels the relationship Mattia has with his sometimes-friend/girlfriend Alice. Neither Mattia nor Alice feel like they fit in with their families or with society. Alice seems to be more bothered by this than does Mattia, but regardless, they find a sort of comfortable refuge in each other. Each of them is haunted by a childhood trauma, and they both attempt to move on with their lives but struggle with their pasts and with their relationship with each other.
It was an interesting book, but I found myself not really invested in either of the characters. I wouldn't say either of them is truly likeable, although they do have postive points. For some reason, I was also unsatisfied with the conclusion - it was a bit more open than I like with these types of stories.
Mattia is a super math genius as well, and he bases his work on "twin primes": pairs of prime numbers that are close to each other but have an even number in between them, keeping them from touching (an example: 41 and 43). This idea parallels the relationship Mattia has with his sometimes-friend/girlfriend Alice. Neither Mattia nor Alice feel like they fit in with their families or with society. Alice seems to be more bothered by this than does Mattia, but regardless, they find a sort of comfortable refuge in each other. Each of them is haunted by a childhood trauma, and they both attempt to move on with their lives but struggle with their pasts and with their relationship with each other.
It was an interesting book, but I found myself not really invested in either of the characters. I wouldn't say either of them is truly likeable, although they do have postive points. For some reason, I was also unsatisfied with the conclusion - it was a bit more open than I like with these types of stories.