A Beautiful Mind
- Author: Sylvia Nasar
- Publisher: Faber & Faber
- Reviewed by: Shep
As most people interested in this book have probably seen the film, I won’t talk about Nash’s life here, or the Nobel. Ok, the film was nothing like the book, but then films rarely are. I liked the Nash of the film, but reading this book I’m not that keen on him. In his defence however, he was ill. When accused of being anti-semitic, his response was that he was suffering from paranoid delusions. I feel that this response was valid.
Nasar has been criticised for not appearing to understand Nash’ maths. This book however isn’t aimed at mathematicians, but the general public. One question the book does raise is how do psychiatrists measure the sanity of a genius? Nash was apparently concerned at one point that they wouldn’t release him him he was ‘normal’. As this is an unauthorised biography, Nasar relies instead on quoting everyone around Nash, repeatedly making assumptions regarding peoples’ motivations and thoughts.
Nash is an interesting subject for a biography, but the author tends to meander around, never really getting to grips with either him, his work, or his illness.
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