The Solitude of Prime Numbers

The women on my mum's side of the family have a great book and magazine sharing system, and my grandma (aka, the gma or the matriarch) is the hub.  Whenever we visit, there's a massive stack of magazines on the coffee table, and much more to my delight, a magical table in her upstairs bedroom covered in all sorts of literary goodies.

My mum and her 3 sisters all have pretty exceptional taste in books, and that upstairs-table at my grandma's is a never-ending source of reading material.  Every time I go over for a visit at my Gma's I come home with new reads.

This weekend, I brought home Paolo Giordano's The Solitude of Prime Numbers.

It was a really quick and easy read- I finished in about a day and half.  It was certainly a change of pace from the Austen novel that preceded it, and because of this I think I enjoyed it all the more.

Giordano's novel is a story of two "prime number" type characters, Alice and Mattia of Italy.  

The title of the text provides a context for the lives of these two characters, who are prime numbers in that they never quite fit in with society as a whole.  Mattia, who grows up to be a successful mathematician, at one point wonders if the two can ever be "prime pairs", prime numbers with only one other number between them, like 5 and 7 or 11 and 13.  These numbers are alone together, less lonely than the higher prime numbers, where pairs get less and less frequent. 

The novel begins with sections on both 6 year old Alice and 6 year old Mattia, when the main characters both experience a childhood trauma that impacts the entirety of their lives.

Mattia suffers from the loss of his identical twin sister, and Alice has a ski accident, experiences that leave the protagonists emotionally and physically crippled, respectively.  Mattia's childhood commits him to a seriously anti-social lifestyle, while Alice's leads to an eating disorder and a dangerous need to feel accepted by her peers.  

Alice and Mattia meet in high-school, forming a somewhat inexplicable bond that neither of them can shake off, even when Alice gets married and Mattia leaves Italy for a research position out of the country. 

Giordano's text is a really well-written character-study that examines the sometimes underestimated impact of childhood experiences on one's life.  The plot is entirely believable (something I really appreciate in a novel), and is simple enough that Giordano's readers are able to focus on the characters themselves and how they deal with their lives, rather than the WHAT of what happens to them.  

If you're looking for entertaining, escapist literature, this book is not the way to go.  It is at times slightly depressing, and constantly inspires introspective thinking.  If this is a reading goal that intrigues you however, I highly recommend Giordano's book and the innovative writing it presents.

Also, Paolo is a hottie.

...and he's only 7 years older than me!

                              

Can you say "crushing"?