A Different Taste of Fiction

A book review of 'A Certain Ambiguity' by Gaurav Suri and Hartosh Bal

Isn't it just amazing to co-author a novel with your childhood friend whose interests, background, and capabilities are almost the same as yours? That's the case for this book and it's totally amazing! It's like the authors of this book were really destined to create such a sensible masterpiece!

Through effective organization of key points, the authors wanted the readers to realize that there's more to math than just numbers and figures, and it definitely has a lot to say when it comes to the true definition of something to a person. They aimed to show how math is deeply connected to the lives of the characters in the book and they also wanted us to experience what it's like to be in a mathematician's shoes. What makes this book unique is that it's not just another mathematical book out there, because it does not only include series of maths, philosophy, religion and faith, but also presents the uncertainties of life. It was a wise move for their part when they decided to put these all together by creating a novel. They took a risk, since this was the only plausible choice to attract interested readers of all sorts.

“Before talking about anything new, it always helps to look back on where we’ve been.” - page 230

I'd like to express how this quote taken from the book implies so much sense and can be used to pertain to any aspect of life. But I want to focus on its mathematical significance; it's true that before anyone tries to solve or discover something new, that person needs to know first where we currently stand in our present situation and even look back to the past innovations and improvements, in order for him/her to understand the path to the solution/proof/discovery that he/she is focusing on and what it truly means, while also realizing its significance.

The story started with a relaxed and at the same time gloomy theme. It started well when Vijay Sahni, grandfather of Ravi Kapoor, gave his grandson a mathematical problem to try on his calculator. That was the first time his grandfather challenged him about math. The gloomy part came when that next day, Vijay died. This absolutely had an effect on Ravi with regards to his relationship with math. At some point in Vijay's life, he was imprisoned under blasphemy law for trying to defend that the certainty of mathematics even includes religion. This kind of dilemma was also experienced by Ravi when he was taking up a subject 'Thinking About Infinity' in Stanford. Maybe this terrified him because he might have thought that he's bound to get imprisoned if he entertained those kinds of thoughts, and at the same time maybe he felt proud that he was also gifted with a challenging intellect like that of his grandfather. This led him to research about Vijay's imprisonment; where he gained access to some philosophical discussions about truth, certainty and math, written by his grandfather while still in prison. It can be observed that from there, like his grandfather before, he struggled to find an answer to the question whether there can really be a certainty in math, life or in anything. Accompanying him in spirit, his grandfather journeyed along his search for an answer.

The axiomatic method was given emphasis in this book, particularly the Euclidean axioms - if these axioms truly express things beyond the physical structure of the world or if these are just mere clauses of faith. The book also wants to relay that if you really accept your axioms, accept them and just go with it, without ever doubting it. However, I agree with what others would say, that it's best to challenge your axioms sometimes and see if they can really live up to reality or if they'd disagree with it. Whatever the outcome is, that will help decide on whether to continue supporting that axiom or to finally dismiss it.

We don't know if we're now close to finding truth and certainty about anything in life, but one thing is for sure, like how uncertain we are to so many things, math isn't also perfect. Like what others had accounted, though it provides an almost certain solutions, we still have to consider the 'absolute.' As proof, and like any other books, this one is not perfect and may even have some small errors. I'm not a math genius so I don't know for sure.

A little off-topic, I just want to express what I feel about the epilogue, where Claire was mentioned; the love interest of Ravi in the book. I know it was already understood that they were married at the end, but I would've liked it even more if their love story wasn't cut short too early. Haha, okay, I'm cheesy like that. If that was also the case, I know that would defeat the purpose of the book, so it's good as it is.

After finishing the book, I have realized that no chapter(s) really appealed to me greatly. However, the journal entries of Euclid, Riemann, Gauss, and Cantor caught my attention and I really found it amusing because it was all raw and honest. It also helped a lot as it served as one of the platforms of the book. I thought those entries were kept true-to-life, despite the book being purely fictional. I was a little dismayed when I later realized that even those were made-up after reading the preface. Honestly, if it wasn't for this and the word 'Novel,' I really would've thought that the book was non-fictional. Another thing, I appreciated the notes placed by the authors at the end of the book.

 Truth be told, I wasn't really psyched about reading the book at first because of two reasons, first, I like books, but I'm not much of a fan of those in electronic form, and second, the genre is math and let's face it, some math books tend to be boring. Depending on the person, one can finish this in just one sitting, while another may find it hard to even finish this book. Well, in my case, I have finished it in three sittings but with some parts skipped.

This is a very informative kind of novel. It really is filled with chooey-mathematical-goodness, evident through its every page. However, the reader must have at least a little knowledge about math and its history in order for him/her to appreciate what the authors wanted to convey. I can't say I did not like it at all or even say otherwise, I just think it's okay. But what I can give to you is that the authors' efforts paid off and they did a pretty good job and I'm sure this is just what the math geeks out there need for a good read! This book deserves a person who can really put into words everything he/she knows and thinks deeply about an exquisite work like this, because I honestly think that I did not give enough justice to this one. He he.