The Indian Clerk
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Review
'A loving exploration of one of the greatest collaborations of the past century, The Indian Clerk is a novel that brilliantly orchestrates questions of colonialism, sexual identity and the nature of genius' Manil Suri 'Leavitt brings to life a world of maths and mysticism' Observer 'Impressive ... Leavitt plunges us, like Ramanujan, into a world of academic squabbling and wartime privation' Times Literary Supplement 'Excellent ... His Hardy is a superb creation ... The author also synthesises huge amounts of engrossing period gossip ... the snatches of backbiting and shop-talk richly convey the anxieties of the intellectual climate' Saturday Telegraph
Review
'A loving exploration of one of the greatest collaborations of the past century, THE INDIAN CLERK is a novel that brilliantly orchestrates questions of colonialism, sexual identity and the nature of genius' Manil Suri, author of THE DEATH OF VISHNU 'The certainty attributed to mathematics is richly contrasted to the uncertainty of human relationships in Leavitt's unusual and absorbing eighth novel impressively researched, insistently readable and keenly sensitive easily Leavitt's best-and a heartening indication that [Leavitt] has reached a new level of artistic maturity' Kirkus 'An insightful presentation of the entrancing, obsessive strangeness and beauty of pure mathematics in the Cambridge of Hardy and Ramanujah. A memorable feat' Edmund White 'One of his generation's most gifted authors' New York Times
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
`The man sitting next to the podium appeared to be very old, at least in the eyes of the members of his audience, most of whom were very young.'
GH Hardy, the famous mathematician, is about to receive an honourary degree from Harvard at the start of this novel. But he knows that his audience will want to hear about Ramanujan, the Indian clerk of the title, a mathematical genius and Hardy's protégé. In his speech Hardy says that his association with Ramanujan was `the one romantic incident' in his life.
I'm not quite sure what I think about this genre of historical fiction based on real lives but Leavitt is very good at it. It's well researched, convincing and engaging. It's good on the maths and the search for the proof of Riemann hypothesis for prime numbers and of Cambridge and London just before and during the first world war. It examines class and also the homosexual world at that time - DH Lawrence and Wittgenstein both make an appearance and both seem repulsed by what they see of Cambridge gay society. Bertrand Russell, JM Keynes, Lytton Strachey and Rupert Brooke are fellow apostles, the not so secret society of which Hardy is a member. They have minor roles but help to place this novel in terms of time and place.
Ramanujan and Hardy come from different worlds but both can enter a world of maths which most of us cannot inhabit `a world remote from religion, war, literature, sex, even philosophy' says Hardy and he also states `a slate and some chalk. That's all you need'. Leavitt does a pretty good job of giving us a feel for that and the excitement that goes with it. Except that it turns out that isn't all either of them need. Ramanuajn gets ill in England; it's difficult for him to follow his strict vegetarian diet. He wants the honours and prizes he hasn't had to date. Hardy has fulfilment in his working partnerships with Littlewood and Ramanujan but can't extend that into his personal relationships. It's a strange era, at once more formal than ours and yet one in which friendship between grown men can be expressed by them walking hand in hand through the streets.
Overall, The Indian Clerk is very good but not fully successful - perhaps because Leavitt had to follow the facts or perhaps because Ramanujan remains such an enigma - but it's well worth the read and you even feel like you've grasped some of the maths.
GH Hardy, the famous mathematician, is about to receive an honourary degree from Harvard at the start of this novel. But he knows that his audience will want to hear about Ramanujan, the Indian clerk of the title, a mathematical genius and Hardy's protégé. In his speech Hardy says that his association with Ramanujan was `the one romantic incident' in his life.
I'm not quite sure what I think about this genre of historical fiction based on real lives but Leavitt is very good at it. It's well researched, convincing and engaging. It's good on the maths and the search for the proof of Riemann hypothesis for prime numbers and of Cambridge and London just before and during the first world war. It examines class and also the homosexual world at that time - DH Lawrence and Wittgenstein both make an appearance and both seem repulsed by what they see of Cambridge gay society. Bertrand Russell, JM Keynes, Lytton Strachey and Rupert Brooke are fellow apostles, the not so secret society of which Hardy is a member. They have minor roles but help to place this novel in terms of time and place.
Ramanujan and Hardy come from different worlds but both can enter a world of maths which most of us cannot inhabit `a world remote from religion, war, literature, sex, even philosophy' says Hardy and he also states `a slate and some chalk. That's all you need'. Leavitt does a pretty good job of giving us a feel for that and the excitement that goes with it. Except that it turns out that isn't all either of them need. Ramanuajn gets ill in England; it's difficult for him to follow his strict vegetarian diet. He wants the honours and prizes he hasn't had to date. Hardy has fulfilment in his working partnerships with Littlewood and Ramanujan but can't extend that into his personal relationships. It's a strange era, at once more formal than ours and yet one in which friendship between grown men can be expressed by them walking hand in hand through the streets.
Overall, The Indian Clerk is very good but not fully successful - perhaps because Leavitt had to follow the facts or perhaps because Ramanujan remains such an enigma - but it's well worth the read and you even feel like you've grasped some of the maths.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It took me a while to get through this book - I had to put it aside for a few weeks but found it easy enough to get back into. It's very clever, very well researched (Leavitt's own notes in the paperback edition leave you in no doubt about his careful preparation) and very ambitious. I read to the end to find out what happened to the different characters but then thought, "So what?" Interesting possibilities but disappointing outcomes. The American spellings and occasional anachronistic Americanism (e.g., "on weekends") jarred - Edwardian Englishman wouldn't have used certain turns of phrase.
31 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I never wanted to read David Leavitt before; his stories seemed in prospect so tedious and depressing. But after two wildly over-praised novels by Cynthia Ozick (Glimmering) and Peter Carey (Maggs), with their swiss-cheese plots, hollow characters, and unpersuasive endings, I decided what the hell and opened Leavitt's "The Indian Clerk."
I was instantly absorbed by this fine, subtle, rich, and satisfying portrait of the world of gay Cambridge Apostles in the 1910s, with a Hindu wild child as a curried side dish. Incubated by all-male boarding schools, these British academics considered homosexuality as morally neutral as being left-handed; though most eventually married for show, they continued to chase boys whenever inclined, without apology, subject to the same panoply of pushing and pulling emotions as straights. How curious that Leavitt produces a profound meditation on today's post-taboo gay practice by going back to 1913!
Leavitt's style (which bears more than a passing resemblance to Penelope Fitzgerald's in "The Gate of Angels") makes fine use of Chekhov's great discovery, that cool unjudging observance of everyday trivia builds highly textured characterizations, and thanks to this device, I cared about each one of his many characters and was unwilling to exit at the book's end. He also explains high-level math with the ease of a real buff. Having written a non-fiction bio of Alan Turing beforehand, Leavitt now enjoys the distinction of being a first-class novelist who is also an expert in British gay mathematicians of the early 20th century!
I was instantly absorbed by this fine, subtle, rich, and satisfying portrait of the world of gay Cambridge Apostles in the 1910s, with a Hindu wild child as a curried side dish. Incubated by all-male boarding schools, these British academics considered homosexuality as morally neutral as being left-handed; though most eventually married for show, they continued to chase boys whenever inclined, without apology, subject to the same panoply of pushing and pulling emotions as straights. How curious that Leavitt produces a profound meditation on today's post-taboo gay practice by going back to 1913!
Leavitt's style (which bears more than a passing resemblance to Penelope Fitzgerald's in "The Gate of Angels") makes fine use of Chekhov's great discovery, that cool unjudging observance of everyday trivia builds highly textured characterizations, and thanks to this device, I cared about each one of his many characters and was unwilling to exit at the book's end. He also explains high-level math with the ease of a real buff. Having written a non-fiction bio of Alan Turing beforehand, Leavitt now enjoys the distinction of being a first-class novelist who is also an expert in British gay mathematicians of the early 20th century!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A brilliant book!
This was a wonderful read! I read it when it came out and sent my praises to the author in the USA only to have it returned address unknown. Read more
Published 5 months ago by W. Scott
Convincing and absorbing evocation of an era
David Leavitt's novel, "The Indian Clerk", is a fictionalised evocation of an era, largely set in the years running up to and including the First World War in Britain, where the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Hywel James
An Indian in Trinity
David Leavitt uses an unusual literary device of setting the narrative in the voice of the main character, Harold Hardy, giving a lecture of would he would have like to have said. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Leonard
Should be 4 and an half stars!
This books should be better than it is. Mr Leavitt's style is elegant and graceful, flowing in almost exactly the right way. Read more
Published 23 months ago by A. R. Mash
Cambridge's Indian Summer
I'm surprised this has not been turned into a Brideshead Revisited/Jewel in the Crown-type television series or movie. Read more
Published on 22 Jun 2009 by John Fitzpatrick
The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt
Review of `The Indian Clerk' by David Leavitt
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is an excellent account of mathematicians and other academics at Cambridge between 1913 to... Read more
I really enjoyed reading this book. It is an excellent account of mathematicians and other academics at Cambridge between 1913 to... Read more
Published on 16 April 2009 by K. Singh
Enjoyable, but mostly fiction
This is a nicely written book, and if you like stories based on a framework of historical fact, then this might appeal to you. Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2009 by M. Ringrose
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