Thoughts on reading Love and Math by Edward Frenkel.

Love & Math is the exciting and accessible memoir of Mathematician Edward Frenkel, structured such that the mathematical theory developed in parallel with Frenkel’s academic journey; showing just how a young schoolboy interested in group theory can become a legend in the Langlands Program. Throughout the memoir, Frenkel expertly describes modern mathematics in layman’s terms (aided by terse footnotes, he is a mathematician, after all), thus achieving his stated goal of widening the audience to the beauty and excitement of mathematics.

Frenkels experience as a jewish mathematician in Soviet Russia plays a particular interest in the importance of this book. As Frenkel succedes against the will of the anti-semetic bureaucratic state, the audience is shown just how malleable, engulfing, and freeing the study of mathematics can be. The accounts of the absurd anti-semetism during the Moscow State University entrance exams are particularly harrowing, and remind the reader the immense power held by few actors that shape the intellectual pursuits of generations.

My only trouble with the book is its absolutist attitude towards mathematical realism. Frankel fully believes in a platonic realm of mathematics, and his proselytization dismisses the complexities of mathematical philosophy in general, and undermines the important work and ideas of mathematical constructionists and intuitionism.