Mathematics

The third ��ranch��of Jacques Roubaud's epic, Proustian Great Fire of London, Math矇matique: is also an excellent entrance into the series. Adopting math as a career relatively late in his studies, Roubaud here narrates his difficulties both personal and pedagogical, while also investigating the role of mathematics in his life as a remedy to all the messiness of lived experience. �� sought out arithmetic,��he writes, ��o protect myself. But from what? At the time, I would probably have replied: from vagueness, from a lack of rigor, from 'literature.'��But mathematics also provide a refuge from human fears, and from coping, eventually, with tragedies like the death of his wife Alix. As with the previous volumes of The Great Fire of London, Math矇matique: is a riveting and humorous anecdotal memoir as well as a fiendishly digressive fiction about the functions of memory and the written word.