Review: The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung

First off, let me explain: I am not a mathematician. The Tenth Muse is a book about mathematicians and math. Math is almost another character — complete with beauty, emotion, elusiveness, and suspense. Having said that, the book is an amazingly compelling story of the life of Katherine, a gifted young girl who becomes a talented mathematician still searching for the parts of her that feel absent. The story centers on her Asian heritage, the meaning of family and identity, and the events of World War II. 

Chung does a beautiful job of weaving the story around the theme of mathematics – almost drawing me into the romance with math itself. My husband, a former math major, explained some concepts and ideas to me so that I could follow the context, but one could easily skip those details and still follow the story. Yet, having some background allowed me a peek into a world of mystery and allure previously invisible to me.

In a career where she is constantly told, “If you were only a man,” and at a time when women very rarely achieved anything in the field of math, Katherine’s struggles as an overly bright young girl only worsened in her role as the only woman. The story is multi-layered, even as Katherine states the same thing about life: “There is the story you think you are living in, and then there is the invisible, secret, unguessed-at core of that story, around which everything else evolves”.

As a historian, I loved reading about the city and the University of Gottingen where the citizens embraced the Nazis rather than simply putting up with them as other universities had. Years later this cast a pall over the city and university life. As the chairman of the Math Department declared: “I do not think that as a country we are reckoning with our history. I do not think we are facing up to what we did… The tyranny of history is that it’s always too late for justice, the price is always too high”. This seems applicable to the United States’ history of racism and thus is especially relevant today.

While the war is ever-present, this book at its heart is a love story – a love of many kinds at different times and places. As one character exclaims, “What terrible things we do to each other… in the name of love.” Katherine’s story illustrates that with deep emotion. Yet, in all the complexity and turmoil of love, Katherine learns that we have only the gift of ourselves. A lesson all of us must learn.

Obviously, I really enjoyed this book. It’s a page-turner, full of the twists and turns of life, and then some. I confess my dismay when first discovering the mathematical context, but I am so glad I forged ahead. Catherine Chung is a wonderful storyteller with a charming writing style and a most creative imagination. Moreover, she is a mathematician herself!  

The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and local booksellers. Published by Harper Collins, New York, 2019. This article contains affiliate links, so if you order your book using the link above, we mae a small percentage of the sale.