Rating: 
Summary: Biography that almost writes itself
Review: Initially I was drawn to the book, but on seeing its length, I did not feel that I could sustain interest for 400 pages of small print.However,The high reccomendations given, convinced me to give it a try and was pleasantly surprised.Part I of the book was of particular interest,tracking the development of a genius and his ideas with interludes into their backgrounds. His peculiar character made this journey even more interesting and in some respects - entertaining. However my interest wained as the story progressed and his personal life became more of the focus (although it must be said, such a lengthy and detailed description was neccesary in many respects, particulary in nurturing the readers emotional attachment to Nash and his wife Alica). Nevertheless the accounts of Nash's descent in madness once again restored my attention, which despite moments where schizophrenia failed to seem all that bizarre, remained until the dramatic conclusion. The exposure of Nobel prize politics was intruiging and informative, and provided a livley end to the story of John Forbes Nash.Sylvia Nasar deserves credit for her extensive and thorough account of Nash's life. She also must be highly commended for producing a biography of a mathematican/economist that could be read and enjoyed by just about anyone- but I'm sure she will be the first to admit that Nash's twisted mind made this possible.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Book I've Read in the Last 10 Years
Review: This was probably the best book I've read in the last ten years. I stayed up three nights in a row to finish it (which is saying a lot when you have a two-year old!). Part of the fascination lay in the fact that I grew up in Princeton, my Dad was at the Plasma Physics Lab and my family knew a lot of people in the book. Also, Nash and his family live about a mile from me. But beyond that, it is simply a breathtaking story told extremely well. The book affected me very much on an emotional level, yet I did not feel a lot of sympathy for most of the characters. To me, the only hero in the whole book is Nash's son John by his mistress Eleanor. Nash's behavior towards this child (allowing/forcing him to be kept in foster homes and even an orphanage for the first six years of his life because he didn't want to provide money to his working-class mother so she could keep him with her) is nothing more than the most callous child abuse imaginable. This son has a history which is very common in children who grow up to be sociopathic criminals. It is truly amazing how well this kid turned out. I felt sorry for the mother of this child, yet she allowed this to go on for six years in the hopes that Nash would marry her, when she could have simply taken her child back and found someway to struggle through. Nash's parents knew of this child and did nothing. Nash's fiance, later wife, Alicia, apparently wasn't concerned that the man she was about to marry was capable of this kind of behavior. Her desire to marry a famous man and move in celebrity circles outweighed the obvious conclusion that if Nash could do this to one woman and child, he could do it to another. Presumably she felt that her social status and education would protect her. I do also feel sorry for his schizophrenic son by Alicia. Not only did he have the genetic load he inherited from his father, but growing up with a schizophrenic father must have been very difficult. A friend of mine had a father who was a professor at Princeton and who became schizophrenic after he was married with three children. He used to tell her things like "the Nazis are putting thoughts in my mind." You can imagine the fear and terror that living with an frankly insane parent would generate in a young child. According to the book, Nash has still not yet fully accepted his older son in that he criticizes him for not having obtained a professional degree. Yet his younger son, who has a Ph.D., suffers from mental illness and his degree has brought him neither success nor happiness. So, in spite of all that Nash has been through and learned, he doesn't seem to have come to the famous insight reached by St. Theresa: "We are not called upon to be successful; we are called upon to be faithful." In the end, Alicia redeemed herself and Nash through her faithfulness. Nash has been faithful only to mathematics. It is his great good fortune that so many have chosen to be faithful to him.
Rating:
Summary: Very Well Presented
Review: While reading "A Beautiful Mind," I was overwhelmed with the thought of how much work must have gone into this book. Correspondence between several of the main characters is quoted at length, almost every incidental character in Nash's life has been interviewed and included, on almost every page tiny facts about Nash's life are presented as tidbits. This is not to say that Nasar gets caught up in the minutiae of Nash's life; to the contrary I was amazed at how well Nasar has sifted through so much information to present us with a throughly compelling 480 page account. With the skill of a practiced storyteller, Nasar knows just which facts to present and when to present them. For instance, when it is revealed that Nash misses out on ranking in the top 5 nationally on a prestigious test, Nasar explains (with both analysis and anecdotes) what exactly this meant to Nash and why it is an important part of the narrative. Nasar's ability to separate the important from the trivial is central to the success of "A Beautiful Mind" as it is a quite thorough biography of Nash's life. The story starts out with Nash's modest upbringing, continuining through to his meteoric rise in academia, his sudden plunge into insanity, and his (hopefully) final return to the academic world he left. Although Nash is larger than life, Nasar does not engage in hero-worship; she presents Nash's life truthfully, warts and all. Additionally, Nasar uses her knowledge to explain important things such as why solving a certain problem was such an important achievement, or how schizophrenia (Nash's affliction) works. There are two problems I have with this book. Neither of them are substantial, but they do merit mention. First, when Nasar gets into some of the more technical aspects of Nash's life (i.e. his mathematics), her prose can become dry and bulky. This would have been a better book if Nasar had more practice in explaining difficult concepts to the layperson. Second, Nasar's style too often drops into nothing more than a list of events. Although much of this book is infused with excellent narration and much-needed insight, some of it reads like a list of events. Neither of these caveats should undully take away from the excellent job Nasar had done with this book or deter a reader from learning about one of the most interesting men of the 20th century.
Rating:
Summary: beautifully written biography of a complex man
Review: Sylvia Nasar writes a wonderful biography of the life of John Nash. We see Nash as an unhappy child who finds success in mathematics and becomes both arrogant and self-centered. He sets high goals but falls short failing to win the Fields medal. Yet he makes phenomenal mathematical discoveries and his work in game theory had a major impact in the field of economics. Alicia is a wonderful wife who keeps things together when John starts having his bouts with depression and insanity. At times he is unable to function and then at other times he recovers and shows signs of his former brilliance. We feel that we understand him. The Nobel Prize in economics would rightfully have been his long ago because of tremendous impact of his equilibrium theory. However, it seems that the Nobel committee is reluctant to award the prize to someone who needs to spend much of his time in a mental institution. Miraculously Nash recovers in the 1990s and is awarded the prize in 1995. The story is heartwarming and reads like great fiction but it is actually true!
Rating: 
Summary: poorly written and exploitive
Review: I read this book because 1) I used to work with and around mathmaticians, 2) I've had some experience with the mentally ill, and 2) I live in Cambridge where some of the action takes place. This book was so bady written it was very painful to read. The style was very choppy and inconsistent. It seeemd like the author couldn't make up her mind what tone to take or who she imagined her readers to be. The specific material itself was very meagre. So the author used a lot of tricks to stretch it out and pad it. There was a lot of half baked speculation. A lot of "perhaps this" and "this may be why". In one paragraph alone I counted nearly 8 'may's. The whole book was done in a sloppy and slipshod fashion. Transparent attempts at pretending to be sympathetic towards Nash were very common. This book was obviously just written to exploit Nash's Nobel notoriety. The actual text is 388 pages. But it could have easily been much shorter, probably around 220. The padding with pointless speculations and extraneous material is obvious throughout. The worst example of padding is the 35 page notes section. The author heavily footnotes the text as if it were an article in a scholarly journal! (Instead of the lurid supermaket tabloid style expose that it is.) If any other biographer wanted Ms. Nasar's sources, they could conceivably contact her. But to include these in a mass market paperback boggles the mind! Anyway, this book does show that John Nash is a very interesting man. It is a pity that a more competent and sympathetic biographer hasn't come forward to tell his story. I would not recommend buying this book. You would do better to check it out of a library and skim through it.
Rating:
Summary: Glimpse into brilliance and madness
Review: The story of John Nash and his life's work, both in mathematics and in his personal affairs, is captured in detail in this biography by Sylvia Nasar. Through exhaustive research and interviews, she paints a deft picture of the man, leading the reader to see the plunge into schizophrenia that was at first thought to be nothing more than his characteristic eccentricity. As I read through the book, I kept thinking to myself, Has Nash read this account himself, and what would he have to add? It is apparent in the account that Nasar had access to transcripts of interviews and conversations of others in reporting his perceptions. Most interesting are his self assessments of the illness and his ability to evaluate and "contain" himself when certain thoughts or ideas enter into his consciousness. Certainly, key to his recovery is the fact that he is allowed his own space, and I have great respect for this journalist who did not intrude for the sake of her writing. She also did a wonderful job of showing how the care and concern of his friends and family were probably instrumental in effecting his recovery. Their actions, taken at personal risk and with concern for another human being over their own comfort, are a testament to their compassion. I also found the description of the mathematics community as a whole to be fascinating reading. I have grown up in a world populated by those in related fields. My father and grandfather are engineers; my sister-in-law is an engineer; my younger brother is well-known worldwide in his field of research in physics. I took the classes and even understood them, but I am a storyteller and teacher, not a scientist. The interesting camaraderie of this community of scholars, and the portrayal of them as really kind of regular people with intense interests in a discipline that is so remote for most of us was very reassuring. I, too, enjoy the challenge of games, but never realized it was the basis of serious mathematical thought and study!
Rating: 
Summary: IN THE INDEX, WHERE'S FEYNMAN?
Review: Please do NOT print my review of yesterday. It contains an inexcusable overstatement regarding the number of American mathematicians discussed in the book. If it is too late to withdraw the review, please do not fail to also print this addendum to it. Thank you. -- lloyd rowsey
Rating:
Summary: An ironic title to a very well written science biography
Review: I was looking for a gift for a friend, when I first bumped into this book. But I debated long and hard whether to buy it or not, because I thought that it would be a little bit too "mushy" for my male, engineer friend. What I found was that this book is for everyone! "A beautiful mind" is a very well written science biography. It is thorough, carefully researched to the last, and insightful in an easy accessible way. It covers a number of interesting subjects: mental illness, mathematics and economics, life in the academic world, "behind the scenes" politics in the Nobel committee, and obviously the complex personality of John Forbes Nash Jr. The author, Sylvia Nasar, manages cleverly to link these contrasting worlds in a fascinating and easily comprehensible way, so you do *not* have to be a mathematician or a doctor to appreciate this biography. The first part of this biography, focuses on the genius of John Forbes Nash, Jr. Achieving his doctorate at age 21 is very impressive! The middle part focuses on his mental illness, the downfall and "lost" state of mind. I found myself completely absorbed by this part of the book, and I kept wishing for Nash to get better. The last part of this fascinating book includes Nash's recovery, and also quite a bit on the intriguing world behind the Nobel Prize. Recently I discussed this book with my former English teacher at University, and we agreed that the title "A beautiful mind" must be meant in an ironic way. Because, trust me, there is nothing really beautiful about John Nash. Read the book and you will see what I mean. The one part that has been with me since I finished the book is the part where Nash comments on the work that got him the Nobel Prize. He says something like "If one suffers and recovers from schizophrenia, and then wins the Nobel prize for work done *after* the recovery, well *that* would be amazing" (..Referring to that his work was done before he got the diagnosis schizophrenic). A great read!
Rating:
Summary: A Movie starring Russell Crowe
Review: Sylvia Nasar's book is a great read. And hopefully, it will be made into a great movie. Russell Crowe will be starring as John Nash sometime this Spring when he comes to Princeton (and New York) to begin filming the film adaptation of Nasar's book. Jennifer Connelly will be Alicia Nash, I think. Anyways, the book is a great story of an incredible mind within a quirky, sometimes off-putting personality. Some of the reviewers of the book have said that they couldn't feel sorry for Nash because of how arrogant and cold he sometimes was to his colleagues and family. But I think this misses the point: those suffering from mental illness (and I think Nash's genius was always 60% madness) deserve sympathy, not reproach. This is a riveting tale of a young man (he graduated with his Ph.D from Princeton when he was 21!) who was extremely smart in a magical way. And it's also a story of human tragedy. I'm not being terribly descriptive, but I recommend the book if you are interested in the concept of genius, the academic world or mental illness. Finally, it's nice to know that Nash still walks the halls in Fine here at Princeton, trying to disprove the theory that math is a young man's game...
Rating:
Summary: Very well written
Review: An extremely well written book. Thorough, well researched to the last and insightful. A great biography by a brilliant author. I am minded of RD Laing's phrase here - Nash's schizophrenia was "a sane response to an insane world". And so we sympathise with him. The world Nash inherited was not an everyday world; his incredible expectations of himself, the priveleges and brutal realities of high academia, all-american-boy competitiveness, the stark and strange landscape of advanced mathematics, cold war paranoia, an era of acute sexual repression; a world more insane than we dare to tread in. Four stars because Nash disappointed me. Not such an interesting guy. A brilliant mathematician - but why would a man turn his back on family, love, a young son, kindness, life's pleasures...for the sake of a few equations. We all make choices.
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