Rating: 
Summary: a fascinating story, well written
Review: _A Beautiful Mind_, by Sylvia Nasar, is the biography of John Nash, who grew up a few hours from where I did before winding up at Princeton and MIT. He was (is) a mathematician, and a fascinating personal story. Brilliant and difficult when he was young, he slipped into and out of schizophrenia for decades, believing that aliens had made him emperor of Antarctica. He came out of it in the last few years, and was awarded the Nobel prize in economics recently. Far better written than many biographies of scientists, it respects his work without going into mathematical detail. A very compelling, well-documented read.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating, sensitive biography of a tragic, inspiring man.
Review: Nasar spins a marvellous story of a true genius, a man for whom outstanding accomplishments were never enough.Apparently Nash was a man who made breakthroughs simply because they were there to be made. He cared not if the world found them useful, only that others of his ilk found them intellectually impressive. Yet he has indelibly left his mark on his time and on those to follow. But that's not really the point of this book. Nash also spent the best years of his life battling a horrendous illness that made him virtually unable to work. That's not the point either. The point is that Nasar has managed to write the kind of biography one rarely sees but the world needs far more of. By placing Nash's work in the context of the man, his family, his friends, his peers, his time and his social environment the reader feels they progressively get to know the man, to feel a sense of connectedness with him. Yet, the way one feels about Nash is not always positive, for like all of us there are aspects on Nash not to be admired. But the key is that Nasar allows one to feel something. Far to many biographies leave one feeling one understands the work, but not the individual. For me, that is the point - and the value of this book. For those of a mathematical bent (as I must confess I am) the book is interesting. It must be - it outlines the life of one of the twentieth century's greats. But the real value of the book for me is the placing of the life in its context. For that Nasar should be congratulated. It would make a worthy addition to the library of anyone with an interest in exploring the subject of what moves us to do what we do.
Rating: 
Summary: fun to read in spite of the writing
Review: This is not a very well written book. The unfolding of Nash's character is quite choppy, and often based too much on rumor or recollection 40 years after the fact. Coverage of all technical material, which is almost never adequately explained, seems planned to convey an air of mathematical sophistication about the author...but it's only the mathematical equivalent of name dropping. Nasar is clearly out of her league here. Nevertheless, the subject matter saves it. It is definitely worth reading. It is perhaps subtle but the author appears to have an axe to grind with economics, or at least has not much respect for the beat she covers at NYT. Thus, I agree with the reviewer below who says you cannot understand Nash's contribution to economics or political science based on this book--which is unfortunate because it is profound. Incidentally, Nasar's claim that the Nobel Committee has restructured the Prize in economics is completely unfounded, at least if the 4 prizes awarded since Nash's are any indication.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent story of a troubled man
Review: The book is well written by Sylvia Nasar. After reading this book, you can't help but wonder how much one can attribute John's illness with his total selfishness in life. It seems to me, that had he not been so brilliant, he would have had to learn to treat people better well before he reached his 50's and 60's. I found it particularly shameful at how he treated the two woman in his life and his two boys. It seems clear that had John not been a genius, his life would have been incredibly aweful and that it was only his genius that kept him off the streets. That alone is a sad reality about mental illness. Clearly, John was one of the very lucky ones.
Rating:
Summary: A great story told well
Review: This story was so good to begin with all it needed was a writer who could present it without ruining it. I thought Sylvia Nassar did a terrific job with all the facts and being unbiased yet sympathetic towards Nash. I thought the most interesting part was Nash's own comments on his work and his mental state, along with the descriptions of his early mathematical achievements. Being an extremeley poor mathemitician, I was in absolute awe of Nash's acheivements, the least of which I could not begin to even formulate into a question, or an idea, let alone comprehend. A truly excellent book.
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Summary: A Beautiful Mind is a compassonate, excellent biography.
Review: A Beautiful Mind is truly a compassionate biography, if not the best, among the many I have read, certainly among the very best. Some years ago there was in The New York Times an article you wrote about John Nash. I saved it for I found it intriguing. Thus, when the opportunity came to have a copy of your book, I took it without second thoughts. It should be required reading for psychology courses. Those preparing to be teachers should be required to read it. There is so much in the book that intrigued me, and I shall read it again to absorb more. That John Nash intuitively determined answers to math problems, and then figured out the methods of getting there was enlightening, for this was true for me in geometry and in a doctoral-level statistics course. No one I knew did that. How very frustrating it must have been for John Nash when he could not perform his mathematical functions. What a tremendous tragedy, not alone for him and his family, but for all of us. That others are building on his work is gratifying. However, would it not be wonderful if he achieved another milestone. Thank you, Sylvia Nassar, for providing us with the gift of A Beautiful Mind. Sincerely, Sally Ann Vervaeke Helf
Rating:
Summary: A good book, could have been a lot better
Review: The book painted a vivid picture of what pschizophrenia is for a person who never really understood what it means to be schizophrenic, and that for me was the most interesting part of the novel. Also some insight is given into the nature of genius, and how precious it is. But overall it did not flow very nicely and had many redundancies that became annoying after a while making the book more difficult to read than it might have been. probably a few pages could have been cut here and there.
Rating: 
Summary: Get Me Rewrite
Review: Sylvia Nasar did a great deal of research for her biography of John Nash. Unfortunately, she just typed her notes into her word processor and Simon & Schuster published it. I cannot tell if this is the fault of Ms. Nasar or her (unacknowledged) editor who should have recommended that she mold all of her research into a narrative, instead of just throwing it at the reader. After listening to talk shows in which the author described John Nash's fascinating life, it was a great disappointment to slog my way through what I expected to be a wonderful biography of a unique genius. I think that one would get more out of reading the New York Times profile of Nash, from which this book was extrapolated, or listening to the author's ad lib recollections than from trudging through this repetitive work. If you must read a recent biography of a great mathematician, may I recommend Paul Hoffman's "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers." Hoffman's series of anecdotes paints a better description of a man than Nasar's use of thousands of redundant interview quotes.
Rating:
Summary: A Major work of biographical literature
Review: This is a great work, comparable perhaps only to Skidelsky's bio of Keynes. Most bios are of sympathetic, yet flawed figures. What is amazing is that the book is so well written and plotted that it is hard to put down, and yet Nash is a childish, inhumane and rather unsympathetic man. I have seen the hollowed figure of Nash around Princeton. He is a quiet strange and distant soul. But this work brings his genius and his flaws to a brilliant light.
Rating:
Summary: Read Genius or Fermat's Last Theorem instead.
Review: Here is what I learned from this book: John Nash was a gifted mathematician and a complete jerk. Before I read the book I was hoping that I would find out that there was this great mathematician who tragically gets schizophrenia. After reading it I found that I simply could not feel bad for Nash. Every time his schizophrenia would go into remission he would go right back to being a complete jerk to everyone. Some people never learn. I would recommend reading Genius by James Gleick or Fermats Last Theorem by Simon Singh instead.
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