Rating: 
Summary: Good biography of an interesting subject
Review: A very interesting book about John Nash, the mathematician who extended John von Neumann's work on game theory into the realm of multi-player games. It is also an interesting look at Nash's schizophrenia, his descent into madness and his slow struggle to emerge from it. This element of the book is probably its best part; the chapters about how the spectral Nash haunted Princeton in the 1970s and 1980s as he slowly recovered his rationality are particularly fascinating. The book is very well written and readable. My criticism of it is basically on two minor counts: first, the book doesn't give enough information on the importance of John Nash's work on the study of economics, and therefore one is not sure where Nash's work stands in the scheme of things; second, the young Nash is a somewhat unsympathetic character and without the perspective of his relative importance or unimportance, one doesn't know how to judge this. Was he a jerk who advanced mankind's knowledge significantly or was he just a jerk? Overall, though, the book is very good.
Rating: 
Summary: A compelling exploration of a brilliant mind
Review: This is a superb book. Even though the reader is fully aware of how the story ends, the drama builds throughout as Nasar gracefully weaves details of Nash's life together. The book provides a fascinating view of the making of a true genius, and then an even more powerful view of his near destruction by mental illness and, eventually, his remarkable steps toward recovery. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: It's definately worth reading
Review: Did you ever wonder what it might be like to hang it with geniuses working together on a common goal? That what it must have been like at Princeton in the late 40s and early 50s. I loved this book because it gives us a glimpse into that kind of world. As a highly isolated economics student trying to finish his dissertation, Nasar's book made me feel like I wasn't alone. I still can't get over the fact that Nash's dissertation was just 27 pages long!!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read
Review: A Beautiful Mind is a telling story of brillance gone astray, and its return. Whether Nashs' illness had biological origins or came about as a result of his eventual sense of mortality, Nasar succeeds in portraying him as the scientific hero he truly became. Anyone with an interest in the hidden workings of a stellar mind will enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Beutiful Book About A Singular Tragedy
Review: In the first few chapters of this book you learn to dislike John Nash. His arrogance and insensitivity are definitely not endearing traits. When schizophrenia captures his mind your first reaction is to think bad Karma has caught up with him. But as the pages and the years go buy you become deeply saddened by this man's loss. It is gratifying that Princeton and its academic staff stood by Nash, and kindly let him wander about the Math department for almost thirty years. His ex wife is an heroic individual who took care of him even though divorced from him. Another tragedy is Nash's mentally ill son who was granted a PhD from Rutgers and who has been unable to do anything with it in the 13 years since. You are, however, overjoyed at John Nash's mental resurrection in the 1990s. A well written book. Scientists reading this book should note that unlike many science biographies this is not a book heavy with mathematical theorems. It's about a life. I have one nitpicky complaint. The author spends a lot of time discussing the symptoms and treatment of schizophrenia. Yet when mental illness strikes other people in the book she uses trite, meaningless terms like "nervous breakdown" and "mental collapse". That's like referring to a physical ailment as "the vapors". Won't we ever bury such stupid terms?
Rating:
Summary: The Strange Life and Times of John Nash
Review: This is a superb account of an egocentric mathematician and his mileu. People laboring under the delusion that mathematicians are stuffy people grappling ineffectually with sterile abstractions may pleasantly unlearn their axioms after reading this book. There are several vivid snapshots of the Princeton club, and men like Von Neumann, Einstein, Godel and Emil Artin stroll across these pages as fully fleshed human beings. It is hard not to despise Nash for his obsession with himself at the expense of such incidental fellow-travellers as his mother, wife and sons. The annoying thing is that it is equally hard not to admire him. This book ranks alongside Alan Hodges' biography of Alan Turing (Enigma) as one of the finest accounts of the human side of the life of a significant mathematician.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent summary of a brilliant and sorrowful life
Review: I finished this book on John Nash's 70th birthday (June 13, 1998) and was profoundly moved - historiams and biographers might wince at the dramatized life of this unusual subject - but they would fail to appreciate the real drama if they do. Answers to complex mathematical questions can only be found on higher grounds of human reason - beyond logic at times, and beyond what most would call reason itself. Unless we delve into the Nash's of the world - we ignore what humans might become in the future. Today my life is richer.
Rating:
Summary: Superb!
Review: "A Beautiful Mind", by Sylvia Nasar is "gift"! It is a work of art!
Rating: 
Summary: Jim Holt, SLATE, 5/28/98
Review: "Absolutely fascinating...this superb book...reveals quite a lot about the psychic continuum leading from mathematical genius to madness...Nasar [also] shows her mettle as a reporter...by penetrating the veil of secrecy surrounding the Nobel..."
Rating:
Summary: PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 5/11/98
Review: "Nasar has written a notable biography....[She] is equally adept at probing the puzzle of schizophrenia and giving a nontechnical context for Nash's mathematical and scientific ideas."
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