Book Reviews of A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash

Outstanding book! A little slow starting because of the background detail Nasar includes, but worth the perseverance. An incredible story about Nobel prize-winner John Nash and his struggle and eventual victory over the incurable disease of schizophrenia.

Dense, rich biography of a fascinating person. Reveals much more than the great movie did.

A great book! More true and more tough that the movie made of it.

Engrossing, tragic and ultimately uplifiting -- particularly for one who parented a child that shares much with subject John Nash. The movie does not touch the depth of his story. This is a compelling book.

I became interested in this book after having seen the movie. I was not disappointed. John Nash was an unconventional Nobel Laureate, suffering from mental illness while still making significant contributions to science. A moving read.

Reading this award-winning biography was a can't-put-it-down experience for me, and I generally don't like biographies. A very interesting portrait of a brilliant, complex person. It's much better than the movie.

Beware, lots of technical background in science and math. However this information is essential in order to gain a real understanding of this man. Includes contemporary and up to date information on mental illness. I very much enjoyed this book.

A good book.Good character developement. Gets tedious towards the end.

Love this one!!! I believe it is one of my absolute favorites of all time. Great for all you Psych majors out there!

Spectacular and well-documented account of Nash's life. It is scholarly in approach but adds so much more to an understanding of Nash than the movie did. Difficult reading when explaining economic theory, but SO worth the effort. I keep buying copies to give away!

Stories of famously eccentric Princetonians abound--such as that of chemist Hubert Alyea, the model for The Absent-Minded Professor, or Ralph Nader, said to have had his own key to the library as an undergraduate. Or the "Phantom of Fine Hall," a figure many students had seen shuffling around the corridors of the math and physics building wearing purple sneakers and writing numerology treatises on the blackboards. The Phantom was John Nash, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his generation, who had spiraled into schizophrenia in the 1950s. His most important work had been in game theory, which by the 1980s was underpinning a large part of economics. When the Nobel Prize committee began debating a prize for game theory, Nash's name inevitably came up--only to be dismissed, since the prize clearly could not go to a madman. But in 1994 Nash, in remission from schizophrenia, shared the Nobel Prize in economics for work done some 45 years previously.

Economist and journalist Sylvia Nasar has written a biography of Nash that looks at all sides of his life. She gives an intelligent, understandable exposition of his mathematical ideas and a picture of schizophrenia that is evocative but decidedly unromantic. Her story of the machinations behind Nash's Nobel is fascinating and one of very few such accounts available in print (the CIA could learn a thing or two from the Nobel committees). This highly recommended book is indeed "a story about the mystery of the human mind, in three acts: genius, madness, reawakening

A little bit of a hard read if you're not into mathematics but his story is fascinating a well-told.

Wow! Amazing true story and it really reads like a novel.

a book about John Nash, Nobel Prize winner for math, and his struggle with madness

I thought this was a very difficult book to read, especially in the first 100 pages or so. The parts I had the most trouble with were the passages almost all about these theorem's and describing them, and how so and so got to them, how they work, what they do, ect... I know this is a book about a mathematical genius and obviously is going to have text about math, but since I am not a genius and I like to read into every paragraph, it was difficult for me to get try to grasp what she was saying. Maybe I just read into everything too much and should focus on the bigger picture, move on and leave it as that, but I don't. After you get past these rough passages though the book really is wonderful. I would read it again. I have never seen the movie but it can't possibly beat the book. Sylvia Nasar has done a fine job of letting us glimpse into the extraordinary life of John Nash.

I wanted to see this film when it came out but I have a personal rule to read "the book" first, even if I know the movie doesn't exactly follow the story. In this case I did enjoy both, though the movie left out some very important facts about the brilliant Nash's life. Read the book, don't assume you know it all after the film. I believe these were important facts involving the realities behind his mathematical genius. He changed the way we look at fields such as sociology, international negotiations, business...A truly human story with all the beautiful blemishes.

amazing snapshot of one man's attempt to fix the broken part of his powerful mind

John Nash was a legend by age thirty when he slipped into madness but, thanks to the selflessness of a beautiful woman, he emerged after decades to win the Nobel prize and world acclaim. this is a drama about the mystery of the human mind, triumph over incredible adversity and the healing power of love.

A great book, great movie.

The Award-Winning Bestseller is the true story of John Nash, the mathematical genius who was a legend age thirty when he slipped into madness, and who - thanks to the selflessness of a beautiful woman and the loyalty of the mathematics community - emerged after decades of ghost-like existence to win a Nobel Prize and world acclaim. The inspiration for a major motion picture, Sylvia Nasar's award-winning biography is a drama about the mystery of the human mind, triumph over incredible adversity, and the healing power of love.

I saw the movie and loved it-however I did not choose to read the book having already seen the movie of his story.

The true story of John Nash, the mathematical genius who was a legend by age 30 when he slipped into madness, and who--thanks to the selflessness of a beautiful woman and the loyalty of the mathematics community--emerged after decades of ghostlike existence to win a Nobel Prize and world acclaim. The inspiration for a major motion picture, a drama about the mystery of the human mind, triumph over incredible adversity, and the healing power of love.

Fascinateing book that reads like a novel. True story of Mathematical genius John Nash who came to believe he was communicateing with extraterestrials. An amazing saga of genius and maddness.

Like new condition, very interesting story of math genius.

Once again, ended up with two copies of this book~

It started very slowly; I like novels.

"..... the true story of John Nash, the mathematical genius who was a legend by age thirty when he slipped into madness, and who - thanks to the selflessness of a beautiful woman and the loyalty of the mathematics community - emerged after decades of ghost like existence to win a Nobel Prize and world acclaim. The inspiration for a major motion picture, Sylvia nasar's award-winning biography is a drama about th mystery of the human mind, triumph ovr incredible adversity, and the healing power of love"

Very interesting read.

The life of mathematical genius and nobel laureate John Nash. His story was made into a movie.

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