A Beautiful Mind - The TRUE Story of John Nash

I was drawn to purchase A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash by Sylvia Nasar because I was utterly fascinated by the movie. I was hoping the book would clear up a few points of confusion I had, and give me greater insight into John Nash. The book has held me mesmerized for the past few days, but it is nothing like Hollywood’s version of Nash’s life.

I would not recommend this book to a casual reader. It is a very formal biography, complete with endnotes and requires some concentration to follow. A basic knowledge of college-level mathematics would also serve to make this book a more interesting read. I have a B.S. in mathematics, and some of the topics discussed made even my head hurt. It is unfortunate the cover features the same title as the movie and the cover bears Russell Crowe’s face. I am sure marketers are merely trying to sell books, but this ploy is a bit misleading. This is not a novel; it is a very scholarly biography.

In Hollywood’s version, John Nash was a mildly eccentric, handsome mathematician who suffered from and overcame paranoid schizophrenia. He was a heroic figure, and his recovery was due to sheer willpower. The movie version of Nash was mildly arrogant, charming, and an extremely gifted mathematician. The movie ends with Nash in triumph as the winner of the Nobel Prize and the respect of his peers. That was Hollywood. The real Nash was extremely arrogant, socially inept, rude, abrasive, and an extremely gifted mathematician. I use the past tense because that sentence describes John Nash before he had a psychotic break when he was 30 years old.

Nash has since experienced a spontaneous recovery or remission from his mental illness. Now, he is much less arrogant and seems to be able to relate to people better than before his illness. However, the Nobel was not the end of his story. John Nash is still very much alive and is trying desperately to make a new contribution in mathematical research.

Nasar’s presentation of Nash’s life is sympathetic but honest. She makes no attempt to sugarcoat Nash or turn him into a hero. I have great respect for Nasar’s ability to show me John Nash through the eyes of others and through his actions. Nasar interviewed the important players in Nash’s life, and from those interviews, I was able to get a very good sense of both Nash, and his friends. It was sad to see how desperately some of Nash’s former friends and acquaintances struggled to distance themselves from Nash. It was inspirational, however, to see how many people truly stood by Nash even when his illness made doing so quite unpleasant.

While reading the book, I assumed that a mathematician had written it. Nasar seemed to have a true understanding of the contributions Nash made during the height of his career. It was only after finishing the book that I discovered that Nasar’s expertise is in journalism and not mathematics. I can imagine the level of research that must have been required.

Another thing I enjoyed about this book is that Nasar took the time to show why Nash’s contributions to mathematics were important in the real world. An entire chapter near the end of the book is devoted to the demonstration of an actual application of Nash’s work in game theory (the work that won him the Nobel in Economics). Nash’s work is relatively unknown to most people. I was a math major and never heard of Nash until I saw the movie. I can’t help but wonder the potential contributions Nash could have made had he not become ill.

A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash by Sylvia Nasar is not an easy read at times. However, it is almost always an interesting one. Nasar exposed sides of Nash that were never even hinted at in the movie. Hollywood managed to leave out some of the best stuff: Nash’s mistress and illegitimate son, his homosexual experimentations, the divorce from his wife and subsequent remarriage are never mentioned in the movie. Nasar showed us the true John Nash. Hollywood showed us an idealized shadow of the man. No, this book is not an easy read, but it is definitely an interesting and worthwhile one.

Two final notes: If you have not seen the movie, please do so before you read the book. The movie stands on its own as an excellent and inspirational story. It is highly fictionalized though, and reading the book first might endanger the magic of Hollywood’s vision. Finally, I cannot honestly recommend this book to most of my friends (hence the contradiction between my star rating and the recommended checkbox). Most mainstream readers will probably not enjoy this book unless they have a technical or mathematical background.