After reading Ogawa’s absolutely masterful novel The Memory Police, I was beyond excited to read more of her work and The Housekeeper and the Professor did not disappoint. What is first presented as a relatively simple and short story about the bond between a professor, his housekeeper, and her son quickly dives off of the introspective deep end and draws the reader underwater alongside our unlikely trio and their small—but impactful—encounters.

To be clear: I am not a math person. But, oh my god, the math… there were times when an equation made me want to tear up. Our two adult protagonists are each lost in their lives in their own ways; the housekeeper’s teenage pregnancy has forced her to work as as a housekeeper for the entirety of her adult life, giving her less time with her own son than she spends with her clients. The professor—who we learn was leading a rich life prior to his accident—has only an eighty-minute short-term memory that leaves him lost and alone in uncertainty more often than not. The housekeeper’s son, who the professor aptly calls Root, is the heart of their connection and the driving force behind much of the book’s action.

Ogawa’s writing is languid and descriptive and utterly mesmerizing. Though this book is much lighter than The Memory Police in terms of overall outlook and feeling at the ending, the questions it presents are much the same. At the end of it all, what do we want to carry with us from one day to the next? What’s more important: our memory of a person/event, or our internal understanding of its significance? Are you making the sort of memories you want to hold onto, and will you find comfort in them in the future? How do we bridge the gap of understanding and connect with others despite our differences?