A Beautiful Mind

By: Sylvia Nasar

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

This is the powerful, dramatic biography of math genius John Nash, who overcame serious mental illness and schizophrenia to win the Nobel Prize. This book is the inspiration for the Academy Award-winning film starring Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly and directed by Ron Howard.

“How could you, a mathematician, believe that extraterrestrials were sending you messages?” the visitor from Harvard asked the West Virginian with the movie-star looks and Olympian manner. “Because the ideas I had about supernatural beings came to me the same way my mathematical ideas did,” came the answer. “So I took them seriously.”

Thus begins the true story of John Nash, the mathematical genius, who was already 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 ghostlike existence to win a Nobel Prize for triggering the game theory revolution.

The inspiration for an Academy Award–winning movie, Sylvia Nasar’s now-classic biography is a drama about the mystery of the human mind, triumph over adversity, and the healing power of love.

©1998 Sylvia Nasar (P)1999 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A Beautiful Mind tells a moving story and offers a remarkable look into the arcane world of mathematics and the tragedy of madness." ( New York Times Book Review)
"Nasar tells a story of triumph, tragedy, and enduring love." ( Library Journal)

A Flawed Geneus

This book details the relationships and accomplishments of a brilliant but deeply flawed and tragically fragile member of the elite of mathematics. He thrived in the uniquely tolerant world extreme math. But when math could not protect him from the “real” world, he became a

A masterpiece in research and storytelling

I am grateful for the opportunity to learn more about the enigmatic lives of Dr. Nash and Alicia and Eleanor, both remarkable women. This was an amazing story that far surpasses in truth and in depth the engaging but more superficial account as told in the movie.
For all of my praise for this book, there was a somewhat annoying flaw in the audio production.
The narrator was excellent. The editing, however, was not excellent as evidenced by at least a dozen times when several sentences were repeated.

A Lot of math.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Not really. It had too much about math for me.

If you’ve listened to books by Sylvia Nasar before, how does this one compare?

I don't think I have.

Have you listened to any of Anna Fields’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I don't think I have.

Did A Beautiful Mind inspire you to do anything?

No.

Any additional comments?

It dwelled too much on the math involved and the theories. I enjoyed the portions about his life, per se, and his personality, and the basic accomplishments in the math/game theory field, but there was entirely too much, for me, about the math part so that I almost quit half-way through.

Eye Opening

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I learned things about Nash that were very enlightening. Truly, he has a beutiful mind.

Good Story, Above average overall

Above average I would say but some of the math ideas and game theory explanations were complex to a regular guy such as myself. The story of Nash itself was interesting and held my attention. If you understand some of Nash's ideas or are familiar with his work then I would say this book is a must, and you shouldn't be reading my reviews anyway. I gave it 3 of five stars

Moving and technically challenging

Which character – as performed by Anna Fields – was your favorite?

Her narration was excellent overall, with no particular character being better than the others.

Any additional comments?

This is a standout biography that manages to combine some fairly detailed discussions of mathematics as a field, the scientific milieu of the 20th century, and mental illness and treatment in the 20th century, with a meticulous exploration of Nobel winner John Forbes Nash's life. The book is wonderful and the depth and breadth of the interviews conducted to make it possible is astounding. Sensitively written, but unflinchingly honest, this is a book well worth the time.

long book but worth the read

Sylvia does a great job of filling in many details and setting the scene for each part of the story. If I hadn't read this book I never would have realized just how wrong the movie adaptation was.

Nash had his first episode when he was 30 (long after he was going to school or working at Rand) and he never had visual hallucinations. He continued to work and publish throughout his illness and without medications. He refused meds after 1970 and experienced a "spontaneous remission" aka he got his symptoms under control and became functional and productive again all on his own. He also never posed a danger to his son—he wasn't even in the same country when he son was a baby. So basically Hollywood got everything wrong.

An honest examination of history is necessary to inform us for our own circumstances, and that's exactly what this book is. It's the TRUE story of a genius who suffered from a debilitating illness and ultimately recovered from it through his own volition.

Great reading!!

I especially enjoyed the reading by Anna Fields. The story was fascinating enough and Anna really made it come alive.

Edit this recording!

It is unacceptable for an Audible book to be so terribly edited. There are numerous instances of text being reread. Not one, not two, but many, many times. Stop offering this book until this is fixed!

Very... Thorough

That author spent a very long time on irrelevant topics, I very much doubt one has to know, say, the entire history of Princeton University to understand John Nash's story. Uses the word 'ostensibly' five times a chapter.