The Mind-Body Problem (Contemporary American Fiction) by Rebecca Goldstein (PDF)

Description

The hilarious underground bestseller about one woman’s pursuit of carnal pleasure—and the philosophy that gets in the way. When Renee Feuer goes to college, one of the first lessons she tries to learn is how to liberate herself from the restrictions of her Orthodox Jewish background. As she discovers the pleasures of the body, Renee also learns about the excitements of the mind. She enrolls as a philosophy graduate student, then marries Noam Himmel, the world-renowned mathematician. But Renee discovers that being married to a genius is a less elevating experience than expected, and that the allure of sex still beckons. Her quest for a solution to the conflicting demands of sensuality and spirit is a touching and always humorous adventure. “Terrific. . . . The first fifty or so pages are so clever and funny that I had to put the book down and go to the fridge to cool off.”—The New York Times Book Review “A terrific first novel . . . Goldenstein is intelligent and perceptive, bawdy and witty—an articulate writer of great talent.”—The Los Angeles Times Book Review

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From Publishers Weekly Goldstein’s The Dark Sister is a cleverly constructed, imaginative tale that centers on a tormented feminist novelist whose solitude is interrupted only by phone calls from her silly but dangerous sister; March will also bring Penguin’s reissue of Goldstein’s penetrating coming-of-age novel The Mind-Body Problem , about an orthodox Jewish woman’s sexual awakening at college. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. About the Author Rebecca Newberger Goldstein received her doctorate in philosophy from Princeton University. Her award-winning books include the novels The Mind-Body Problem, Properties of Light, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, and nonfiction studies of Kurt Gödel and Baruch Spinoza. Her most recent work, Plato at the Googleplex, was released by Pantheon Books in March of 2014. She has received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, has been designated a Humanist of the Year and a Freethought Heroine, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She lives in Massachusetts.Rebecca Goldstein is represented by Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau (prhspeakers.com).

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Those of us who follow and admire the work of Rebecca Goldstein recognize this 1980’s novel as a kind of apologia pro vita sua with its blend of yiddishkeit and profound philosophical insight interwoven with some raunchy events and instincts. In other words, the full and tentatively creative life of the novel’s protagonist, Renee Feuer, student, lover and scholarly drifter, mirroring steps in the life and development of Rebecca Goldstein, to my mind one of the great thinkers and personalities of our time. The plot centers on the not-so-happy marriage of Renee, a doctoral candidate in philosophy at Princeton, to Noam Himmel, a world-recognized “genius” in mathematics who teaches there. Renee has manipulated the marriage to give herself status in the face of her acute self-doubt about her own academic prowess. The “mind-body” problem (does the mind exist independently of the body), Renee’s chosen area of study and research, underlays the relationship and the novel itself. The “problem” is in large part the continuing dispute over Spinoza’s psycho-physical parallelism as to which that giant of philosophy anticipated today’s neuroscience by reducing feelings and emotions to their physical source in the human anatomy. For Noam, the mathematician, the dispute is irrelevant since numbers and equations derive their validity independently of human intervention and the marriage founders on Noam’s lack of feeling for the “body” and very soon, Renee. The philosophic and amatory discussions in the novel are stimulated by a somewhat more focused friend of Renee’s, Ava, a marvelous invention who “understands everything” and a heavy, almost destructive extra-marital affair with another mathematician, Daniel Korper. Renee’s mother, a Yiddish “worrier” and Renee’s Orthodox sister-in-law, Tzippy, lend a Jewish counterpoint to Renee’s mind-body preoccupation – as with Goldstein herself, her Jewish heritage insinuates itself into her work and the novel’s play whether she likes it or not. Spinozist that I am, I don’t see what all of the philosophical fuss is about (the blessed one proved his case beyond a doubt, validated by Darwin, Freud and the human genome), but the book itself is a good academic yarn and the sex isn’t bad. The resolution of the relationship between Renee and Noam is – well, read the book!

⭐Profound and superficial at the same time… okay, maybe a bit much, but it is an entertaining read for the philosophically-minded. For those that understand… I have a discovered a truth that would shed light on the “problem”. I am Thought. Once you realise that, many so-called “problems” become moot. All of them: free will, morality, life vs death, etc. They’re all in the realm of thought-we are natural organisms, period! The human brain and it’s capacity to create a free standing image is the crux of all of our mental existence. It’s purely physiological. Awareness is animal (sensory), thought is memory (physiological), the combination creates a sensation that a “person” exists inside of you that you call “me”. Our animal nature is what we crave to be (to be rid of this illusion), by means of sex, art, sports, science, food, to be absorbed in the moment which is where pure awareness lies… when you understand this, the answers to mankind’s perennial questions become clear and obvious. The mind-body “problem” becomes moot.

⭐Started out slow–a lot of Jewish girl trying to escape from orthodox tyranny along with a lot of whining. She goes to Princeton to earn a PhD in philosophy, but loses interest or loses her bravery and instead opts out by marrying a PhD–a celebrated math genius. Each chapter begins with a quote from a famous philosopher, and the book weaves a philosophy lesson into each chapter. The story is frankly a little slow and self indulgent, but the ending made up for a lot of that

⭐Starts a bit slowly and with perhaps a few too many clichés about Jews in America and academe. Just when I was about to give up, about a third into the book, the unexpected happens, it suddenly picks up and becomes a riveting story of relationships and inner loves between people at odds with one another. Perceptive, intelligent, elegant, often profound, it ends on a high note and makes you want more.

⭐I enjoyed following this book as it sketches the path of a 25 year old woman from an orthodox jewish background who at once attempts to break cultural patterns and fulfill them. The main character is on a path to discover her personal truth in relation to the world of which she finds herself a part of. I enjoyed the references to philosophy. Anyone who wonders how they ended up the person that they have become could appreciate this story.

⭐Although a promising fictional setup, the book lacked enough “meat”. When Nietzsche Wept was masterfully executed in comparison. I suppose it depends also on where you are in your life. I would go as far as call it “the banality problem”, but not to take it lightly, on the contrary, banality is creeping all around us and understanding it is important, so in that sense it does accomplish enough. In closing I think that one line from the book summarizes it perfectly for me: “Poor dear, you concentrate too much on the orgasms of life”…

⭐To have characters so real talk about fundamental issues while living out their lives in a messy, human, so believable way. This is fourth book I’ve read by Rebecca, may life be good to her.

⭐To be married to a self involved genius, and the loneliness of it, put into intellectual terms. Does mind rule body or body mind? This is an interesting tale about a young Jewish philosopher and her mathematician husband.

⭐Surprised me. Very well written and thoughtful. Good story with some deep insights.

⭐I thought I was going to enjoy this book as I like philosophy as well as reading and I though this would be a nice blend of the two. Instead I got a self obsessed Jewish heroine who marries an alleged mathematical genius who doesn’t treat her very well. Then she meets Mr Right who turns out to only like her as a good lay which isn’t enough for her although she is still married. I think the idea of the book is that you can throw in some ideas about the mind body problem and do we exist out there or only in here and then make it manifest in the relationships in the book. As a great believer in the social construction of reality, this all seemed like a lot of contrived tosh after a while and I got tired of the heroine’s introspection and philosophical musings. Also, the whole book takes place against the background of Princeton which is a kind of academic paradise where you go to parties and discuss stuff earnestly and there are no ordinary people with simple values and that all gets rather tiresome after a bit and you long for the real world. Anyway, you get the picture. I didn’t like it much. Sorry!

⭐I have not received it yet, althouth the deadline is long past. What else can I say to fulfill the fourteen words requirement?

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