Friday, July 2, 2010

The Professor's House: Review


I enjoyed this story of a professor facing middle age who discovers that he has quite a disconnect with most of the people in his life. He thought he understood them all...his wife, his daughters, his friends and colleagues at the university--and even himself. But a period of solitary living in his old house makes him see that while he had what he calls a pleasant life, it wasn't what the "real" professor wanted and that he doesn't really want to reconnect (or ever live) with his family once they come back from Paris. A final twist makes it apparent that he will go back to them--but will they notice that he's not the man he was before and not really the man they thought he was? Probably not, unless each of them have a period of introspection such as he has experienced. It does make one think...do we ever really know another person. The Professor doesn't think so; he muses: "The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own." Do we ever really even know ourselves? Three out of five stars.

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