Encounters With “Love and Math” A Belated Review of Edward Frenkel’s Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality

In “Love and Math” the author intertwines his personal experiences as a student of mathematics and as a research mathematician with an exposition of modern mathematics, focusing on its elegance and beauty. Much is said in previous reviews (e.g., Grosholz, 2015) of this New York Times bestseller and winner of the Euler Book Prize from the Mathematical Association of America. All praise the author for his fascinating narratives in which he reveals the joy of intellectual discovery and provides a passionate account of exciting ideas of modern mathematics. There is no need in repetition, so this review is rather personal. I start with my personal encounters with “Love and Math” and then share what I learned from the book as a teacher and mathematics educator, focusing on issues that are often overlooked in acclaimed accounts of Frenkel’s mathematical expositions