Proof by David AuburnFaber and Faber, Inc., 2001

Reading Proof, I thought of Rebecca Goldstein’s Properties of Light, though I don’t remember enough about the latter to properly compare the two works. Both share a similar central triangle: brilliant/mad father (a physicist in Goldstein’s book, a mathematician in Auburn’s play), brilliant/possibly unhinged daughter, plus a (male) student of the father’s who is the daughter’s lover as well. It’s the love/desire part of Proof that I found most satisfying, rather than the mathematics (which there isn’t really that much of ) or the family drama (which, on the page anyhow, seemed shrill and obvious).


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