Restless - Bloomsbury

The Indian Clerk
By David Leavitt

These discussion questions are designed to enhance your group's
conversation about The Indian Clerk, a novel about the startling impact one
mathematician from India had upon the future of his field, and upon a
colorful circle of Cambridge scholars.


About this book
In 1913, during the calm before the Great War, Cambridge mathematician G.
H. Hardy receives a letter postmarked from Madras, India. Its author,
Srinivasa Ramanjuan, is an untrained clerk, yet he has some startling
insights into mathematics. Hardy and his closest colleague, J. E.
Littlewood, are convinced that this clerk can solve the elusive Riemann
hypothesis of prime numbers. They decide to bring Ramanujan from India to
Cambridge, subjecting the man to religious censure, family crisis, culture
shock, and bland British cooking. Alice Neville, the wife of one of
Hardy's colleagues, tries to ease Ramanujan's adjustment to Cambridge life,
yet Alice's instinct to nurture gradually turns to love and frustration.

Hardy desperately tries to focus Ramanujan on mathematical proofs, but the
Indian man's body and mind are slowly collapsing. As the Great War
consumes Europe, ravages the halls of Cambridge, and precludes any hope of
returning to India, Ramanujan falls mysteriously ill. Hardy, distracted by
his contested pacifism and a series of romantic dalliances, stands accused
of neglecting Ramanujan's physical, spiritual, and mental health. As he
delivers a lecture in 1936, reflecting on Ramanujan's life and early death,
Hardy faces the ghosts of those whom he has let down: a deceased lover, the
heartbroken Alice Neville, and Ramanujan himself, who died before
completing his work with Hardy.

For discussion
1. The novel opens with an epigraph by G. H. Hardy, in which he states,
"languages die and mathematical ideas do not." How does Leavitt manage to
balance the opposition between language and mathematics in his writing?

2. Ramanujan's own consciousness is never revealed in this novel. Why
might Leavitt have decided to keep this character's thoughts a mystery?
What would The Indian Clerk be like, if it were narrated from Ramanujan's
point of view?

3. During his lecture about Ramanujan at Harvard in 1936, Hardy imagines
two ghostly presences in the room: Russell Gaye and Alice Neville. "Gaye
looked, for once, approving. But Alice shook her head. She did not
believe him." Why would Gaye approve of Hardy's lecture, and Alice
disapprove? Does Hardy "know and feel too much" for Ramanujan, as he
claims? (5)

4. Hardy insists that his crusade against the tripos exam at Cambridge was
not personal. "Had hardy been senior wrangler, he would have felt the same
way. Done the same thing." (35) Is Hardy's justification believable? Why
or why not?

5. In reference to the Cambridge Apostles, Hardy states, "It is also common
knowledge that most of the members of 'that' society are 'that' way." (16)
How is homosexuality addressed in this novel? When is it veiled, and when
seen outright?

6. According to rumor, Hardy attempted to write a murder novel about the
Riemann hypothesis, with the victim based on Littlewood. What does the
rumored novel imply about the working relationship between Hardy and
Littlewood?

7. Faith - and lack of faith - is a recurring theme in the novel.
Ramanujan claims to owe his mathematical discoveries to the deity Namagiri,
who "writes the numbers on his tongue," (123) while Hardy by turns affirms
his atheism and defies God. What challenges to their views on religion do
Ramanujan and Hardy both face?

8. In her letters to Gertrude from India, Alice sings the praises of
"Israfel," the female author who writes under a male pseudonym about her
travels in India. Why does "Israfel" appeal to Alice? Why does Gertrude
dismiss the author as "marred by something a bit too smart" (127)?
Gertrude declares that Alice "is enamored of my cleverness" (127) - is this
a correct assessment of Alice's feelings? How does the dynamic between the
two women shift over the course of the novel?

9. Ramanujan refers to his wife, Janaki, as "my house." (205) What does
this nickname imply about the relationship between husband and wife? What
role does Komalatammal, Ramanujan's mother, seem to play in this marriage?

10. During Ramanujan's illness, one of his doctors proposes that "Ramanujan
was suffering from lead poisoning, which might have made sense had there
been any evidence that he had been consuming lead." (463) A brief mention
of Ramanujan's rasam pot reveals, "the tamarind in the rasam corrodes the
silvering, exposing the brass and leaching out the lead." (240) What is the
irony of this theory, that Ramanujan died of lead poisoning? Does this
idea of Ramanujan's mysterious death seem plausible? Why or why not?

11. Consider the impact of the war on each of the main characters in the
novel: Hardy, Littlewood, Rammanujan, the Nevilles, and Bertrand Russell.
Who seems most strongly affected by the war? Who the least?

12. According to Hardy, "now, when people ask me what I did during the
Great War, I tell them, 'I took care of Ramanujan.'" (324) Is this an
accurate statement? To what degree does Hardy take care of Ramanujan, and
to what degree does he shirk his responsibilities to his friend?

13. "Ramanujan, in the late months of 1917 and the early months of 1918,
was a man from whose body many hooks dangled." (418) These hooks of
responsibility include Hardy's hopes for his work, his illness, his mother,
his wife, the war, and his own ambition. Which "hook" proves the deepest,
in the end?

14. Numerous luminaries of early 20th century Britain appear in The Indian
Clerk, such as Bertrand Russell, D. H. Lawrence, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and
Lytton Strachey. Which of these portraits seem the most realistic? Which
are more provocative or surprising?

15. In The New York Times Book Review, Nell Freudenberger writes that The
Indian Clerk "offers the pleasure of escape into another world, along with
the nagging feeling of familiarity that characterizes the best historical
fiction." Which themes in The Indian Clerk seem familiar, universal, or
contemporary?

16. Why might Leavitt have titled this book after Ramanujan's humble
background as a clerk, rather than his accomplishments as a mathematician?

Suggested reading
David Leavitt, The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of
the Computer; Robert Kanigel, The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the
Genius Ramanujan; G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician's Apology; Marcus du Sautoy,
The Music of the Primes; Andre Aciman, Call Me by Your Name; Ian McEwan,
Atonement, On Chesil Beach; Edmund White, Hotel de Dream; Alan Bennett, The
Uncommon Reader; Thomas Mallon, Fellow Travelers; Jhumpa Lahiri,
Unaccustomed Earth; Kazuo Ishiguro, When We Were Orphans.