The Goddess of Small Victories

July 14, 2014
Grannec depicts the life of historical mathematical prodigy Kurt Gödel and his mismatched but devoted wife, Adele, in this overly earnest debut. In 1980, young translator Anna Roth, tasked by her mathematician parents, visits the widowed Adele in a nursing home and tries to persuade her to release Kurt’s papers for study. Adele recounts her early life, beginning with her first meeting with Kurt in Vienna. Older and worldlier than Kurt, the earthy Adele holds considerable allure for the young genius, but only gains his iron-willed mother’s consent to marry him when Kurt flees Nazi Austria just after the outbreak of WWII for a position in the United States. In Princeton, Adele is initially lonely, but soon makes friends, with Einstein, no less. Meanwhile, in chapters told in the third person from Anna’s perspective, the young woman learns valuable lessons from the older woman in everything from beauty to standing up to her smothering family and oppressive bosses. Yannec’s attempts to evoke period can be clumsy, as when, in 1955, Adele listens to the radio and asks her friends, “Do you know Chuck Berry, ladies? They are calling this ‘rock and roll.’” More off-putting, though, is the afterword’s admission that the novel’s premise—Adele’s reluctance to part with Kurt’s papers—is utterly untrue.