To be accurate, The Fractalist should be thought of as Benoit Mandelbrot's autobiography rather than just his memoirs. This is his last personal testimony. He was an extremely important scientist and mathematician so it is nice to have this record of his life and times.
The book is fairly detailed and accurate but hardly jejune. It covers a great deal of territory starting where he was born in Poland and ending in New Haven, Connecticut at Yale University where he was the Stirling Professor of Mathematics in the last few years of his life.
Mandelbrot's reflections on his earlier life bear interesting details of his family life and his movements around Europe. The Mandelbrot family was important in Benoit's life. The male contingent was especially important to him, especially his uncles. Over the years, his father and mother struggled and worked as most parents did. His uncle Szolem, a PhD...
