Books by author: Richard Powers

It took me quite a long time to read this book, mainly because I started it while in the midst of dissertation mayhem. By reading it in fits and spurts, I certainly lost a lot of the continuity, and I probably enjoyed it a lot less than I normally would have. Richard Powers, however, remains one of my very most favorite authors, and I recommend all of his novels.

I loved The Gold Bug Variations so much that I leapt into this one. Some of the neural net discussions are pretty wacky, but there is some actual insight into how minds work. In all, a very good book, but not without flaws.

Eric rather strongly recommended this one. It was wonderfully written — both a great story and a great telling of it. This book is more a novel for scientists than laypersons, but could be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in genetics.

Operation Wandering Soul is dark. Very dark. Dark yet beautiful. Littered with alliteration, assonance and any number of other poetic devices, Powers' prose is anything but prosaic. I found myself reading very slowly, savoring the beauty of the language, not only because the themes of the novel are so dark that I was afraid to reach the end (and I was a little bit worried that Powers will pull his punch at the finish), but also because I was afraid that the end was so near.

Operation Wandering Soul is about mortgaging the future to feed the excess of the present and the devastation that such deficit thinking saddles upon our children. One of the principal themes of the novel is children wandering too far from home. This theme is emphasized by the retelling of a number of "children's stories", including Peter Pan, the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and the Children's Crusade. As a whole, the novel tells the story of a ne'er-grown-up man, serving in the trenches of a pediatric surgery rotation, and his struggle to come to grips with both his past and the bleak futurepresent he tries desparately but vainly to repair. This theme is embodied by the ruined children of his ward, in particular a young girl named Joy, who is being destroyed by some sort of body-wasting cancer that may or may not be operable (I won't give away one of the interesting "twists" at the end).

I'm disappointed that only Kraft (the surgeon) was fully developed as a character. There was a great deal of promise in the young girl Joy that was never realized, and Linda (Kraft's lover) never rose above a do-gooder caricature. Even with these flaws, Operation Wandering Soul is excellent, securing Richard Powers' position in my pantheon of contemporary writers.

This, in my opinion, is Powers' best work apart from The Gold Bug Variations. It follows his standard plot plan, which entwines two sets of characters from different times or places, and it concentrates on some form of technology — in this case late-80s "virtual reality". Powers has a gift for presenting technology in a way that is inventive, interesting, and usually accurate, but the technology never overshadows the characters. Wow, looking back at my Gold Bug notes, it's hard to believe that it has been over four years since I read it!

Richard Powers is now firmly cemented as my favorite contemporary writer (at least this month!). Prisoner's Dilemma is brilliant — a heartbreaking semiautobiographical (aren't all his novels?!) family study.

Warning: spoilers follow! Prisoner's Dilemma tells the story of a family of six — headed by an ailing father. The story is interspersed with long "flashbacks", which we late in the novel learn are recorded transcripts of the father (Eddie Hobson) speaking (creating his idyllic "Hobstown"). Through these interludes, we are presented with a very dark vision of the United States during World War II, in particular the insidious imprisonment of Americans of Japanese ancestry. Powers repeatedly considers possible solutions to the Prisoner's Dilemma, and it becomes apparent that in a society like ours, there is no easy solution — one vote matters only when it is exercised by everyone. The novel spirals with increasing speed to Eddie's death, where Powers inserts a one page eulogy to his own father, treading a dangerous line between ripping out heartstrings and committing a literary faux pas. Prisoner's Dilemma is one of the most heartbreaking books I have ever read — and one of the best.

Richard Powers has clearly established his place as one of my very favorite writers. Although Three Farmers doesn't exhibit all of the mastery evident in The Gold Bug Variations, it has many of the characteristics that distinguish Powers' mature writing. I eagerly await the publication of Gain in paperback.