Bewilderment: A Novel
The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He’s also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental neurofeedback treatment to bolster Robin’s emotional control, one that involves training the boy on the recorded patterns of his mother’s brain. With its soaring descriptions of the natural world, its tantalizing vision of life beyond, and its account of a father and son’s ferocious love, Bewilderment marks Richard Powers’s most intimate and moving novel. At its heart lies the question: How can we tell our children the truth about this beautiful, imperiled planet?
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Bewilderment by Richard Powers
278 pages
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
What’s it about?
Theo is a professor of Astrobiology who studies life on other planets. He is a single dad raising his son Robin in Madison, Wisconsin. Robin is struggling after the sudden death of his mother and that means Theo is struggling as well. With an awe of nature and a skepticism towards man- this novel explores our relationships with each other, as well as our relationship to our own planet.
What did it make me think about?
Science, childhood, parenting, empathy, and what we are leaving our children.
“THEY SHARE A LOT, ASTRONOMY AND CHILDHOOD. Both are voyages across huge distances. Both search for facts beyond their grasp. Both theorize wildly and let possibilities multiply without limits. Both are humbled every few weeks. Both operate out of ignorance. Both are mystified by time. Both are forever starting out.”
Should I read it?
So “The Overstory” by Richard Powers has been sitting on my nightstand for far too long- waiting for when I have more time. What a fool I am! Richard Powers is not only a University of Illinois graduate, but he is a masterful storyteller. I am sure his 600 page book on trees will delight me- so what is taking me so long?
Obviously I loved “Bewilderment” and I highly recommend it. For those of us who grew up reading “Flowers for Algernon” , by Daniel Keyes, this book is especially poignant. If you have never read Richard Powers it is time to start.
Quote-
“ Watching medicine fail my child, I developed a crackpot theory: Life is something we need to stop correcting. My boy was a pocket universe I could never hope to fathom. Every one of us is an experiment, and we don’t even know what the experiment is testing.”
“This late in the world’s story, everything was marketing. Universities had to build their brands. Every act of charity was forced to beat the drum. Friendships were measured out now in shares and likes and links. Poets and priests, philosophers and fathers of small children; we were all on an endless, flat-out hustle.”
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
278 pages
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
What’s it about?
Theo is a professor of Astrobiology who studies life on other planets. He is a single dad raising his son Robin in Madison, Wisconsin. Robin is struggling after the sudden death of his mother and that means Theo is struggling as well. With an awe of nature and a skepticism towards man- this novel explores our relationships with each other, as well as our relationship to our own planet.
What did it make me think about?
Science, childhood, parenting, empathy, and what we are leaving our children.
“THEY SHARE A LOT, ASTRONOMY AND CHILDHOOD. Both are voyages across huge distances. Both search for facts beyond their grasp. Both theorize wildly and let possibilities multiply without limits. Both are humbled every few weeks. Both operate out of ignorance. Both are mystified by time. Both are forever starting out.”
Should I read it?
So “The Overstory” by Richard Powers has been sitting on my nightstand for far too long- waiting for when I have more time. What a fool I am! Richard Powers is not only a University of Illinois graduate, but he is a masterful storyteller. I am sure his 600 page book on trees will delight me- so what is taking me so long?
Obviously I loved “Bewilderment” and I highly recommend it. For those of us who grew up reading “Flowers for Algernon” , by Daniel Keyes, this book is especially poignant. If you have never read Richard Powers it is time to start.
Quote-
“ Watching medicine fail my child, I developed a crackpot theory: Life is something we need to stop correcting. My boy was a pocket universe I could never hope to fathom. Every one of us is an experiment, and we don’t even know what the experiment is testing.”
“This late in the world’s story, everything was marketing. Universities had to build their brands. Every act of charity was forced to beat the drum. Friendships were measured out now in shares and likes and links. Poets and priests, philosophers and fathers of small children; we were all on an endless, flat-out hustle.”
The vechile for this story is the relationship between a father and son. The hero is the natural environment, from earth’s history out into the galaxies. The setting is a sadly familiar Trumpesque America. Beautiful written, highly recommended.
Not what I expected, and yet it was. A true work of immense imagination. I am impressed with the seamless way Powers weaves science into his fiction. There was a lot of astronomy, psychology and biology in this one and some welcome place monikers in that it is set in Madison, WI and the Smoky Mountains. The structure of the book is unique and circular in a way that really works. There are no chapters, just little segments of text that share a single experience with us. Theo and his son Robin are reeling from the accidental death of their wife/mother Aly. Robin might be on the spectrum, but Theo desperately refuses to medicate him. Their struggles are so real and so poignant, and they are peppered with fantastic world creations Theo 'visits' with his son. The human story is the most immediate, and yet a parallel story unfolds, of the US under increasingly nationalistic leadership slipping into a kind of death itself. Intriguing. Flowers for Algernon, but for a modern and wider world
While this book held my interest, it has scientific jargon and stories which are excessive in relating to the gist of the book.
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