Richard Powers is one of the very best and most original novelists I've discovered over the past several years. Fortunately, he has also had a prolific career, so having started with his most recent works, I can now look forward to having the pleasure of finding my way through his backlist.
Bewilderment, his most recent story (told in the first person) is the poignant account of an astrobiologist father and widower trying
desperately to save his brilliant but disturbed 9-year old son from the triple
threats of mental impairments, grief for his dead mother and distress over our
world's ecological catastrophes. It is an astonishing tale in its impact and human insights.
It is particularly moving in its portrayal of the emotional state of despair that our world's condition can evoke in most of us, yet also in how it portrays the positive power and healing effects of love, and of an acceptance of the limits to our individual abilities to change or prevent the destructive outcomes to nature that are already underway from climate change and environmental destruction.
Maybe even more than his outstanding novel The Overstory, this
Richard Powers book is an amazingly powerful and compelling story for our times
and current situation. Highly recommended.
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