Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It's beyond dispute that Richard Powers is an extraordinary writer. He describes the natural world so beautifully that I long to visit the places he describes and join his characters in a tent in the Smokey Mountains, and--as in The Overstory--he argues compellingly that our world is in danger and needs immediate intervention before we lose beauty and meaning we don't realize is around us. His depiction of a widower raising a young boy who's "on the spectrum" is similarly insightful and devastating. [Quick aside: I've read many reviewers who take issue with Theo's parenting decisions, particularly his reluctance to medicate his 8-year-old son. As a clinical psychologist who worked with children and families for years, I both empathize with and understand his struggles and decisions and don't fault him in the slightest] However, this is a book about devastating loss, both of the natural world and of loved ones. That sense of loss permeates every page, and the connection between the loss of a wife and the destruction of our planet is clear, particularly as expressed through Theo's son Robin. Through an intriguing process based on biofeedback, Robin is able to connect with his deceased mother and see the world through her eyes, giving the reader an alternative and more forgiving way to engage with those around us. When the funding for this research disappears--which is blamed on a President modeled explicitly on Trump--Robin experiences his own "Flowers for Algernon" moment, leading to a conclusion that should be heartbreaking but is instead simply too much. What a book so explicitly centered on loss needs is hope, usually through providing the reader insight into how one can continue to live--and perhaps even thrive--in unbearable circumstances. Powers doesn't provide this. Instead, he piles on the despair: unanswered questions about whether Theo's wife Alyssa was faithful to him and whether Robin is even his son on the personal side; a US President who succeeds in his January 6 coup and becomes essentially an authoritarian dictator, a police force and local-level bureaucrats who function as his secret police, and a complete dismantling of funding for the sciences on the political side (those of a certain political persuasion will HATE this book); and mad-cow disease transferring to humans, a disease spreading to wheat plants across the world, toxins and wildfires running rampant throughout our environment, and more on the national side. All of this becomes unbearably painful in such a short book and there's not even a lack of resolution, but a lack of belief that healing is possible. The book is interspersed with scenes of Theo and Robin visiting different planets, and contemplating how changes in orbits, proximity to other bodies, size, atmosphere, and so on would impact life on those planets is intriguing. My impression is Powers wanted to show that life is possible far beyond what we can know and we have choices for how we want our world to look. However, everyone who takes this point of view in Bewilderment--Aly, Robin, the Greta Thunberg stand-in--fails. Powers therefore gives the impression that he believes our world is doomed. Because he writes so well and I care so deeply about his characters--even in such a short book--I became increasingly anxious and agitated the further I read. By the end, I was devastated and depressed. Not every book should make you feel good, but I at least want a sense of hope or encouragement. The idea that "everyone is always all around us" doesn't serve this function like Powers may want it to. Powers is one of my favorite current authors. I just wish he had provided some sliver of hope for our current situation.