Bewilderment by Richard Powers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Fiction, Dystopian Fiction
Edition Reviewed: Audiobook, Unabridged
Published September 21st 2021 by Random House Audio
“The laws that govern the light from a firefly in my backyard as I write these words tonight also govern the light emitted from an exploding star one billion light-years away. Place changes nothing. Nor does time. One set of fixed rules runs the game, in all times and places. That’s as big a truth as we Earthlings have discovered, or ever will, in our brief run.”–Theo
Trying to sum up this book is like trying to gather the stars in the sky. There are many points of light, some brighter than others, but collectively they paint a complex and nuanced scene. I think the brightest shining star is Power’s gift for describing nature; in the Smoky Mountains, he is in his element and his setting is minute and expansive, active and still, stunning and absolutely original in its portrayal. It is worth it to read this book if only for the aesthetic value he gives to this region.
This setting is a camping escape for the main character, Theo, an astrobiologist and recent widower, and his nine-year-old neurodivergent son, Robin. In nature, they can forget their troubles at home in Wisconsin. The huge grief over their missing wife and mom that threatens to swallow them whole. Robin’s increasing trouble at school and the administrator who insists that psychoactive drugs are the appropriate treatment. Theo having to navigate parenting a challenging but gifted child on his own; trying to fill two roles while balancing his career as a scientist/professor in a field with an uncertain future. In the mountains, these problems seem far away, and the missing piece of their family feels near.
At home, the attempts to solve these problems seem as distant as the possible planets Theo describes to Robin to ignite his imagination and convey that no place is ideal. An aspect of the book that seems a contradiction is that Theo is against medicating his son and using him as an experiment, yet he does just that when he petitions his wife’s former friend (maybe more?) and neuroscientist to enroll his son in an experimental neurofeedback study. On the possibility of medication, Theo observes, “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. My wife would have known how to talk to the doctors. Nobody’s perfect, she liked to say. But, man, we all fall short so beautifully.” While I love this assessment, Theo then proceeds to take Robin to experimental training sessions where the previous brain mapping on his mom is transferred to Robin’s brain with some surprising results.
Another not-so-bright star in this book is the infusion of politics and how the president, not so thinly disguised as Trump, gleefully smashes the future of space science. The dystopian near-future he writes about is doomed and humanity is heartless. There is a place (a big place) for slamming a hopefully forever former president and scaring readers with the doom that awaits us, but it’s not in a story that centers on the fragile and expansive relationship between a broken father and son. This criticism flows through into Theo’s character, who admits he messes up regularly as a parent, but goes on to be brutally honest with his over-anxious son about the bleak future, a truth that ends up breaking his son. This brings me to the dimmest star in my sky: the ending. It felt jarring and not true to the story, verging on a convenient cop-out. That’s all I will say about that.
Before I leave you with the impression that I didn’t like this book, I was actually captivated by it despite my criticisms and concerns. Powers has proven himself as a gifted writer and occupies a space of few who can truly do justice to the natural world. I haven’t yet read his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Overstory, but own it and eagerly await more of this author’s interpretation of life on this planet.
I listened to the audiobook version of this novel, flawlessly narrated by Edoardo Ballerini and his spot-on performance enhanced my experience of the story. I’m giving this one 3.5 stars based on what I felt were issues with the plot and characterization and rounding it up to 4 bright stars for the writing.
View all my reviews
“The laws that govern the light from a firefly in my backyard as I write these words tonight also govern the light emitted from an exploding star one billion light-years away. Place changes nothing. Nor does time. One set of fixed rules runs the game, in all times and places. That’s as big a truth as we Earthlings have discovered, or ever will, in our brief run.”–Theo
Trying to sum up this book is like trying to gather the stars in the sky. There are many points of light, some brighter than others, but collectively they paint a complex and nuanced scene. I think the brightest shining star is Power’s gift for describing nature; in the Smoky Mountains, he is in his element and his setting is minute and expansive, active and still, stunning and absolutely original in its portrayal. It is worth it to read this book if only for the aesthetic value he gives to this region.
This setting is a camping escape for the main character, Theo, an astrobiologist and recent widower, and his nine-year-old neurodivergent son, Robin. In nature, they can forget their troubles at home in Wisconsin. The huge grief over their missing wife and mom that threatens to swallow them whole. Robin’s increasing trouble at school and the administrator who insists that psychoactive drugs are the appropriate treatment. Theo having to navigate parenting a challenging but gifted child on his own; trying to fill two roles while balancing his career as a scientist/professor in a field with an uncertain future. In the mountains, these problems seem far away, and the missing piece of their family feels near.
At home, the attempts to solve these problems seem as distant as the possible planets Theo describes to Robin to ignite his imagination and convey that no place is ideal. An aspect of the book that seems a contradiction is that Theo is against medicating his son and using him as an experiment, yet he does just that when he petitions his wife’s former friend (maybe more?) and neuroscientist to enroll his son in an experimental neurofeedback study. On the possibility of medication, Theo observes, “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. My wife would have known how to talk to the doctors. Nobody’s perfect, she liked to say. But, man, we all fall short so beautifully.” While I love this assessment, Theo then proceeds to take Robin to experimental training sessions where the previous brain mapping on his mom is transferred to Robin’s brain with some surprising results.
Another not-so-bright star in this book is the infusion of politics and how the president, not so thinly disguised as Trump, gleefully smashes the future of space science. The dystopian near-future he writes about is doomed and humanity is heartless. There is a place (a big place) for slamming a hopefully forever former president and scaring readers with the doom that awaits us, but it’s not in a story that centers on the fragile and expansive relationship between a broken father and son. This criticism flows through into Theo’s character, who admits he messes up regularly as a parent, but goes on to be brutally honest with his over-anxious son about the bleak future, a truth that ends up breaking his son. This brings me to the dimmest star in my sky: the ending. It felt jarring and not true to the story, verging on a convenient cop-out. That’s all I will say about that.
Before I leave you with the impression that I didn’t like this book, I was actually captivated by it despite my criticisms and concerns. Powers has proven himself as a gifted writer and occupies a space of few who can truly do justice to the natural world. I haven’t yet read his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Overstory, but own it and eagerly await more of this author’s interpretation of life on this planet.
I listened to the audiobook version of this novel, flawlessly narrated by Edoardo Ballerini and his spot-on performance enhanced my experience of the story. I’m giving this one 3.5 stars based on what I felt were issues with the plot and characterization and rounding it up to 4 bright stars for the writing.
View all my reviews
I was listening to a review about The Overstory on the radio. I think it said that it was a fantastic book but was so involved that it was seriously hard work. xxxxx