2006 National Book Award Details here. Richard Powers just won for The Echo Maker
I have only read 2 others of his books – The Gold Bug Variations and Galatea 2.2: A Novel
Since the masterpiece of Gold Bug (and seriously – I hate to even give a brief plot description – it’s too daunting) – I read Galatea 2.2 – and I remember where I was in my life when I read that odd little book – a book with some of the most wistful yearning passages about love that I have ever read in my life. He’s so heady, so cerebral – but then, on the flipside, he so gets that part of human existence. Yearning. The fleeting quality of connection. The sadness, the joy. This shows up in Gold Bug and it’s what the whole story is about in Galatea. Finding someone who … clicks with you … fits with you … cosmically, psychically … those moments of connection that seem to be outside of time. And how difficult it is to walk away from those moments, especially if you are in love with that person. But the way HE writes about it is lyrical, elegiac. I read it in 1996 which I remember as being a rather difficult year. Someone I was madly in love with got married to somebody else that year. I don’t know – and I was in grad school – and I was alone – and yet – this guy was marrying someone else … the girl he chose instead of me … and it just burned inside of me. The hurt burned. And I read Galatea during that time. The book – with its odd vision of unrequited love – or even a wistful looking back on a type of love you will ever yearn for for the rest of your life … I ached reading it. It’s this highly technical novel, about robots, and the English language, and circuitry, and technology … but what I remember about it is the heartfelt ACHE in some of the language. Powers does that sort of ache really really well.
But Gold Bug is the one to read.
Echo Maker is also on my “to read” list … but I have to be in just the right mood for Powers. I need to be in the mood for challenging myself. For a book that does not just reveal its secrets, or make it easy on the reader. For a book that insists that you meet it halfway. I do love books like that (uhm – ya ever been around my blog on Bloomsday? Yeah.) – but not always.
Congratulations, Richard Powers. It’s always kind of encouraging to know that an author like him – a difficult challenging beat-of-own-drummer author – has found success.
This just reminded me of something I keep meaning to ask you. Have you read A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler? I was curious about your impressions of it.
I’m sorry to say I have never read anything by Richard Powers. I should give The Gold Bug Variations a try.
No, never read it – do you recommend it?
Gold Bug will take up months of your life. It’s huge, it’s hard … you might have to use a calculator at points – you will certainly need to have a copy of Glenn Gould playing the Goldberg Variations on hand – because the entire book uses those variations as a structure … and it helps so much if you can figure out what Powers is actually DOING in a certain section. Is he repeating the theme in the first chapter? Or … where is the theme? Is it an undercurrent?
Bah – you get my drift. It’s that kind of reading experience – requiring vigor, concentration and focus.
I don’t recommend it anymore. I knew my friend Ted has almost the exact same taste in books as me – so I felt confident that I could give it to him and he RAN with it. It’s now one of his alltime favorites and we still reference it in many of our conversations.
“requiring vigor, concentration and focus” Well, that rules me out. I am very familiar with Glenn Gould. He’s quite an interesting subject on his own. That sounds like a book I need to save for a time with less stress and chaos in my day-to-day existence. On the other hand, it sounds like something I would love when I have the time to devote to it.
The Strange Mountain book won a Pulitzer in ’93. It’s a collection of short stories told from the perspective of Vietnamese–both folklore and the challenges of living here in the United States. It has it’s own tone, and I found it intriguing. I’m interested in how culture shapes the way people see and think about themselves and the world. This book explores that theme in an understated way that I think is very powerful. Many of the characters have a quiet dignity about them. It’s not a life-changing book or anything, but I think you would like it a lot.
Does the book have any reference to The Gold Bug by Poe?…
JFH – yes – it’s kind of one of the clues that helps you keep the whole book together … the whole book is about CODES – the DNA code, the code that runs thru the GoldBERG variations … and Poe’s story is a big part of how the characters start to understand all these other codes. Pretty cool!
DBW – he’s a wonderful writer, isn’t he? I will definitely check it out. I’ve been reading a lot of short stories lately – so this would be a good one to add to the list.
DBW – oh, and yeah – the Glenn Gould recording of those variations is almost another character in Gold Bug Variations. Fascinating!
Hi NewEngland coming at you!
Time is precious so lets save the world!
No? Ok then lets read glenn gould again.
So complex, thorough and as well obliging.
Unheard of in within my circles, to be cherished and respected. I loved the works because it inspired so many other notions slowly revealing themselves to be one in the same and one for all. Magnificent, majestic and worldly.
The piece was right up my alley and offered so many insights into the parrallels of quackery and destitude versus self worth and the triumphs which lay within. While humble gould expressed keen attention to the captive audience and thereby generated their complete trust in that which they had to say.
I chuckle (honest to myself)in knowing that generic or left and right terms are inspired to seek the truth and through action divulge intention.
Also the goldbug and how it inter-twines with religion and ultimately mans existance would seem an accurate portrayal of life as it were meant to be.
The writings exonerated values equal to the stuff that dreams are made of, while centering reality through determined purpose.
It is better to see the light than live in darkness. The porch is next to the door that is always open.
Salut!
Marz