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Lädt ... Bewilderment (Original 2021; 2021. Auflage)von Richard Powers (Autor)
Werk-InformationenBewilderment von Richard Powers (2021)
Lädt ...
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The writing was so beautiful and poetic! I loved it, but I also enjoy reading poetry on its own. There were some things I didn't like about this book, but what I did like balanced that out. One of my favorite things was the way homeschooling was portrayed- finally, it's realistic (it may still be a form of stereotype, but it's much better than previous generalizations). The audiobook was read very well. I enjoyed how the reader gave character to each person by the way their voice sounded, especially the way he read Robin. This is a profoundly depressing followup to "The Overstory", perhaps because in the interim, Powers has come to believe the earth is truly finished. He's probably not wrong. This time around he tells a focused, intimate story of widowed astrobiologist Theo Byrne and his young son, Robin. Neither of them is doing well in the wake of wife/mom Alyssa's death. The story is set a few years in the future where the United States has accelerated its slide into authoritarian government and the pace and destructiveness of environmental disasters has intensified. These things are mostly only mentioned in passing, however. Alyssa was a celebrated animal rights activist, whose passion was all-consuming. Intact, the little family may have been able to build a nurturing and happy world for Robin, who is enormously sensitive and has inherited Aly's passion for "all sentient beings". Without her, he is unable to deal with his grief and control his emotions, and for Theo, parenting Robin now requires almost all of his time and attention. He resists the school's attempts to medicate Robin and instead turns to family friend (who may or may not have had a romantic relationship with Aly) Martin Currier, a neuropsychologist who has developed a brain training technique based on emotional states. This plot development echoes the famous short story "Flowers for Algernon". As things play out, the book's message (at least to me) becomes more and more clear: the earth's collapse is looming and inevitable. Those who care intensely and passionately can't do anything to stop it; all attempts to fight back are pathetically inadequate and will be fiercely countered. Also, even if we aren't actually alone in the universe - we are alone in the universe. There are no saviors coming. I actually liked many of the ideas in this book, but was put off by the flights of fancy regarding imagined exoplanets and also by Robin's Buddha-like evolution, although I did find him a highly sympathetic and appealing character. Finally, a word on the title - Bewilderment. Why, oh why have we done this to ourselves? This is one of those books that you know is going to be heartbreaking from the very beginning, and then as soon as the main characters read "Flowers for Algernon," you know exactly how your heart is going to break. The book is narrated by a father whose wife has died recently, leaving him to care for his autistic son. The father is a scientist who is searching for signs of life on other planets. His son has inherited his mother's concern for the environment and desire to protect endangered species. They live in a near-future US that is the kind of "illiberal democracy" that some leaders are currently trying to create. When the father is at a loss for how to handle his son's outbursts of anger and frustration, he enrolls him in an experimental treatment that uses neurofeedback to train his brain to create better emotional states by mimicking mental states from other subjects' brain scans, including a scan of the mother's brain. Powers is a good writer, the characters are believable, the science is interesting... but ultimately, I'm not sure that the book has enough payoff to make all the heartbreak worthwhile. There is surprisingly little hope in this novel. keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
Gehört zu VerlagsreihenAuszeichnungenPrestigeträchtige AuswahlenOprah's Book Club 2.0 (2021-09 – 2021) Bemerkenswerte Listen
"A heartrending new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning and #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory. "Richard Powers, whose novels combine the wonders of science with the marvels of art, astonishes us in different ways with each new book." -Heller McAlpin, NPR Books. 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?"-- Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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The story follows an astrobiologist struggling to raise his son after the death of his wife. Giving away any more of the plot would take away from the joy of reading this, so I'll keep it there.
Powers is again on a mission here, dealing with his usual topics (environment, climate change), but unlike in The Overstory, he seems to be a lot less moralizing and is more compassionate and focused on human relationships. The message is loud and clear as ever. This is a book everyone should read.
Thoughts about "antiscience" in this novel:
It often seems to me that drugs are too often prescribed to people who would not need them if our society was more functional and everyone had the support they needed. This is definitely not the same kind of anti-science the anti-vaxers would support.