Scan barcode
astridrv's review against another edition
The hardest book to review this year.
I love Powers’ writing - yes it’s grandiose and saccharine and dramatic and I love it. Some pages left me breathless - the space chapters?? Perfection.
It felt cathartic to have my gut feelings about the climate crisis put unflinchingly in words.
I do think the books has some interesting things to say about neurodivergence: to which extend is the society we are supposed to function in even desirable? What treatment helps you to live, what treatment changes you, what doesn’t change you, why does it matter? What do we owe our children and ourselves? How to parent with a broken heart in a broken world?
But I also feel really conflicted about how Robbie’s autism was dealt with in the book, and I’m really upset by the ending, that is so seeped in the ableist trope of “ultra sensitive being representing humanity’s consciousness and downfall” when he is just a young human who deserves care and guidance and happiness.
I can sense that it was written with nothing but love, but I have big issues with it.
I love Powers’ writing - yes it’s grandiose and saccharine and dramatic and I love it. Some pages left me breathless - the space chapters?? Perfection.
It felt cathartic to have my gut feelings about the climate crisis put unflinchingly in words.
I do think the books has some interesting things to say about neurodivergence: to which extend is the society we are supposed to function in even desirable? What treatment helps you to live, what treatment changes you, what doesn’t change you, why does it matter? What do we owe our children and ourselves? How to parent with a broken heart in a broken world?
But I also feel really conflicted about how Robbie’s autism was dealt with in the book, and I’m really upset by the ending, that is so seeped in the ableist trope of “ultra sensitive being representing humanity’s consciousness and downfall” when he is just a young human who deserves care and guidance and happiness.
I can sense that it was written with nothing but love, but I have big issues with it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Child death, Death of parent, and Ableism
Moderate: Physical abuse
Minor: Animal death
lindsayorme's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders
kirstym25's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Grief, Ableism, and Death of parent
Moderate: Car accident and Animal death
gentle_human's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, Self harm, Animal death, Child death, Grief, Suicide, Death, Medical content, Mental illness, Car accident, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Ableism
blessedbamboo's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Car accident, and Death of parent
Moderate: Grief, Ableism, and Cursing
mdordine's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
virginia_vex's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Death of parent
steveatwaywords's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
There is a lot to like about Powers's sentimental, often preachy, heavily-crafted story. Certainly some of my politics (environmentalism, freedom of speech, etc.) align well, so the book is written to me; and that's half its problem.
Don't seek nuance (or much complexity) as Powers aspires to bring nothing less than the infinite outer-verse and inner-verse into alignment and then sighs, "But humans. . . . " In many ways Daniel Keyes did as well or better with his own mouse. But once our author has allied himself with Algernon, the whole story is un-enthusiastically foretold. The ending death of Robyn is not only a needless martyrdom, but by the time we reach it, I felt more like we killed him off only because the story was over rather than have his father continue to face raising him for more than a few narrative months.
It is Powers's deliberate and heavy-handed work to offer a sentimental story which makes this entire venture more ideology than literature, more emotional catharsis ("Somebody gets me!") than genuine reflection. Just because it's my propaganda doesn't make it less so.
But enough of that. Along the way, Powers does show why he remains a popular writer and that has more to do with real moments of waxing lyricism (a Neruda fan, for sure). He's eminently quotable: undoubtably portions of this work are already appearing on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and framed IG reels. His highly problematic glossing of medicine, schooling, and cognitive studies, for instance, from the vantage of such pithy verse, can safely be ignored. His takes on political dread or the micro-/macro-scales of nature and the universe, instead of providing challenges to us, are given in the briefest of chapters, only enough time for nods of the head.
My problem with the book isn't about his simplicity, with his designing the story and structure to be easy-reader friendly, it isn't even with the potent questions which appear here and there: it's that these insights are offered as conclusions, not as opportunities for exploration. So many writers have already done so much more . . .
Want a thorough read on animal rights that will grind on readers with its complex ethics? Try Elizabeth Costello by Coetzee. Want to talk about the Great Filter of evolution amongst the stars? Try a dozen science fiction writers from Clarke (philosophy of wonder) to Niven (hard science) to Pellegrino (realist military).
I enjoyed the read, found myself nodding too often appropriately, especially loved the frequent visits to other planets, and will remain committed to my politics and ethics both where they align with Powers and where they do not.
Don't seek nuance (or much complexity) as Powers aspires to bring nothing less than the infinite outer-verse and inner-verse into alignment and then sighs, "But humans. . . . " In many ways Daniel Keyes did as well or better with his own mouse. But once our author has allied himself with Algernon, the whole story is un-enthusiastically foretold.
It is Powers's deliberate and heavy-handed work to offer a sentimental story which makes this entire venture more ideology than literature, more emotional catharsis ("Somebody gets me!") than genuine reflection. Just because it's my propaganda doesn't make it less so.
But enough of that. Along the way, Powers does show why he remains a popular writer and that has more to do with real moments of waxing lyricism (a Neruda fan, for sure). He's eminently quotable: undoubtably portions of this work are already appearing on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and framed IG reels. His highly problematic glossing of medicine, schooling, and cognitive studies, for instance, from the vantage of such pithy verse, can safely be ignored. His takes on political dread or the micro-/macro-scales of nature and the universe, instead of providing challenges to us, are given in the briefest of chapters, only enough time for nods of the head.
My problem with the book isn't about his simplicity, with his designing the story and structure to be easy-reader friendly, it isn't even with the potent questions which appear here and there: it's that these insights are offered as conclusions, not as opportunities for exploration. So many writers have already done so much more . . .
Want a thorough read on animal rights that will grind on readers with its complex ethics? Try Elizabeth Costello by Coetzee. Want to talk about the Great Filter of evolution amongst the stars? Try a dozen science fiction writers from Clarke (philosophy of wonder) to Niven (hard science) to Pellegrino (realist military).
I enjoyed the read, found myself nodding too often appropriately, especially loved the frequent visits to other planets, and will remain committed to my politics and ethics both where they align with Powers and where they do not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, and Grief
brogan7's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
2.5
This is one of those books people must either love or hate. I thought it was going somewhere really interesting for the first third, and then so much oh no.
He made several choices in plot development that felt like an error to me.
The Dad wouldn't have okayed the video, just so he could have an editorial say on it. It's absolutely inconsistent with his character, which makes all the things that happened afterwards less believable. As just one example.
I felt increasingly that Richard Powers was just going off on his ideas, instead of listening for the story.
Early on in the story, I could feel Aly's brain waves rubbing off on me!...and then in his narrative, it all started to go downhill, which, honestly, isn't that the perennial story of our screwed up Judeo-Christian culture, everything goes to shit?
I wanted a little more imagination, a little more nudge in the direction of unforeseen hope, a gap between certainties, which he hinted at at the beginning of the book.
I wanted him to explore the questions of: if we all become happier, does that really help? A blissed-out Robin is attractive on screen, but how does that rob him of his humanity, of which his despair is a part? And also how does the charisma of positivity attract people, but dull the message? Instead, he goes off in a totally other direction, and I ended up not only unwilling to believe the ending but heartbroken in a whole different way. He had a story and he lost an opportunity...
Also I don't get Robin's query about the limits to searching for an alien life form. Maybe the constraint is not on that end....p. 229-230, "Maybe the Great Filter isn't behind us. Maybe it's ahead of us.". ...what is he talking about? I think he was getting at something interesting but I couldn't make sense of it, and that really bothered me.
He made several choices in plot development that felt like an error to me.
I felt increasingly that Richard Powers was just going off on his ideas, instead of listening for the story.
Early on in the story, I could feel Aly's brain waves rubbing off on me!...and then in his narrative, it all started to go downhill, which, honestly, isn't that the perennial story of our screwed up Judeo-Christian culture, everything goes to shit?
I wanted a little more imagination, a little more nudge in the direction of unforeseen hope, a gap between certainties, which he hinted at at the beginning of the book.
I wanted him to explore the questions of: if we all become happier, does that really help? A blissed-out Robin is attractive on screen, but how does that rob him of his humanity, of which his despair is a part? And also how does the charisma of positivity attract people, but dull the message? Instead, he goes off in a totally other direction, and I ended up not only unwilling to believe the ending but heartbroken in a whole different way. He had a story and he lost an opportunity...
Also I don't get Robin's query about the limits to searching for an alien life form. Maybe the constraint is not on that end....p. 229-230, "Maybe the Great Filter isn't behind us. Maybe it's ahead of us.". ...what is he talking about? I think he was getting at something interesting but I couldn't make sense of it, and that really bothered me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief and Death of parent
TW: ecocide, climate griefcarbine's review against another edition
I absolutely loved The Overstory and was excited to move on to Bewilderment. It became clear within the first third of the book that I would not enjoy the depth of character development that I enjoyed in the previous work.
I abandoned this one at the point when the father physically abuses his autistic (but not officially autistic!) son. The ableist stereotypes were too much for me, as was the authors' decision to pair a disabled child with a neglectful and abusive father, then pass that off as "dad is just grieving". I did not find any of the characters likeable or relatable, although the son could have been if he had been treated as a human and not defined solely by his neurodivergence.
I acknowledge that my viewpoint may be biased as I work in mental health with children and families who fit this description, thus it may have hit too close to home. Still, I really would prefer to read stories about neurodivergent folks written by members of that community. Otherwise, it too often comes across as exploitative.
I abandoned this one at the point when
I acknowledge that my viewpoint may be biased as I work in mental health with children and families who fit this description, thus it may have hit too close to home. Still, I really would prefer to read stories about neurodivergent folks written by members of that community. Otherwise, it too often comes across as exploitative.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Car accident, Grief, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Ableism, and Bullying