Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A neighbor recommended this at a dinner last month so I felt like I wanted to get through it. I'm glad I did, because there were moments every 50 pages or so that were just amazing. Either a turn of phrase or a surprise or a memory of one of the characters that just grabbed me. However, you had to get through 49 pages of stuff to get to it.
Some of the stuff was random ramblings, which I'm ok with, being a Stephenson fan. I especially liked the long animal categorization section. But a lot of it was just a slog to get through. I read a review that said a lot of the sentences just didn't mean anything, no matter how much you thought about it. Once I realized that, it became an easier read, not worrying about missing anything.
I think there was a deep connection between music, genetics and love that Powers was going for that I didn't quite get. But, the moments of inspiration still made it very worthwhile.
Some of the stuff was random ramblings, which I'm ok with, being a Stephenson fan. I especially liked the long animal categorization section. But a lot of it was just a slog to get through. I read a review that said a lot of the sentences just didn't mean anything, no matter how much you thought about it. Once I realized that, it became an easier read, not worrying about missing anything.
I think there was a deep connection between music, genetics and love that Powers was going for that I didn't quite get. But, the moments of inspiration still made it very worthwhile.
I've been conflicted about whether or not to read any Richard Powers for a long time. I was attracted to The Gold Bug Variations because I like novels about scientists and academic settings. It also has going for it that it's the only book I know of with a postdoc protagonist. (Happy Postdoc Appreciation Week, by the way.) But the reviews I've read of Powers' work have always turned me off. This skepticism was overpowered by my discovery of The Gold Bug Variations for $1 at a charity book sale. Would that it hadn't.
Two of the plot lines (the two "historical" ones: Dr. Ressler as a hotshot molecular geneticist in the 1950s and the narrator's telling of her life at the time she came to know him) are all right. But the third, in which we follow the narrator in the present, desperately trying to teach herself genetics so that she can come to an understanding of and regain a connection to the late Dr. Ressler, is just wretched. For one thing, the premise just doesn't make sense. For another, her metaphoric understanding of genetics is really no understanding at all, and the butchery of science made me cringe repeatedly. I'm no expert of molecular genetics, which, in this situation, I consider a good thing. I'm sure that Powers put in a lot of research and probably, on the whole, got things right enough for the purposes of fiction. But he still makes stupid mistakes. For example, any student of high school biology knows that ANIMALS DON'T HAVE CELL WALLS! But most of the characters, multiple times, made allusions to their own. Ok. So apparently we're reading about hotshot geneticist and librarian plants or fungi?? Super. That would probably have been less painful to read.
On top of this, the prose is just ridiculously annoying. It hops around, playing with itself, proceeding through as many similes, metaphors, and puns as could possibly be imagined. It is also very repetitive. Most unfortunately, it especially belabors the shakiest logic, the parts that most make you want to shout at the book. (Usually I try to resist shouting at inanimate objects - I have shared walls with other people, you see - so I don't appreciate the extra temptation to shout at this book.)
More than anything, The Gold Bug Variations comes off as show-offy. Look at my grasp of genetics, of music, of computer programming, of the english language, it says. No thanks. Not me. Never again.
Two of the plot lines (the two "historical" ones: Dr. Ressler as a hotshot molecular geneticist in the 1950s and the narrator's telling of her life at the time she came to know him) are all right. But the third, in which we follow the narrator in the present, desperately trying to teach herself genetics so that she can come to an understanding of and regain a connection to the late Dr. Ressler, is just wretched. For one thing, the premise just doesn't make sense. For another, her metaphoric understanding of genetics is really no understanding at all, and the butchery of science made me cringe repeatedly. I'm no expert of molecular genetics, which, in this situation, I consider a good thing. I'm sure that Powers put in a lot of research and probably, on the whole, got things right enough for the purposes of fiction. But he still makes stupid mistakes. For example, any student of high school biology knows that ANIMALS DON'T HAVE CELL WALLS! But most of the characters, multiple times, made allusions to their own. Ok. So apparently we're reading about hotshot geneticist and librarian plants or fungi?? Super. That would probably have been less painful to read.
On top of this, the prose is just ridiculously annoying. It hops around, playing with itself, proceeding through as many similes, metaphors, and puns as could possibly be imagined. It is also very repetitive. Most unfortunately, it especially belabors the shakiest logic, the parts that most make you want to shout at the book. (Usually I try to resist shouting at inanimate objects - I have shared walls with other people, you see - so I don't appreciate the extra temptation to shout at this book.)
More than anything, The Gold Bug Variations comes off as show-offy. Look at my grasp of genetics, of music, of computer programming, of the english language, it says. No thanks. Not me. Never again.
I'm too exhausted, having finished this, to write a proper review. Everyone seems to have basically the same impression of Powers: smart guy, very learned, overintellectualizes a lot, sucks at characterization. It's just a matter of whether you like it or not. I do, at least enough to keep reading his work. This one tried my patience though. Every character is exceptionally clever and cannot utter a plain sentence or think a trivial thought. Exhausting.
Brilliantly layered love stories in an homage to GEB. Dense wordplay, but unfortunately the too clever by half characters sacrifice depth for wittiness and all sound alike. For another writer and other themes, I would have found the navel-gazery untenable, but I wryly enjoyed it for the most part.
Q: 4
E: 4
I: 4
qxe + I = 20
Q: 4
E: 4
I: 4
qxe + I = 20
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A bit of a slog, but a beautiful one
Took way too long to get anywhere and kept repeating the same stuff over and over
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I don’t have enough understanding of genetics or music for this book to work for me. I also had a really hard time with the way the book jumped from narrator and time in history with no clues to let the reader know when a switch had occurred.
I decided to read THE GOLD BUG VARIATIONS based on the recommendation of several strangers in response to a Twitter thread by @southpaw asking for good fiction books. Several mentioned this book, although at least one suggested it might not be the most accessible Richard Powers book for first-timers. In my hubris, I thought this caution wasn’t meant for *me*. Also, to further qualify my reaction to the book, I must admit that I have six other books from the library right now, one of which I had been waiting for on a hold list for weeks; as a result, I was anxious about how long it was taking me to get through this 639-pager and eager to finish it.
With those caveats stated, I liked it. I didn’t love it. A lot of this book is very technical discussion about genetics and DNA, or about the intricacies of music, and if you are not well-versed in these topics already they are not very intelligible. Luckily for us boneheads (the majority of us, I suspect), the way Powers writes is full of such humor and poetry that there’s often something to latch onto even in the denser passages.
I didn’t keep a running list of the phrases or ideas that I particularly liked, but some that come to mind are:
* The assertion that Keith (Keithy) didn’t have to advertise for friends because he had friends in advertising.
* The comment that that culling undesirable traits makes for successful reproduction, summarized as: “Weed it and reap.”
* The suggestion that chance is Ressler’s god but that after death there is “no chance to appreciate chance”.
* An extended bit of philosophizing about DNA as parasite, using our bodies merely as a convenient conduit to replicating itself.
I also liked the structure of the book—it cut between three different time periods: (1) Jan’s initial meet-up with Franker and Ressler in 1983; (2) Ressler’s time as a genetic researcher in the mid-1950s; and (3) Jan in present day, after Todd has left the country and Ressler has died of cancer. Jan’s sections are written in first-person, whereas Ressler’s is written in third-person omniscient, drawing to mind for me BLEAK HOUSE which I read somewhat recently.
However, the “plot” of the book such as it were was not particularly engaging for me. Ressler in the ‘50s struggles to decode DNA while carrying on an affair with a married woman. In the ‘80s, Jan struggles with the decision to leave her live-in boyfriend of several years for the empty promise of Franklin’s inscrutable interest in her. In the present, Jan struggles with whether to respond to a letter received from Frank after they’ve had some sort of falling out, not explained until close to the end. I didn’t really care much for any of these characters, and their vague and high-brow way of talking to one another didn’t really endear me to them. I kept waiting for some revelation to occur but there wasn’t really anything that stands out. Perhaps that’s the idea—that these are, at base, just normal, fucked up people who don’t have the answers to the world at their fingertips. Nevertheless, it isn’t really gripping until a computer hacking scheme toward the end.
That’s not to say there aren’t moments of beauty and intrigue in the happenings as much as there is in the language. One scene that comes to mind is Ressler coming outside to see what he believes to be an evacuation prior to a nuclear attack. But these are just bright spots in a story that doesn’t thrill overall and, again, is populated by a lot of dry, unreadable text about nucleotides and ribosomes.
It’s clear that Powers is a very good writer; those bits of poetry and the occasional interesting thought attest to that. I’m certainly interested in giving another Powers book a shot because I think he could really win me over. Unfortunately, this is not the book that does it.
With those caveats stated, I liked it. I didn’t love it. A lot of this book is very technical discussion about genetics and DNA, or about the intricacies of music, and if you are not well-versed in these topics already they are not very intelligible. Luckily for us boneheads (the majority of us, I suspect), the way Powers writes is full of such humor and poetry that there’s often something to latch onto even in the denser passages.
I didn’t keep a running list of the phrases or ideas that I particularly liked, but some that come to mind are:
* The assertion that Keith (Keithy) didn’t have to advertise for friends because he had friends in advertising.
* The comment that that culling undesirable traits makes for successful reproduction, summarized as: “Weed it and reap.”
* The suggestion that chance is Ressler’s god but that after death there is “no chance to appreciate chance”.
* An extended bit of philosophizing about DNA as parasite, using our bodies merely as a convenient conduit to replicating itself.
I also liked the structure of the book—it cut between three different time periods: (1) Jan’s initial meet-up with Franker and Ressler in 1983; (2) Ressler’s time as a genetic researcher in the mid-1950s; and (3) Jan in present day, after Todd has left the country and Ressler has died of cancer. Jan’s sections are written in first-person, whereas Ressler’s is written in third-person omniscient, drawing to mind for me BLEAK HOUSE which I read somewhat recently.
However, the “plot” of the book such as it were was not particularly engaging for me. Ressler in the ‘50s struggles to decode DNA while carrying on an affair with a married woman. In the ‘80s, Jan struggles with the decision to leave her live-in boyfriend of several years for the empty promise of Franklin’s inscrutable interest in her. In the present, Jan struggles with whether to respond to a letter received from Frank after they’ve had some sort of falling out, not explained until close to the end. I didn’t really care much for any of these characters, and their vague and high-brow way of talking to one another didn’t really endear me to them. I kept waiting for some revelation to occur but there wasn’t really anything that stands out. Perhaps that’s the idea—that these are, at base, just normal, fucked up people who don’t have the answers to the world at their fingertips. Nevertheless, it isn’t really gripping until a computer hacking scheme toward the end.
That’s not to say there aren’t moments of beauty and intrigue in the happenings as much as there is in the language. One scene that comes to mind is Ressler coming outside to see what he believes to be an evacuation prior to a nuclear attack. But these are just bright spots in a story that doesn’t thrill overall and, again, is populated by a lot of dry, unreadable text about nucleotides and ribosomes.
It’s clear that Powers is a very good writer; those bits of poetry and the occasional interesting thought attest to that. I’m certainly interested in giving another Powers book a shot because I think he could really win me over. Unfortunately, this is not the book that does it.