I ended up loving this book. Richard Powers writings on the ocean, and sea life, was so beautiful and amazing; I was crying at times. I was very confused at first by the ending, and then I appreciated how Todd brought his friend back to life so beautifully . The passages where Rafi is speaking, his "bro speak" i thought were corny and trite, so in the end if those were created by Richards AI, well, that makes more sense and I think seemed a deliberate choice by Mr. Powers. This is the first novel of his I have read, and now I want to read "Overstory" with his love of nature I'm sure I'll experience trees in a profound way!
Loved this book….what a beautiful way of explaining the existential crisis the world finds itself in today. This is an important book….it educates and entertains.
I just finished it and came on here to see if what I THOUGHT happened at the end was indeed what happened - and more or less concur with your explication. But I found it confusing and awkward, and like you, I also found the Evelyne sections far more interesting than the Todd/Rafi sections. I also found the brevity of Bewilderment much more to my liking.
I appreciate your doing this video. I have the book checked out from the library, but I’ve been resistant to picking it up. I’ve only read one other book of his, Overstory. And while his nature writing is beautiful, I can never warm up to his characters and his general way with fiction does not work for me. So I feel better about passing on this one. When you talk about whether the narrative style reflects that twist in the end or whether it is a weakness in Powers writing skills, I remember the same idea coming up for me with Klara and the Sun. But in Ishiguro’s case, I think it was a brilliant choice by the author. But then, Ishiguro can do no wrong in my eyes, at least not yet!
I do so love your enormous collection of books. It must be terrific receiving from publishers and prize committees! For me, I have only a few, though my kindle device does have a great memory.
Thanks, Eric!🌷I stopped watching before the spoilers, since I’m going to read Playground very soon. I loved both The Overstory and Bewilderment, but I think that, perhaps, I loved The Overstory just a little bit more. On a frivolous note: on the cover of my Norton edition of Playground there’s the photo of an underwater landscape with corals and a manta ray floating over them, which probably refers to the beautiful passage you’ve read (nice touch the aquarium!). The paper has a metallic sheen which makes me feel I’m actually underwater😍
I liked this book better than Bewilderment. The passages in the Ocean were so beautiful. I could see each gorgeous scene in my mind’s eye, especially the scene with the dancing squid. My only quibble with the book was the sections on AI, as some of them I found boring. I think the end was brilliant. Through AI, Todd was able to bring back to life his friend and the marine biologist. Do you remember when Rafi and Todd are having one of their discussions, and Rafi mentions a book by a crazy Russianthat states that eventually humans will be able to bring the dead back. Todd was able to do that with his super AI technology. He gave both dead characters a rich and fullfilling alternate reality.
I agree, there were some sections I really liked and thought wow beautifully written, especially the oceanlife, but overall felt let down. OK he wants us to think about AI but I felt used as the reader. Felt he had to work too hard to tie characters together too quickly. It seemed there could have been several novels from the various themes he includes which could have worked better singularly. I probably should read again to appreciate more after the first read thru. It's that kind of book.
I read the Overstory recently for my reading group and felt similarly mixed about it. I should preface this with the fact that I had been avoiding it as I may not be the target audience - I am a lifelong ecologist and conservation biologist. I went through many emotions while reading it - I didn’t like the first 150 pages which amounted to a collection of unconnected short stories that weren’t particularly good (as they weren’t short stories basically), and the next 150 pages annoyed me because it was written in quite short staccato sentences so it felt like being shouted at (and the shouting was about environmental devastation that I already knew about😢) but by the end I actually felt that the book was pretty good overall (4 stars) - so that was quite a journey I went on! On a very positive note, any doubts I had about the ecological knowledge coming into the book were unfounded - he got the ecology right. And from your reading I could hear that he is happy to throw in scientific terms (Porifera are sponges, Cnidarians - pronounced with a silent C - are corals and jellyfish basically). On a less positive note, his characters seem to mainly be ciphers - he wants an artist, a computer programmer, a lawyer, an ecologist, an ex military guy etc - anything else about them seems to be superfluous. So I’m not surprised that reader responses are very mixed - even within an individual reader! But I think we have to read such books in the full knowledge that the author wants to make a significant point about something and the whole novel is geared up to do this. This was what Dickens did, and I think it is what Barbara Kingsolver was doing in Demon in wanting to raise awareness about the opiate crisis.
Glad folks are so split. Have loved two of Powers' novels that I have read, but this was messy. Set up between Todd and Rafi seemed so contrite and so much of the Makatea pieces didn't fit. The Q&A AI thing that arrives on the island was just stupid. Was expecting to hear so much more about the life and politics of the seasteading... but was all set pre that ever happening and having an impact, so all theretical. AI references around chess and Go were almost verbatim 'case studies', seemed very force fitting fill in the blanks for folks who don;t get any AI milestones. Bewilderment for me was almost word perfect, excellent novel.
I can’t believe I’m first! 😆 But I was waiting for your opinion on this because I really didn’t like it and was perplexed and confused and surprised as I was reading it. The Overstory is one of my faves! I found myself mesmerised by the passages about diving and sea life, but the rest… I usually don’t mind a fragmented narrative, but I can’t see its purpose in this book. The plot reminded me of Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, which is odd. Also what’s happening with all these contemporary authors writing about chess? (Chessy books? 🥁)
I don't know: Maybe there's an idea floating around that the virtue of thinking silently for several hours leads to a less confused perspective on the world? Personally, I find the world very confusing but usually assume that's what becoming old is like. It may be possible that the incredible media overload overwhelms people. I don't know.
The mother in Bewilderment wasn't absent, she was fridged. She was a carricature of a real environmentalist, and i grew up with a mother who could have been Robin's mother. On top of that Bewilderment also promoted medical conspiracy theories, misrepresented the requirements of caring for an autistic child, and created a non-believable scientist MC. As a scientist, I will say: Powers is not the author to get scientists' real pathos, ethos, and the actual science correct. He didn't do it in Bewilderment, and by the time I abandoned Overstory he wasn't doing it there either. From what was read, he apparently continues his style of crowding the reader with technical terms in this latest novel. Sorry, that's not what doing your homework means. It just overwhelms the reader and if that reader happens to have a PhD in biology it may trigger a massive eye roll at the accumulated errors (technical and psychological). So i don't trust Powers as an author addressing these themes. I think we can and have done better. On a highly subjective note: I also found Bewilderment to be so depressing that it may inspire lack of action. That's what I experienced, a desire to give up and let the innevitable come. It wasn't until I read the much better researched "Otherlands" by Thomas Halliday that I fel inspired to not give up on fighting against climate change. I really think we need more scientists front and center, as not all writers can get the details, or tone, right. I know I'm not the majority here. I just wish we let more willing scientists educate us.
Powers is the greatest living American novelist. When someone asks me which writers I like I state Powers and the three M's: Murakami, Mitchell, and Marra.
I ended up loving this book. Richard Powers writings on the ocean, and sea life, was so beautiful and amazing; I was crying at times. I was very confused at first by the ending, and then I appreciated how Todd brought his friend back to life so beautifully . The passages where Rafi is speaking, his "bro speak" i thought were corny and trite, so in the end if those were created by Richards AI, well, that makes more sense and I think seemed a deliberate choice by Mr. Powers. This is the first novel of his I have read, and now I want to read "Overstory" with his love of nature I'm sure I'll experience trees in a profound way!
That’s good to hear! It did take me a few times reading the ending to figure out what really happened. I’m sure you’ll really enjoy Overstory as well!
Loved this book….what a beautiful way of explaining the existential crisis the world finds itself in today. This is an important book….it educates and entertains.
I just finished it and came on here to see if what I THOUGHT happened at the end was indeed what happened - and more or less concur with your explication. But I found it confusing and awkward, and like you, I also found the Evelyne sections far more interesting than the Todd/Rafi sections. I also found the brevity of Bewilderment much more to my liking.
I appreciate your doing this video. I have the book checked out from the library, but I’ve been resistant to picking it up. I’ve only read one other book of his, Overstory. And while his nature writing is beautiful, I can never warm up to his characters and his general way with fiction does not work for me. So I feel better about passing on this one. When you talk about whether the narrative style reflects that twist in the end or whether it is a weakness in Powers writing skills, I remember the same idea coming up for me with Klara and the Sun. But in Ishiguro’s case, I think it was a brilliant choice by the author. But then, Ishiguro can do no wrong in my eyes, at least not yet!
I do so love your enormous collection of books. It must be terrific receiving from publishers and prize committees! For me, I have only a few, though my kindle device does have a great memory.
Thanks, Eric!🌷I stopped watching before the spoilers, since I’m going to read Playground very soon. I loved both The Overstory and Bewilderment, but I think that, perhaps, I loved The Overstory just a little bit more. On a frivolous note: on the cover of my Norton edition of Playground there’s the photo of an underwater landscape with corals and a manta ray floating over them, which probably refers to the beautiful passage you’ve read (nice touch the aquarium!). The paper has a metallic sheen which makes me feel I’m actually underwater😍
I liked this book better than Bewilderment. The passages in the Ocean were so beautiful. I could see each gorgeous scene in my mind’s eye, especially the scene with the dancing squid. My only quibble with the book was the sections on AI, as some of them I found boring. I think the end was brilliant. Through AI, Todd was able to bring back to life his friend and the marine biologist. Do you remember when Rafi and Todd are having one of their discussions, and Rafi mentions a book by a crazy Russianthat states that eventually humans will be able to bring the dead back. Todd was able to do that with his super AI technology. He gave both dead characters a rich and fullfilling alternate reality.
I enjoyed your review and honesty. I liked all the underwater descriptions, but I hated this cover. Also I felt the ending really let this book down.
Eric you are the most positive man I know. If you can't decide well them I know it is not the book for me.
I agree, there were some sections I really liked and thought wow beautifully written, especially the oceanlife, but overall felt let down. OK he wants us to think about AI but I felt used as the reader. Felt he had to work too hard to tie characters together too quickly. It seemed there could have been several novels from the various themes he includes which could have worked better singularly. I probably should read again to appreciate more after the first read thru. It's that kind of book.
I read the Overstory recently for my reading group and felt similarly mixed about it. I should preface this with the fact that I had been avoiding it as I may not be the target audience - I am a lifelong ecologist and conservation biologist. I went through many emotions while reading it - I didn’t like the first 150 pages which amounted to a collection of unconnected short stories that weren’t particularly good (as they weren’t short stories basically), and the next 150 pages annoyed me because it was written in quite short staccato sentences so it felt like being shouted at (and the shouting was about environmental devastation that I already knew about😢) but by the end I actually felt that the book was pretty good overall (4 stars) - so that was quite a journey I went on!
On a very positive note, any doubts I had about the ecological knowledge coming into the book were unfounded - he got the ecology right. And from your reading I could hear that he is happy to throw in scientific terms (Porifera are sponges, Cnidarians - pronounced with a silent C - are corals and jellyfish basically). On a less positive note, his characters seem to mainly be ciphers - he wants an artist, a computer programmer, a lawyer, an ecologist, an ex military guy etc - anything else about them seems to be superfluous.
So I’m not surprised that reader responses are very mixed - even within an individual reader! But I think we have to read such books in the full knowledge that the author wants to make a significant point about something and the whole novel is geared up to do this. This was what Dickens did, and I think it is what Barbara Kingsolver was doing in Demon in wanting to raise awareness about the opiate crisis.
Glad folks are so split. Have loved two of Powers' novels that I have read, but this was messy. Set up between Todd and Rafi seemed so contrite and so much of the Makatea pieces didn't fit. The Q&A AI thing that arrives on the island was just stupid. Was expecting to hear so much more about the life and politics of the seasteading... but was all set pre that ever happening and having an impact, so all theretical. AI references around chess and Go were almost verbatim 'case studies', seemed very force fitting fill in the blanks for folks who don;t get any AI milestones.
Bewilderment for me was almost word perfect, excellent novel.
I can’t believe I’m first! 😆 But I was waiting for your opinion on this because I really didn’t like it and was perplexed and confused and surprised as I was reading it. The Overstory is one of my faves! I found myself mesmerised by the passages about diving and sea life, but the rest… I usually don’t mind a fragmented narrative, but I can’t see its purpose in this book. The plot reminded me of Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, which is odd. Also what’s happening with all these contemporary authors writing about chess? (Chessy books? 🥁)
Haha, chess does seem to be having a moment in fiction. I’m glad you also enjoyed the underwater passages.
I don't know: Maybe there's an idea floating around that the virtue of thinking silently for several hours leads to a less confused perspective on the world? Personally, I find the world very confusing but usually assume that's what becoming old is like. It may be possible that the incredible media overload overwhelms people. I don't know.
I'm halfway through the book and am enjoying the passages about Evie. I find the switching between the characters a little frustrating, too.
The mother in Bewilderment wasn't absent, she was fridged. She was a carricature of a real environmentalist, and i grew up with a mother who could have been Robin's mother. On top of that Bewilderment also promoted medical conspiracy theories, misrepresented the requirements of caring for an autistic child, and created a non-believable scientist MC. As a scientist, I will say: Powers is not the author to get scientists' real pathos, ethos, and the actual science correct. He didn't do it in Bewilderment, and by the time I abandoned Overstory he wasn't doing it there either. From what was read, he apparently continues his style of crowding the reader with technical terms in this latest novel. Sorry, that's not what doing your homework means. It just overwhelms the reader and if that reader happens to have a PhD in biology it may trigger a massive eye roll at the accumulated errors (technical and psychological). So i don't trust Powers as an author addressing these themes. I think we can and have done better.
On a highly subjective note:
I also found Bewilderment to be so depressing that it may inspire lack of action. That's what I experienced, a desire to give up and let the innevitable come. It wasn't until I read the much better researched "Otherlands" by Thomas Halliday that I fel inspired to not give up on fighting against climate change. I really think we need more scientists front and center, as not all writers can get the details, or tone, right. I know I'm not the majority here. I just wish we let more willing scientists educate us.
I think Zadie Smith mentions these cards in her novel swing time.
Powers is the greatest living American novelist. When someone asks me which writers I like I state Powers and the three M's: Murakami, Mitchell, and Marra.