The Echo Maker
by Richard Powers
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Book Reviews of The Echo Maker
Book Review: MASSIVELY OVERRATED
Summary: 2 Stars
It's remarkable that this book, by a generally fine writer, could be accepted as an award winning example of fiction today. It's proof that contemporary "literature" is a woefully empty brand category. I doubt seriously that the frillbase for this novel read it all the way through--and they've done Powers, who once was a genuine artist, no favors by bland clapping--like the wingbeats in the heavy handed bird metaphor that yields the title. I guarantee you that this writer will receive ever more effusive praise while the writing steadily diminishes in quality. He's become part of the machine. There aren't the good reviewers of the past to actually know what literature is anymore. Rubber stamp him for the Pulitzer and hope he doesn't hang himself. He'll only get rounds of applause now--and you know you're dead when that happens. Another exceptional writer has become ineffectual and middle brow. Will bet anyone on the prize nominations for the next book. It's a done deal.Book Review: Why I should never read books that win awards
Summary: 3 Stars
Previously, I mostly steered clear of books that have won the Booker Prize - some of the worst novels I've ever read. Now I'm going to have to add National Book Award winners to that category. While reading this book, I kept waiting for the book that all of the reviewers had raved about, and I never found it. I have never read another book where so many of the characters (virtually everyone except Mark and Bonnie) were completely unlikable and unsympathetic. None of Powers' main characters rang "true" to me at all. Karin was so annoying, I just wanted to say "Get a grip!"; and the way the Webers talked to each other was just bizarre ("Man", "Woman" and "Tour Director"???)
Yes, the passages about the cranes were beautifully written; but the long neurological musings just made my eyes glaze over. I starting reading a lot faster as I reached the end of the book, but I don't know if it actually got better as it went along, or if I just wanted it to be over.
Book Review: surreal landscape that sucks you in...
Summary: 5 Stars
Powers knows how to suck you into the turmoil and conflict in a character's life.
This book deserves all the accolades it received. I could not put this down. Great stuff on identity, sibling relationships, what it means to be intimate after decades in a romantic relationship, and how we are so ignorant about whether we are in control of our brains or vice-versa. I love how he weaves in neuroscience research without being tedious or preachy. It takes a gifted writer to tell a compelling story and at another level, discuss complex philosophical issues and the latest scientific work.
I cherished the scene when the main character, Mark, feels compelled to move his mailbox over 2 feet to fit with his figment of reality before his car accident, when in fact the mailbox sits on a barren field where there is no point of reference. great stuff. these little scenes throughout the book had me craving more.
Book Review: Old Questions Examined Anew
Summary: 5 Stars
The Echomaker is a long meditation on the nature of the human mind and consciousness, its connection to the brain and the outside world. Are we little more than the accumulated workings of our brains? Is the human mind just the sum of its physical parts, or is there something more? How accurately does the brain, or the mind, perceive the world? These are old questions, and in the age of psychoactive drugs and detailed brain scans, they take on new imperatives. Through the three main characters, and particularly in the character of Weber, the aging neuroscientist, these questions are bandied about the abyss of human ignorance despite the advances in neurochemistry and brain scan technologies. The Echomaker shows us that the human mind and human consciousness are just as much a mystery as they were at the dawn of human intellectual activity, in the questions of the early Greek philosophers about the nature of the soul.Book Review: sophmoric drivel
Summary: 1 Stars
this book is terrible. don't waste your time. i very rarely fail to finish a book, but this book is so ridiculously bad, i felt like i just lost the last two weeks of my life. i would really like to know what the people at the national book awards were thinking. i guess it is better that people read this than the other mass market paper back crap out there... but it really is a shame that this beat out many great books for any award in 2007. "let me see" the dr. says as he strokes his beard. i think richard powers should apologize to all his readers for making them more stupid. if people could sue the author of a million little pieces for passing off fiction as non-fiction, we should be able to sue richard powers for passing off poorly written drivel for literature. shame on you, richard. i am mad!