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thebacklistborrower 's review for:
Bewilderment
by Richard Powers
I feel like I’m pretty good at suspending disbelief, but after reading Bewilderment, I’m realizing that my belief is always suspended by good writing that gives me reason to suspend it in the first place, like a nice view with a perspective I haven’t seen before. But this book bewildered me almost from page one. It started with a reference to a full moon on the horizon while they stargazed. I hate to be pedantic, but even in the backcountry the moon is pretty darn effective at wiping out stars. But, I passed it off as creative license and kept reading.
Minor Spoilers ahead:
However, I realized that repeatedly, I couldn’t connect the dots between what I understood to be the situation, and the actions the characters take. Theo is concerned about the long-term impacts to his son’s brain chemistry and function on medication, but then signs him up in a trial for a procedure that is literally supposed to rewire his brian, with apparently no similar concerns. The mother, a director of a major animal rights organization, died before the book when she took evasive action to avoid possum(s?) on the road and crashed. It’s played off as this extreme eco-warrior move where she martyrs herself to save an animal, but it was just clear to me Powers had never hit an animal on the road. An accident with a beaver ripped the front of my car off. Animals can fly up and smash your windshield. And in her case, the roads were icy, but I can guarantee hitting a possum would have made her lose traction anyways. It made no sense.
Its set in the near future and there are lots of references to news events and how the world is falling apart, but I didn’t think they made sense, or added to the story at all. And-- this is pedantic-- despite being married to an activist, Theo is apolitical, but also lists Neruda as a favourite poet -- the same Neruda whose catalogue is nearly entirely political poetry. I kept wanting Theo to grow a backbone.
So, I wouldn’t recommend this book. But of course, you do you and let me know what you thought!