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Bewilderment by Richard Powers is not for everyone | BOOK REVIEW

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Bewilderment by Richard Powers should win the Booker Prize, but it's not going to be enjoyable to everyone. Here's me explaining that conflicting view.
You can find me here, always happy to chat:
GoodReads: / oolevityoo
Twitter: / levitybooks
Instagram: / levitybooks
My * ratings mainly reflect my estimate of accessibility/likeability to a general audience. Sometimes I award 5*s to less accessible books that I think have important messages and good morals.
* = Dislike (not recommended) ("failed")
** = Okay (recommended to select audience) ("flawed")
*** = Like (recommended to general audience) ("fine")
**** = Really like (strongly recommended to select audience) ("focused")
***** = Love (strongly recommended to general audience) ("fervent")
#Bewilderment #RichardPowers #Fiction #BookerPrize #LevityBooks

Опубликовано:

21 авг 2024

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Комментарии : 20

@ozerik 2 года назад

I found your review on Goodreads (helping my wife decide whether or not to continue reading this) and her complaints were similar to yours, so we watched this and she said "THANK YOU" and now she's reading something else :D

@levitybooks3952 2 года назад

Haha glad to have helped :) I assure you that it was only going to become more of itself, and for some of us there was no saving it! If either of you ever wanted something else to read, Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen was my favourite release from 2022 that I think didn't get enough hype!

@KierTheScrivener 2 года назад

I interestingly disliked it but for totally different reasons 😆 though the lack of women and idealization of the wife as the only female character definitely crossed my mind. My main problem was the Autism rep and then subsequent killing of Robin for the furthering of Theo's emotional (I'm not sure)

@levitybooks3952 2 года назад

Yeah it did feel like everything in this story was 'used' only to give an otherwise uninteresting Theo something to talk about! As someone not on the spectrum I can't speak for how representative it is, but I think we all read how irritating Theo was at handling it. Some people on Goodreads had issues with the autism representation in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, how did you find the representation in that (if you've read it yet)? I personally really enjoyed that book, and I think it helped me understand some people who are on the spectrum.

@KierTheScrivener 2 года назад

@@levitybooks3952 haha yeah Theo was increasingly frustrating. I am not speaking from an own voices point of view either. It's just something I am passionate about (and counselling is my background so paying attention to what can be harmful comes with the ground)

@laurakuhlmann1626 2 года назад

My problems: 1) Bad science; 2) lack of empathy for everyone not agreeing with the science the main character supports; 3) hypocrisy (character complains about lack of action to combat climate change but is OK with launching a telescope to burn 300 tons of CO2 just for that); 4) Mary-Sue unrealistic female character; 5) the way the neurodivergent child is treated and ultimately dies from his father's refusal to give him proper treatment (there are non-medical options he never explored). By the way, when I say bad science I don't mean the climate change part is incorrect--I mean a lot of the biology and chemistry put in this novel is incorrect (e.g.: plant respiration doesn't stop during the day, water churning doesn't caused ionization of elements, a world with a stable ecosystem would still experience continuous evolution through genetic drift, sugar doesn't cause hyperactivity in children, etc). I'm a biochemist and I was screaming at this novel. It is not overly-hyped. It's plain bad, and potentially harmful.

@sh4rklotte 2 года назад

completely agree with you on all of this. i came to bewilderment from the overstory and eeeeesh, it was not powers' best work at all. i was also really eager to read about the astrobiology and it was so flat and uninspiring. absolutely not a fan at all 😔

@levitybooks3952 2 года назад

Oh wow! I've yet to see a reviewer who has read The Overstory and then not been similarly amazed by Bewilderment. I think I might read The Overstory, it sounds like what I liked from Bewilderment without all the stuff I didn't like! I find it strange how big fans of Bewilderment seem to ignore that the astrobiology or some of the themes in this were not well written or enjoyable to read. I think it might come down to how much we weight the negative parts of the book, and I for one found them to outweigh the good.

@joncapps2753 2 года назад

I agree on what you said about the environmental aspect of the book ..I wanted to like it;while I liked the temderness of the father/son relationship ..I gave it 3 disappointing stars..huge,huge,huge letdown

@levitybooks3952 2 года назад

Yeah, I also wanted to like it too! It had so many things going for it but then went to uncomfortable places it did not need to that took away from as you said, the father/son relationship, which was what my motivation for reading it was!

@nancythakur6478 6 месяцев назад

Quite agree with your reviews... kindly suggest books that deal with environmental issues and leave a note of optimism...plz.. grateful for the vedio

@remingtonschneider7692 Год назад

Wild because I loved the book and weirdly didn’t think about the pandemic much during my reading (although I do see the point your making). I work in the environmental field currently and haven’t come across a modern book that accurately depicts my feelings toward our society when it comes to the environment quite like this book.

@ksenijajemensek6126 Год назад

I couldn’t read it. Itt wasn’t for me.

@levitybooks3952 2 года назад

Retrospectively I'm glad this didn't win the award. We're still in the pandemic and I just don't think we should be publicly awarding a book with such a cynical view of the future right now. I don't think it's a message the world needs right now, regardless of how much it seems to resonate with people as a fictional story.

@dylanoshea9647 2 года назад

I just finished and I don't really understand why you say it's about the pandemic. Could you explain please? I'm interested to try and see your point of view of it

@Gwydda Год назад

@Dylan O'Shea I agree. I couldn't see the pandemic anywhere. It was probably his projection, i.e. wanting to see the pandemic everywhere.

@TK-kf8zc 2 года назад

Nothing is for everyone. Powers is a true poet.

@levitybooks3952 2 года назад

I feel some books are more accessible than others to a general audience, and was cautioning new readers of Richard Powers to consider whether they'd like it. Glad you enjoyed it though! Despite my belief, it continues to have high ratings on GoodReads so clearly the right people are reading it. I'd dispute Powers being a poet though, as basically no review positive or negative has focused on quoting any writing that really was powerful. The story and themes are what make this book good to those who like it, nobody to my knowledge has commented on how incredible the writing style is? I could be mistaken though. Many 4-5* reviews on GoodReads found the science parts disappointing like I did, but I think it just didn't bother them as much!