Shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize - A Reader's Review
This is about a grieving widowed astrobiologist and his autistic young son. I enjoyed bits of the science and psychology but there were so many things I disliked about this book. None of the characters were believable or rounded, including the narrator or his son. I can't claim to know but I'd be surprised if it resonates with many people's experience of parenting kids on the spectrum, embracing too many cliches of talented, fascinating, magical near-savant (who he also massively infantalises by the way: "tiny hand", "tiny" this and that - he's a 10 year old boy for gods sake!). I also hated the way he clumsily brought in recent history - a President who is obviously Trump, and even a character who is obviously Greta Thunberg but he gives a ridiculous new name to! And he leads towards a dystopic Amercian vision which is miserable enough but so obvious and lacking imagination that it could have been lifted straight from some social media rants mid-2020 (cattle pandemic and wildfires raging, a President nullifying election results etc...). No idea why this book was on the list - and if someone could set me straight on that I'd appreciate it! - Tanya Carus
Theo Byrne is a promising young astrobiologist who has found a way to search for life on other planets dozens of light years away. He is also the widowed father of a most unusual nine-year-old. His son Robin is funny, loving, and filled with plans. He thinks and feels deeply, adores animals, and can spend hours painting elaborate pictures. He is also on the verge of being expelled from third grade, for smashing his friend's face with a metal thermos.
What can a father do, when the only solution offered to his rare and troubled boy is to put him on psychoactive drugs? What can he say when his boy comes to him wanting an explanation for a world that is clearly in love with its own destruction? The only thing for it is to take the boy to other planets, while all the while fostering his son's desperate campaign to help save this one.
On The Overstory: It changed how I thought about the Earth and our place in it . . . It changed how I see things and that's always, for me, a mark of a book worth reading. -- Barack Obama
One of our most lavishly gifted writers - New Yorker
Nothing less than brilliant -- John Updike
It's not possible for Powers to write an uninteresting book -- Margaret Atwood
Exhilarating . . . on almost every page you will find sentences that combine precision and vision - The Times
On The Overstory: The best book I've read in ten years. A remarkable piece of literature -- Emma Thompson On The Overstory:
An extraordinary novel . . . an astonishing performance . . . he is incredibly good at turning science into poetry - Guardian
Author
About Richard Powers
Richard Powers has been a recipient of a Lannan Literary Award and a MacArthur Fellowship, as well as a winner of the US National Book Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of eight novels, including The Time of our Singing, Plowing the Dark, and Gain. He lives in Los Angeles.
