THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022 FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR 'Extraordinary' New York Times 'Remarkable' Observer 'Heartfelt' Guardian Theo Byrne is a promising young scientist 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. But after a ... Read More
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022 FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR 'Extraordinary' New York Times 'Remarkable' Observer 'Heartfelt' Guardian Theo Byrne is a promising young scientist 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. But after a violent outburst from Robin at school, the strength of their close bond will be tested to its limits... What can a father do, when those around him refuse to understand his rare and troubled child? And how can he reveal to his boy the truth about our beautiful, bewildered world? Read Less
Add this copy of Bewilderment: a Novel to cart. $0.99, very good condition, Sold by Greenworld Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Arlington, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by W. W. Norton & Company.
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Add this copy of Bewilderment: a Novel to cart. $0.99, good condition, Sold by Greenworld Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Arlington, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by W. W. Norton & Company.
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I found Richard Powers's novel "Bewilderment" (2021) immediately endearing. It has as a main character a 9-10 year old boy,Robin. Much is made of his name throughout the book as a source for the boy's teasing by his classmates and as a source for his love of birds and all of nature. The book's first person narrator, Robin's father, the astrobiologist Theo Byrne, tells Robin how he was named. He is out on a first date with his soon to be wife Alyssa on a birding expedition. When Theo makes a fuss upon seeing a bird which proves to be the robin, Alyssa exclaims "the robin is my favorite bird" and the relationship proceeds from there. It was good to hear a little tale about my namesake.
Then too, much of the novel is set in Madison, Wisconsin where Theo is a professor. As a Wisconsin native who did graduate work in Madison, I enjoyed being reminded of this lovely city, its renowned university and the opportunity for learning it affords, and its beautiful lake environs.
I also loved some of the features of Alyssa, Robin's mother. Alyssa has died in an automobile accident before the story begins, leaving Theo to raise Robin alone. She had been a social and environmental activist in her career as a lawyer after graduating from the University of Wisconsin Law School. But what endeared her to me was the influence of Buddhism on her life. She had taught the family to say what Theo describes as a "secular prayer" every evening: "May all beings be free of unnecessary suffering" which is derived from the Buddhist Metta or lovingkindness meditation. Theo also discusses with Robin the "Four Immeasurables" of Buddhism he learned from Alyssa: "There are four good things worth practicing. Being kind toward everything alive. Staying level and steady. Feeling happy for any creature anywhere that is happy. And remembering that any suffering is also yours." There is also much in the latter part of the novel about the depth of the inner world in the form of the human that is even more mysterious and vast than the reaches of the universe. I was reminded of a famous saying of the Buddha in the Suttas: ââ?¬Å"For it is in this fathom-long body, with its perceptions and its mind that there is in the world the origin of the world, the cessation of the world, and the path leading to the cessation of the world." These are wise lessons reminding me of my own experience with studying Buddhism.
These and other factors drew me into the book. Theo and Robin are close throughout the story as Theo struggles to be a good single parent and to deal with the many emotional issues of his troubled but gifted son. Theo conveys to Robin and to the reader a broad sense of the mystery of the universe in its unfathomable size and in its nature. He and Robin explore poetically many imagined planets in the universe and the possibility of life somewhere else in this vast cosmos. Theo and Robin also explore nature in this, our human world, and the possibility of its destruction through human neglect. Robin has artistic talent as well as a love of nature. He paints a remarkable series of paintings of endangered animals, again with a focus on birds.
Other parts of this novel were less successful. The novel turns on the use of an experiemental non-chemical brain treatment Decoded Neurofeedback, which is pioneered by one of Theo's UW colleagues. Robin receives the treatment to try to put himself in touch with the characteristics of his late mother to cure his emotional issues and his outbursts of anger and violence. Some of this treatment and its results, perhaps set in a slightly future time, were overdone and unconvincing.
There is also a lengthy political theme and polemic in this novel involving a Trump-like president and a criticism of the United States, primarily, and its people for their perceived philistinism , consumerism, and materialism and for their blithe unawareness of how their activities are endangering life and the planet. It is proper to be concerned with these considerations in writing a novel. They are conveyed here with too much of a sense of certitude, self-righteousness and rejection of the points of view of others to be effective. It distracted greatly from the many valuable features of the book and took away from the value of what it was trying to convey.
In short, this book pulled me two ways. There was the poetic, spritual meditation on the vastness of the universe, life, nature, and ties between father and son. And then there was the element of science fiction and of sharp social and political criticism. The two were not well joined. I loved the first theme of the book and disliked the second.
