Generosity, Richard Powers, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2009, 322 pp
Summary from Goodreads: When Chicagoan Russell
Stone finds himself teaching a Creative Nonfiction class, he encounters a
young Algerian woman with a disturbingly luminous presence. Thassadit
Amzwar's blissful exuberance both entrances and puzzles the melancholic
Russell. How can this refugee from perpetual terror be so happy? Won't
someone so open and alive come to serious harm? Wondering how to protect
her, Russell researches her war-torn country and skims through popular
happiness manuals. Might her condition be hyperthymia? Hypomania?
Russell's amateur inquiries lead him to college counselor Candace Weld,
who also falls under Thassa's spell. Dubbed Miss Generosity by her
classmates, Thassa's joyful personality comes to the attention of the
notorious geneticist and advocate for genomic enhancement, Thomas
Kurton, whose research leads him to announce the genotype for happiness.
My Review:
Last year I read and loved The Overstory. This year I plan to read all the rest of Richard Powers's novels in reverse order of publication by reading one a month. This is turning out to be quite an immersion into one author and a way of looking back into the last 30 some years of scientific and social history.
In Generosity, Powers combines the science of genetics, an examination of how stories are written, and the ways that science and commerce become entangled. His characters serve his ideas and I am coming to see a pattern in these novels.
The main ethical question he addresses is the use of genetic data to rearrange the human mind and body as a means to circumvent disease and mental illness. A big question!
The inexplicable bliss of Algerian refugee Thassadit Amzwar drives the plot. She is a great creation of a character, at risk of exploitation and the destruction of her personality.
Though this novel did not quite reach the wondrous heights of Orfeo or The Overstory, it was a worthwhile look at the potential dangers and the powers of science in relation to society and the media. If you could give your child the guarantee of happiness by genetic manipulation, would you?
The plot of this one sounds fascinating. I tend to like serious science fiction that deals with ethnical and philosophical issues. The genetic manipulation that you describe here is likely coming. I am both concerned but I am generally optimistic that we will likely find an ethical and rational way to deal with these things.
ReplyDeleteBrian, I think if you read even one Richard Powers novel, you would want to read them all!
DeleteThe genotype for happiness eh? That's a hard question you ask. But perhaps best not to mess with the genes or define people's happiness against each other's. Who can pinpoint true happiness. hmm
ReplyDeleteYup, you nailed it!
DeleteYou are going about your Richard Powers reading very methodically. Good for you! I'm a lot more scattershot but I, too, would like to read his other books. The Overstory is the only one I've read.
ReplyDeleteI have not done this before with an author, such a dedicated attempt to read the full oeuvre. I was so impressed with The Overstory that I wanted to keep reading him. So far, so good.
DeleteI like books like that make you think!!
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of the novel by Wendy Walker I read last year titled, All Is Not Forgotten, where a 15 year old rape victim is "given a controversial drug to medically erase her memory of the violent assault". This 'controversial drug' used to medically erase violent memories, raised all sorts of thoughts and concerns for me. Like is it morally right to erase one's memory to save someone from having ptsd?
Sounds like Generosity is another one of those thought provoking novels!
Wow, I could totally see why that book would make you think!
DeleteIt's good that you were impressed by yet another Powers novel. You have a good approach to reading his works. Good luck in reading (and liking) the rest of them.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty excited to see what else I will find in these novels.
DeleteOkay, this one sounds like gold! I love books that ask these kinds of questions.
ReplyDeleteMe too. That is why I am reading this author!
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