Ted Flynn reviewed The Echo Maker by Richard Powers
Review of 'The Echo Maker' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I'm giving this book a resounding "meh." I mean, I get it. It's a discursively rich, postmodern-ish attempt at weaving the complexities of neuroscience, linguistic and cultural systems together to enact some kind of narrative the making and unmaking of the self - which is in turn mapped on to a narrative about nearly every other symbolic and biological system you can think of. Normally, I'd appreciate this sort of thing, but in this case it's not a very integrated job.
Sure, there are some halfhearted attempts early on to pattern the narrative in a way that mimics the slippages of the subject matter, but these are mostly abandoned early on. What we're left with is what strikes me as a pretty thin Lifetime plot that's kind of haphazardly hammered on to a lot of aimless romanticizing and speculation about neurological unreliability and general human interconnection. It's kind of forced …
I'm giving this book a resounding "meh." I mean, I get it. It's a discursively rich, postmodern-ish attempt at weaving the complexities of neuroscience, linguistic and cultural systems together to enact some kind of narrative the making and unmaking of the self - which is in turn mapped on to a narrative about nearly every other symbolic and biological system you can think of. Normally, I'd appreciate this sort of thing, but in this case it's not a very integrated job.
Sure, there are some halfhearted attempts early on to pattern the narrative in a way that mimics the slippages of the subject matter, but these are mostly abandoned early on. What we're left with is what strikes me as a pretty thin Lifetime plot that's kind of haphazardly hammered on to a lot of aimless romanticizing and speculation about neurological unreliability and general human interconnection. It's kind of forced - one side never fully redeeming the other.
I guess I prefer my aesthetics to match the complexity of the science being hinted at. Nevertheless, I can see why this book was so popular with the Oprah crowd. Normal people like it when really basic encounters with simple paradox make them feel like they've learned something complex. Throw in some human interest, personal "journey" stuff and you're golden.
Yes, I am a jerk like that. I did enjoy [b:Operation Wandering Soul|23000|Operation Wandering Soul|Richard Powers|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167388688s/23000.jpg|24002] a lot, though.
