The Echo Maker

 

 

 

“Powers proves himself a first-rate stylist whose characters are never caricatures in service of abstract theory. In fact, many of this idea-driven novelist’s characters are unforgettable, flesh-and-blood individuals as finely drawn as those of any contemporary fiction writer.”—Steve Weinberg, The Seattle Times

 

“Another marvelous journey into the realm that Powers has made his own—self-revelation, self-awareness, self-exploration—and it’s a magical, stylish and compelling trip . . . a graceful, keening, thoroughly engaging book.”—Victoria A. Brownworth, The Baltimore Sun

“Powerful . . . Powers is mesmerizing when he channels his intellectual restlessness into his characters passions . . . When Powers convinces with drama . . . he becomes one of our most masterful writers.”—Charles Oberndorf, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)

“Powers has fashioned a beautifully unsettling novel, revealing the fragility and uncertainty of the human condition while generating a sense of awe and wonder at the natural world.”—James Schiff, associate professor of English at the University of Cincinnati, The News and Observer (Raleigh)

“The Echo Maker by Richard Powers is an ambitious book with a variety of themes.  The novel succeeds on many levels.”—Chris Stuckenschneider, The Missourian

“Powers’ language is consistently beautiful; it can be alternately emotionally crushing and uplifting.  While Powers presents events from different characters’ points of view, he never sacrifices clarity for experimental pyrotechnics.  In a world where facts are fragile, Powers’ novel demonstrates the redemptive power of fictions.”—Jeffrey Hibbert, The Wichita Eagle

“Seldom has the biochemistry of the living brain been rendered so lyrically or suspensfully.”—Patrick Kurp, The Houston Chronicle

“This is the latest addition to the impressive body of work of one of America’s most celebrated and distinctive novelists. Power is well known for cerebral and challenging investigations into the relationship and dilemmas posed by the insights of ‘hard’ science and technology on human consciousness and behavior. The present volume focuses on the subtle and complex, relationships between emerging knowledge in the field of neuroscience and social paradigms of identity and relationship.”—The Antioch Review

“A rich, complex stew of a novel about our connections in this world, about what actually bonds us to other people.”—Jonathan Miles, Men’s Journal

“The Echo Maker is also, in its way, a detective story . . . Power divides the note into five nearly equal phrases that serve as headings for the five sections of the novel . . . The story proceeds to a surprise ending, but the surprise is no gimmick: it really pulls together the complicated philosophical issues that the story has raised. I won’t spoil the reader’s discovery of this feat with any more plot summery. Instead, let me mention one more achievement of this remarkable novel: its masterful variations of style as the viewpoint shifts between Mark and Karin Schluter and Gerald Weber. The narrative is third-person throughout, but it adapts itself to each of its protagonists with the sympathetic recognition that is Power’s central theme.”—Daniel M. Murtaugh, Commonweal

"The theme of cognitive disorder . . . is the central subject of his eerie, accomplished ninth novel. An image of sand-hill cranes migrating from Nebraska's Platte River sets the scene, where 20-something slaughterhouse-worker Mark Schluter crashes his truck in an adjacent field, sustaining severe bodily and neurological injuries. Repeating an all-too-familiar pattern, Mark's older sister Karin leaves her job and life in Sioux City to be with him—stirring up memories of their shared childhood in thrall to a violent, alcoholic father and religious zealot mother. But Mark (whose inchoate, terrified viewpoint is rendered in a rich melange of semi-coherent thoughts and visions) no longer knows Karin; he is, in fact, convinced she's a stranger masquerading as his sister. Eventually, he's diagnosed as suffering from 'Capgras syndrome . . . one of a family of misidentification delusions.' But Mark's symptoms elude the pattern familiar to Gerald Weber, a prominent New York cognitive neurologist and bestselling author, summoned by Karin's importuning letter. Weber's 'tests' fail to relieve or explain Mark's delusive paranoia, and Karin turns first to the siblings' former childhood friend Daniel Riegel, long since estranged from Mark, now a deeply committed environmental activist; then to her former lover Robert Karsh, a manipulative charmer who has risen to local prominence as a successful developer. Contrasts thus established seem pat, but Powers explores the mystery surrounding Mark through suspenseful sequences involving his raucous drinking buddies (who may know more about his accident than they're telling); compassionate caregiver Barbara Gillespie; and the unidentified observer who left a cryptic message about Mark's ordeal at the patient's hospital bedside. Issues of environmental stewardship and rapine, compulsions implicit in migratory patterns and Weber's changing concept of the fluid, susceptible nature of the self are sharply dramatized in a fascinating dance of ideas. One of our best novelists once again extends his unparalleled range."—Kirkus Reviews