The Echo Maker: Richard Powers

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At first, this seems like garden-variety paranoia, but Mark recognises old friends Duane and Tommy and casual girlfriend Bonnie. Some in this field point out that because we cannot determine that animals do have subjective feelings (qualia), we can say that in fact they don't until it is demonstrated otherwise. By the by, a legacy device seems to be an outdated system that is nevertheless unavoidably integral, now usually used in computing to contrast the new generation of "plug and play". Although there is an ethereal glow that swirls in every page, there is a definite, concrete and suspenseful plot.

would recognize him here but for the rip-off of his appearance, his book titles and many of his case studies. Had Iris Murdoch been born 30 years later and in America, these are the sorts of books she might now be writing. There was a great book lurking in the manuscript of The Echo Maker, but Powers' editors didn't bother to help him find it.

Yet another level down to the neurons, the coldly scientific chemical reactions (eg -- Bonnie's distress at reading about the God module and the belief switch) and then in a circle back to the origin of everything, the chemical spark which created life in a single cell. But his writing is so persuasive that you're usually carried along by sheer momentum, only occasionally needing to stop and grab a dictionary. On the benefit side, there is a rather sympathetic portrait of the Midwest, and some beautiful pages on the mystery of bird migration (in this case, the millions of cranes that come to Nebraska, every spring). Powers' writing has been praised for its lyrical prose and its ability to challenge readers' perspectives on the world. And if two people have sex in the mud, don't you think they might want to shower or at least change their clothes before going off to lunch and then on to some tourist attraction?

But when he emerges from a protracted coma, Mark believes that this woman – who looks, acts, and sounds just like his sister – is really an identical impostor. Compassion, for Powers, is a form—the highest form—of imagination, since it involves imagined connections between our own and other people’s heads: “Of all the alien, damaged brain states” Weber’s books “described, none was a strange as care.I think I'm starting to see a pattern in Powers' work: there’s always a main character that initially is full of confidence and ambition, but whose self-image is crumbling as a result of events; this man/woman has to experience the nakedness of existence (in this book the rather coincidental working of the brain), and then has to make the best of it. However, he's also fighting his own battles; dealing with a waning career, an increasing professional skepticism, and doubts surfacing about his own cognitive competence. As Karin tries desperately to rehabilitate her brother back to normal, she enlists the support of a few old friends and a few outsiders. The Echo Maker” joins my Powers favorites through the admirable harmony he achieves between his rhetorical strategies— on the life of the sandhill cranes, on the furrowed dynamism of the brain — and the travails of Mark, Karin and Weber as they try to navigate their altered territories.

Mark has perfected a dingy existence, passing the time with video games, beer and general lunkhead-ery. It doesn't mean you're stupid or I'm stupid or the person who legitimately liked this book is stupid -- it just means the book isn't a fucking masterpiece. To conclude -- I would recommend this book to someone who is interested in neuroscience and the study of the way our brain functions and perceives the 'self' (especially from a more anecdotal, artistic perspective, rather than a purely clinical one), and who appreciates the higher-level exploration of topics such as the human connection with other species (in this case, the cranes) and with the environment (in this case, the inevitable exploitation of the river which is the cranes' migratory route stop).His books seem wrought rather than written, and try as he might, he can't help but make you feel just that little bit stupid. Against this riveting backdrop, The Echo Maker explores deeper themes around human relationships, individual struggle, and the intricate workings of the mind. He is particularly interested in human creativity (and explored this in some depth in Plowing The Dark). Powers zooms in on the brain at the system level -- "unsponsored, impossible, near-omnipotent and infinitely fragile", it forges a coherent picture of the self, completely unique to each individual ("The man who had taught her than any life one came across was infinitely nuanced and irreproducible").