Customer Reviews

Generosity: An Enhancement

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(4.5 stars) Once again, Richard Powers has reinvigorated the whole concept of the "novel of ideas,' writing yet another intellectual novel, based on neuroscience but defying facile categorization into genres. In some respects GENEROSITY is a social satire, and in others, it verges on science-fiction, but it also incorporates elements of metafiction, and its intellectual focus keeps the reader on his/her toes as Powers develops and expands themes and plot lines about the human genome that are both fascinating and original.

Russell Stone, a dweebish "nice guy," is teaching a course at Chicago's Mesquakie College of Art in "creative non-fiction," a genre formerly known as the "personal essay." His class consists of the usual assortment of art students of various ages with various goals, and, as they read their journal entries on successive class meetings, they soon become close. Thassadit Amzwar, a twenty-three-year-old Algerian Berber from Kabylie, however, quickly becomes the focus of the group for her perennial good humor and upbeat attitudes. Thassa has survived the ongoing Algerian Civil War, which began in 1991, supported by Islamist fundamentalists. An entry in her journal includes the discovery of her father's executed body after he wrote a letter to the newspaper challenging governmental policies, and it shocks the class, but it is her unconquerable good humor which leaves the longest-lasting impression on her classmates.

In Boston, Thomas Kurton, a pure scientist, is investigating the chemistry that underlies emotions and the genome which may be responsible for human happiness. Kurton believes that "aging is not just a disease; it's the mother of all maladies. And humankind may finally have a shot at curing it." The concept of deliberately "adjusting" the genome to produce happier, longer-living people with less disease, drives him relentlessly. Tonia Schiff, regarded as "America's most irreverent science television journalist," often features Kurton on her programs, "humanizing" him so that non-scientific viewers can identify with his discoveries. Back in Chicago, Russell Stone begins to wonder if Thassa's constant cheerfulness can be a sign of mental illness, and he contacts Candace Weld, an on-call college counselor, for insights. These three main plot lines converge when Kurton hears about Thassa and wants to map her genes, looking for the ephemeral "happiness gene" he believes she may have.

Powers writes a cerebral and challenging novel which incorporates much new science regarding the human genome, and his emphasis on provable data contrasts with the position of Russell Stone who is trying to free the minds of his students to their imaginations and creativity. The ethical questions that Powers raises regarding the effects of tinkering with the genome, and how one must redefine reality (and even the arts) in light of that are thought-provoking and get at the heart of the (threatened) values which have endured for thousands of years.

Though the characters sometimes give the impression that they have been created specifically to illustrate the non-fictional, scientific points the author wants to develop, and the plot sometimes wanders afield, the novel is both enlightening and absorbing for any reader who is curious about neuroscience. Filled with surprises, twists and turns in the plot, and an ending that feels a bit like a trick, this unusual and thought-provoking novel will entertain those interested in exploring the cutting edge of scientific investigation into the nature of humanity. Mary Whipple

Generosity: An Enhancement
Many fans, myself included, appreciate Richard Powers as a humanist who can artfully bridge his understanding of sciences into his fiction, as he did in Gold Bug Variations and Galatea 2.2: A Novel, for example. In his new novel, Generosity: An Enhancement, Powers explores issues entangled in genetic engineering, questions about what it means to be human and to be happy.

The principal characters are a young Algerian woman who appears happiness gifted, Thassadit Amzwar (Thassa), and her writing teacher at a fictional Chicago college ("Mesquakie"), Russell Stone. Based on just a few exposures to Thassa in his writing class Russell begins to worry that she is too happy, which he somehow perceives to put her at risk. He involves a college counselor, Candace Weld, who after a brief informal meeting assigns a diagnostic name to Thassa's condition, "hyperthymia." The plot proceeds along two main lines from there, as television personalities and bio-engineering entrepreneurs fasten on to Thassa to serve their own ends and as a romance between Russell and Candace inches along.

Powers brings in a fair amount of what psychologists, neuroscientists, and geneticists have to say these days about the causal correlates and manifestations of happiness. His chief vehicle is his fictional genomics entrepreneur, Thomas Kurton, who takes on Thassa as an object of study and potential profit. Kurton believes there are happiness genes and he advocates market access to them for parents who want to bestow such blessings upon their children.

Powers is more satirically critical of contemporary culture in Generosity than in his earlier works. In addition to over-reaching bio-engineers, he particularly targets mass communications: cell phones, blogs, streaming "news," "time shifting," "user generated" content, social networking sites, television news, science celebrity shows, the Oprah show, and more.

One other significant thing is going on in Generosity: Powers writes about writing. Interlocutions from an author character are staggered throughout. We are frequently reminded that it is just a story, that the author hasn't figured out yet what will happen, and that he cares about his characters. Remember too that Russell teaches (the course is "creative non-fiction"), so the class scenes and his assigned text ("Make Your Writing Come Alive") offer opportunities for further commentary on the enterprise of writing. One wonders whether this aspect reflects Powers' own doubts and concerns about the story he is constructing.

Powers has been criticized in the past for failing to fully animate his characters. Here Thassa might appear to rescue him from that charge. But it is never credibly demonstrated for us why people are so convinced of her elevated and persistent happiness almost immediately upon meeting her. For the most part we are simply told that they are. When Russell and Candace quickly become concerned about her they have insufficient evidence either that she has some sort of unique endowment or that she is exposed because of it. Consequently they become rather too frantic about Thassa's fate very early on when nothing was yet out of hand.

Russell himself is not the sort of dynamic protagonist that might ease the author's task. At one juncture we are told that, "He's forgotten exactly what subassembly of the collective human project he is responsible for, or when exactly it might be due," a characterization that seems applicable more or less throughout. Candace is the responsible adult, a consummate professional in her counseling work and a dutiful single mother. Powers writes that together Russell and Candace "... stand there awkwardly, two more victims of natural selection, caught between negativity bias and the eternal belief that the future will be slightly better than the present." As you might surmise, this hardly makes for a sizzling romantic relationship.

Most of the other characters basically represent stereotypes, particularly Kurton and Thassa's classmates. The most fully-realized may be Tonia Schiff, a television science journalist -- we learn enough about her upbringing and the changes she's gone through that she seems authentic, even if we may not like her. Russell's brother Robert makes only a few appearances, but delivers the funniest passages in the book.

Typically it is the fundamentals that carry good fiction, the plot and characters. With Powers it is more the intellectual superstructure. If you have read him before and enjoyed it you will likely find Generosity satisfying as well. If you are looking for some breakthrough in his writing you may be disappointed. If you are new to him, this book will show you how he works.

Russell Stone is a lonely man who gets a temporary job as a teacher at a Chicago college. There he meets Thassa, an Algerian war refugee who seems to be constantly happy. He can't understand this (since he himself is depressed), and after some Googling, decides she has hyperthymia, a psychiatric condition of constant happiness. He needs to confirm this and meets with the college counselor, Candace Weld, and soon develops a relationship with her. It is Stone's very use of the word "hyperthymia" that sets the ball rolling: Thassa suffers an assault (which she forgives), and during the police investigation Russell tells the authorities about Thassa's "hyperthymia;" suddenly the local media are all over the story. From there, Thomas Kurton and Tonia Schiff pick up on this unusual condition: they are working on research (Kurton) and a science story (Schiff) about a genetic enhancement for happiness. Now Thassa's life spins out of control, while at the same time, Russell's becomes happier.

The book seems to condemn and love technology; a fair reflection of people's true beliefs. Russell wouldn't dream of owning a cell phone (afraid of technology or afraid of people calling him?), yet he sits for hours doing research over the internet and reading blog entries. Kurton sees the field of genetics as one that can improve the whole human race, while he himself is without a soul: why not improve your own life there, Tommy? Nobody wants to end up alone and depressed like Russell, yet the "hive-mind" of media-fueled spin is not to be desired either. Social network sites, 24-hour media and blogs enrich social connections people have, but at the same time, the anonymity and remoteness of those very vehicles cause people to have and express over-reaching opinions that are none of their business; they stick their nose where it doesn't belong. Generosity really makes the reader think of the implications-good and bad- that technology brings to our lives.

Even though I ended up enjoying Generosity, it took me until halfway through to "get into" it, and I have 2 big problems with this book:

The characters are not as fully developed as I hoped. Candace seems plastic, Tonia and Kurton are so self-absorbed and lack any sort of compassion to the point that they didn't seem human, and in EVERY scene, Russell is so overly weak and depressive (does he have Asperger's like his brother, I wonder?) that I found myself exasperated to the point of yelling, "UGH!! Grow a spine, willya!!!!" He's really an "all-or-nothing" (mostly "nothing") kind of guy that has to be pushed into any action. The only characters that seemed genuine and that I ended up caring about were Thassa and Gabe.

The metafictional style (where the author introduces something into the storyline to keep you aware you are reading fiction) Powers employed of randomly interjecting a first-person account of the plot/character development was really annoying and supremely confusing in the first half of the book. Sorry, but I don't really want to know how you envision the characters or came up with the storyline; I don't care for you to outright express your like or dislike of the people you create. Let the novel speak for itself. Having said that, about halfway through, those interruptions are brought to a minimum and are less of a distraction. And even though I didn't care for this style, the ending ties the main plotline and the author's opinions of his novel together brilliantly.

What's great about "Generosity": Memorable characters and a fascinating premise. What's not great: The inevitable depressing trajectory of the plot and the author's irritating attempts to break the fourth wall.

You know from the beginning that this is going to be one of those literary novels whose theme is "anything good in the world inevitably gets ruined." I've read that book too many times already. And the author evidently thinks he's doing something really cool and clever by commenting on his writing process within the book. News flash: It's been done before, and better--Pirandello's "Six Characters In Search of An Author" is almost a hundred years old. In my opinion, unless an author has something really unusual to offer by intruding into the story, s/he should stay out of the way and let the story do the talking. I think the story would have been strong enough on its own (if still kind of a downer) without the authorial self-insertion, but if Powers didn't have that much confidence in it, maybe he should have written another book.

Still, it's a well-written book and one I'm still thinking about, albeit with a high degree of irritation. What is happiness, anyway? For me, it's reading a story where the author stays offstage!

Richard Powers never fails to satisfy on several levels at once. Generosity revisits some of his earlier themes and I was most reminded of Galatea 2.2.and the Echo Maker He effortlessly shifts registers in his writing, summarising and clarifying many complex ideas and theories with wit and concision. In one page he brilliantly summarises the history of written language packing a few lines with dazzling insights humour and aphorism. His explorations of ideas never , for me, impedes the satisfying flow of the tale. The characters were well drawn and did live for me although I wouldn't say they were the most fully realised people I have encountered in fiction. Thassa is a difficult personality to convey and we are not given much access to her interior life. There is a difficult balance to be struck here. This book succeeds brilliantly in all its themes and demands to be read more than once. It is shorter and more accessible than any of his novels since Gain. I can't understand why such an important writer does not receive more attention in the UK. I strongly recommend this book.

There is simply no better writer out there--his grasp of both science and human nature, his startlingly accurate images, his unexpected dead-on humor, the vocabulary, and the meshing of ideas are astounding. Although I have my favorites (Operation Wandering Soul, The Time of Our Singing), I treasure them all. I have found, however, that people I've recommended them to often find immersion difficult. I'd counsel patience--you'll be lured in and finally very disappointed that the book ends.

A striking story about happiness, gene therapy, and the struggle between a literary understanding of the world and a scientific one. A struggling adjunct writing teacher finds an impossibly happy Algerian refugee in his late-night writing class in Chicago. How can she be so happy after what she's been through - and how does she transmit her happiness to others? As the media becomes interested, so do the scientists - and both compete to win "the happiness woman's" genes for posterity and profit. Especially interesting is the lead geneticist, who sees no need for literature, the individual, or imagination. Powers' prose is beautiful, compelling, and thought-provoking. All his characters are sympathetic, and the bad guys really depend on where your sympathy lies. The occasional metafictional comment doesn't really work in this particular book, but it's understandable why Powers would choose to stick it in there. Highly recommended for scientists, literary fans, and readers of all intelligent stripes.

Powers takes a swing at several of today's areas of 'study' including: genetics; relationships; psychology; education and writing. Even his style of writing the book seems to be a nose-thumbing at some of today's pretensions in print. Meta-fiction meets unknown narrator which eventually meets some amount of the magical.

He visits the nature vs nurture battle and if any conclusion is drawn it's maybe described as "nurturally natural". Ethics in science and medicine (or its lack - you decide) joins with convenient self-fulfilling prophecy in diagnosis.

The bulk of the characters are everyday if flawed folks put in the presence of the prime mover of the novel, Thassadit Amzwar. They are all players in the question of how far man can go in determining the genetic make-up of future generations. And, what traits are possibly determined through genetics. Is the ability to do something sufficient reason to actually do it?

Powers has written on the edge with this one, and the style is likely to turn some readers off. I had to slow down from my normal reading speed to let this penetrate as I went. I found it well worth the investment in thought and time that were required.

This is my first exposure to Mr. Powers' prose. I purchased after reading a WSJ review and read in one sitting. Powers seems a cross between Eliot Pearlman (Seven Types of Ambiguity) and Michael Crichton (the real-seeming science stuff). Powers is a gifted writer and the story is revealed with power and subtly. This is the best work of fiction I've read this year. His story reveals the fissures of our new "globally-wired" culture and the increasing impossibility of uniqueness. Extraordinarily well done and highly recommended.

"Only connect," E.M. Forster counseled. Richard Powers has been connecting -- richly and deeply -- ever since his first novel, the 1985 Three Farmers On Their Way to a Dance, which linked photography, Henry Ford's invention of mass production, and a young computer designer's romantic challenges in 1980s Boston.

My favorites are his almost universally acclaimed third novel, The Goldbug Variations, which braids early DNA research, Bach, and Poe into a love story among research scientists; and The Time of Our Singing, about interracial romance, choral and instrumental music careers, the burdens of talent, and the early civil rights movement.

Generosity, published early this winter, is his tenth. It is shorter, and has a more spikey, neon-like feel -- less magisterial -- than many of his previous books. That's undoubtedly a reflection of its focus, which is partly on the Internet. Generosity employs blogs and newsgroups to develop its plot, if not in the hands of the protagonists, then at least to drive them through pressure from and developments in the cyber-community.

Russell Stone, 32, is a fairly passive magazine editor who had a couple short stories published and praised some years back, and an interesting girlfriend, but has been creatively stagnant and solitary ever since. He lands a job teaching creative nonfiction writing at a small art college in Chicago. Among his students is a 23-year-old Algerian refugee, Thassadit Amzwar, a Berber from the Kabyle region whose educated parents (father an engineering professor, mother a document translator) died unhappily in the cross-fire of history. He was shot at his desk during the Islamic revolution that followed decades of bloody rebellion against the French colonial government; she died of pancreatic cancer shortly after escaping with the children to Paris.

What's remarkable about Thassa is that she shares her story with the class simply, with a kind of wonder and interest, as if it were not her own. In fact, Thassa finds delight, awe, and beauty in almost everything: her journal entries and stories charm everyone in the class, as does her person: "she shouldn't even be pretty, except for the conspiracy of delight rounding her cheeks."

Puzzled by Thassa's affect and (ostensibly) concerned for her state of mind and personal safety, Russell consults a counselor at the college's health center, Candace Weld. A Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Candace attracts Russell's attention on the college Web site initially because she resembles his old girlfriend. Intrigued by Russell's description of Thassa and concerned for the girl herself, Candace eventually meets her and the three become close friends.

Two other characters figure prominently in the plot. Thomas Kurton is a research scientist in the high-stakes world of genetics; he's an articulate quasi-celebrity in his field, good at publicizing the work of the various companies he's founded, and equally good at hustling venture capital for them. In this he resembles Craig Venter (who's mentioned in passing as a competitor; Powers doesn't try to hide his sources). Kurton tangles in a friendly way with Tonia Schiff, a multilingual, Ivy-educated video journalist who has a cable TV tech show and is the pinup girl of geeks and Web surfers everywhere.

The central theme of Generosity that will draw these characters together is happiness: What is it? Can it have a genetically-based component? Could Thassa somehow be gifted in this sense, or does she perhaps "suffer" from a rare condition known as hyperthymia -- a biochemical state of permanent elation?

As knowledge of Thassa's permanent state of joyfulness and curiosity spreads through local news and the Internet, she agrees to appear on a national talk show with an Oprah-like host and to be genetically tested by Kurton's labs -- all of course against the advice of Russell and Candace. Inevitably, her fans think "Happy people must know something that no one else does," and quite against her will, Thassa becomes a messianic figure, subject to the pleas of physically and emotionally damaged individuals and the buzz of the blogs. The trick is, unlike other messianic types in otherwise wonderful stories (I think of Paul Gallico's The Man Who Was Magic), Powers never makes Thassa seem unbelievable, unduly naïve, or crazy.

Since the passing of John Fowles, Powers has become my favorite living novelist. Though they have many differences, their art intersects with history (or, as with any serious writer, time itself), and in their ability to tear off the mask of artifice -- to expose the storyteller's tricks -- while at the same time enthralling the reader with a page-turner anyway.

The two writers share an intellectual inquisitiveness and playfulness; an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink ability to encompass disparate areas of knowledge and cultural trivia (due, as Fowles once put it, to "my magpie mind"); and above all, a moral earnestness, a passion for ethical honesty, that can be off-putting to sophisticated readers accustomed to coolness and ambiguity. To these men, writing novels is a profoundly ethical, if not downright moral, undertaking ... or should be, anyway.