Generosity: An Enhancement (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. About halfway into Powers's follow-up to his National Book Award–winning The Echo Maker, a Nobel Prize-winning author, during a panel discussion, talks about how genetic enhancement represents the end of human nature.... A story with no end or impediment is no story at all. This then, is a story with both. Its hero, at least initially, is Russell Stone, a failed author of creative nonfiction turned reluctant writing instructor who cannot help transmitting to his students something of his flagging faith in writing. One of them, a Berber Algerian named Thassadit Amzwar, is so possessed by preternatural happiness that she's nicknamed Miss Generosity by her prematurely jaded classmates and has emerged from the Algerian civil war that claimed the lives of her parents glowing like a blissed out mystic. After Stone learns that Thassadit may possess a rare euphoric trait called hyperthymia, her condition is upgraded from behavioral to genetic, and Powers's novel makes a dramatic shift when Thassadit falls into the hands of Thomas Kurton, the charismatic entrepreneur behind genetics lab Truecyte, whose plan to develop a programmable genome to regulate the brain's set point for well-being may rest in Miss Generosity's perpetually upbeat alleles. Much of the tension behind Powers's idea-driven novels stems from the delicate balance between plot and concept, and he wisely adopts a voice that is—sometimes painfully—aware of the occasional strain (I'm caught... starving to death between allegory and realism, fact and fable, creative and nonfiction). Like Stone and Kurton, Powers strays from mere record to attempt an impossible task: to make the world right. (Oct.)
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From The Washington Post

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Ron Charles Sixteen years after Peter Kramer's "Listening to Prozac," Richard Powers has heard the alarming implications of treatments that let us buy better moods and personalities. His cerebral new novel offers a chilling examination of the life we're reengineering with our chromosomes and brain chemistry. Although it's tempting to call "Generosity" a dystopia about the pharmaceutical future in the tradition of Huxley's "Brave New World," Powers sticks so closely to the state of current medical science and popular culture that this isn't so much a warning as a diagnosis. And as with any frightening diagnosis, you'll be torn between denial and a desperate urge to talk about it. The story begins on a deceptively small scale: Russell Stone is a cynical young editor for a cheesy self-improvement magazine called Becoming You. He's still recovering from a brief period of fame when his witty personal essays were sought after by NPR and the New Yorker. But now, at 32, he spends his days translating saccharine testimonies of personal triumph into Standard English. Lonely and depressed, he jumps at the chance to teach a night class in creative nonfiction at a Chicago arts college. Everything in this provocative novel revolves around a mysterious student in Russell's class named Thassa Amzwar. She's an Algerian who came to Chicago by way of Paris and Montreal after losing her home and her parents "during the Time of Horrors." By any reasonable measure, she should be shellshocked or corroded with bitterness, but instead she's hypnotically happy, "the world's most blissful refugee," with a voice like "mountain flutes." Russell is immediately fascinated by her: "Ten years of organized bloodbath have reduced a country the size of western Europe to a walking corpse. And Thassa has emerged from that land glowing like a blissed-out mystic." Everybody in class soaks "in the glow of this woman, her eerie contentment." They quickly dub her "Miss Generosity," but Russell thinks she's "either on newly discovered antidepressants or so permanently traumatized she's giddy." Powers can write lovely and heartfelt stories (he won a National Book Award in 2006), but he also has a well-deserved reputation for brainy fiction (he won a MacArthur "genius" grant in 1989), and "Generosity" may be his most demanding novel yet. It's told in a series of moments that run from just a paragraph to a few pages long, involving a triple-helix plot. In the main story line, Russell befriends Thassa and introduces her to a psychological counselor to make sure the young woman's striking happiness is not the manifestation of some mental illness. The three of them form a strange kind of support group, bound together in a dangerously ambiguous web of professional responsibility, love and sex. A second story line involves a jet-setting scientist named Thomas Kurton, who stays on the cutting edge of genetic research and, as much as possible, in front of a camera. This irrepressible entrepreneur joins the august company of such literary scientists as Drs. Faustus, Frankenstein and Rappaccini, but Powers's Dr. Kurton is also a dead ringer for the real-life vitamin-popping futurist Ray Kurzweil. "Vaguely messianic," Kurton oversees an ever-evolving galaxy of pharmaceutical companies, and he loves to electrify the public imagination with "ecstatic pieces about the coming transhuman age." From his first genetic breakthrough while a student at Stanford, he's been on a tear to revise the chemical composition of our genes to save us from mortality. For a price. Equal parts scientist and huckster, he tells adoring crowds: "The script that has kept us in gloom and dread is about to be rewritten. Labs across the globe are closing in on those ridiculous genetic errors that cause life to suicide. Aging is not just a disease; it's the mother of all maladies. And humankind may finally have a shot at curing it." The thrust of the novel involves Dr. Kurton's discovery of Russell's elated student, Thassa. A series of innovative tests reveals that she possesses a unique genetic mutation that makes her permanently content, although the announcement of that discovery threatens to burn her life under a glare of toxic publicity. By using her genetic material, Dr. Kurton suggests he may be on the threshold of ridding humanity of despair, coding soma right into our chromosomes. In a country where 10 percent of us take antidepressants -- "Generosity" is packed with such startling factoids -- that could be the greatest breakthrough since penicillin. This seems like plenty of rich material for a relatively short novel, but Powers folds a third story line into the mix. As Russell struggles to guide Thassa through her interaction with Dr. Kurton, we also follow the work of the country's most popular science journalist, a savvy young woman named Tonia Schiff. What Powers makes so bracingly clear with Tonia's gradual disillusionment is that the scientific breakthroughs that alter the nature of humanity don't take place in the laboratory. These drugs and genetic techniques aren't fully born until they're packaged by the media and consumed by a distracted but passionate public. In a culture in which entertainment value is the highest value, all things -- including scientific truth -- must be hyped for mass consumption. One of the most depressingly realistic scenes shows flashy Dr. Kurton debating the benefits of genetic enhancement with a Nobel Prize-winning novelist. Needless to say, the novelist's wise objections are blown to smithereens by the force of Dr. Kurton's shiny optimism. There's also a spot-on depiction of an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" about the latest psychological discoveries. A graphic reminder of the nuance-free way millions of people learn about complicated medical science, it's as funny as it is sobering. And to this fascinating mix, Powers dares to add a postmodern narrator who periodically breaks into the story to deconstruct readers' assumptions about characters and plot. "I'm caught like Buridan's ass," he writes, "starving to death between allegory and realism, fact and fable. . . . I know what kind of story I'd make from this one, if I could." It's easy to feel annoyed with this kind of authorial gamesmanship, particularly in a story that already boasts so many bells and whistles, but in the context of "Generosity," Powers's self-conscious narrator is brilliantly relevant. This is, after all, a novel about human beings attempting to design their own characters and, in a sense, narrate their own biological stories. With "Generosity," Powers has performed a dazzling cross-disciplinary feat, linking the slippery nature of "creative nonfiction" to the moral conundrums of genetic engineering. Although you might expect a novel so weighted with medical and philosophical arguments to flatten its characters into brittle stereotypes, ultimately that's the most impressive aspect of this meditation on happiness and humanness. As "Generosity" drives toward its surprising conclusion, these characters grow more complex and poignant, increasingly baffled by the challenge and the opportunity of remaking ourselves to our heart's content.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1 edition (September 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374161143
• ISBN-13: 978-0374161149
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,406 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now, "Feelings are the new facts. Memoir is the new history. Tell-alls are the new news.", October 9, 2009

By	Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

(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

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Characteristic Powers, October 16, 2009

By	Jay C. Smith (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is it real or ......?, October 23, 2009

By	Dick Johnson (Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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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.