Gain

In this novel, painfully and tentatively, two worlds entwine: the idiosyncratic fabric of an individual’s life and the managed, efficiency-driven footprint of a global company. But the entanglement is more than a mere conflict between powerless consumers and machiavellian corporations. Because, ulti......more

RP's books ALL rise to a level of excellence, some are more interesting than others depending on a reader's own interests but rest assured you, reader will be entertained, educated, challenged, and rewarded emotionally towards a better humanity for investing the quite hours of moving through his tak......more

Continuing my reading of Richard Powers novels in reverse publication order. Seven read and five to go. I was worried I would dislike Gain because one of the main characters has cancer, ovarian to be exact. I get squeamish reading "cancer novels" and I did in this one too. However, in classic Power......more

I have a complicated relationship with contemporary American fiction. Actually, I flat-out despise most of it. Give me a period novel about Edwardian English gentlemen, Second Empire French coalminers, post-Petrine Russian nobles, or even Depression-era California fruit pickers, and I will be happy,......more

Massively disappointing. I assumed I would dig this, because a) I liked/loved the other two Richard Powers books I read (coincidentally both also starting with G), b) Mike Reynolds raves about this one and c) the opening grafs are gorgeous as hell. But the chapters about the corporation read like a......more