Orfeo

Prefatory thoughts on the nature of genius In this era of grade inflation and trophies for showing up, let’s assume that the genius label is still meant to be rare. It refers, of course, to an exceptional intellectual capacity manifesting itself in extraordinary creative works or IQ scores in the ext......more

Music for the End of Time If you are a music-lover, read this book for its extraordinary insight into the mind of a musician. At least listen to its sound-track.* For, as he proved in The Time of Our Singing, Richard Powers is peerless in his ability to recapture music through words. As he looks back......more

A couple weeks ago, a friend of mine chastised me for not reading any recent novels. Just a week before that, another friend had lent me this book. So I figured I’d satisfy both friends and read this. This book is a strange mix of excellence and mediocrity. Luckily for me, in this work the two are......more

In a true Olympic fashion, I had difficulty and controversy with my reading and ranking of the latest from Richard Powers. A much younger Jon would've been wowed by Powers' aplomb navigating the higher harmonies of music and chemistry. In fact he treats them as twin summits. Grumpy Jon of the presen......more