powers

i've been meaning to write something lengthy about the echo maker for simply ages, but the impetus has gone, so i'll just say a few short things. for starters, it was very unlike his other books. fs called me a few weeks ago to complain about how all powers' characters speak in exactly the same bombastic way -- this has vanished entirely in EM, along with a lot of the delightful syntax and wordplay. also (mostly) gone: the way he uses the central motif as a resource for imagery in the narrative (the musical metaphors in time of our singing i think are the prime example of this, but i know he's done it in most of his other books).

because the technical bits in the book all had to do with neuroscience, i could actually follow along quite well, and that was a bit of a problem. not because he got anything wrong - his research as always was impeccable - but because there was a lot of pleasure to be had from his novels in not knowing exactly what he is talking about (in gain and gold bug variations especially), and being able to enjoy the prose on the level of image, or even prosody (which i'm sure is part of powers' intentions).

still, i enjoyed the story, and the ending especially, but it was not a typical example of a powers book. i only hope the stylistic changes were just for this novel (and i can see why he might have done that) and not a permanent switch because of laziness or something. i was going to offer to lend it to people, but, erm, i guess not. get your own?