I've never read any of Richard Powers' writing so went into Bewilderment with no preconceptions. Having heard good things about Powers' work, I hoped to be impressed by this novel but what I hadn't expected was to be so moved.

In Bewilderment we follow astrobiologist Theo Byrne and his son Robin as they try to navigate a world which is not always welcoming to people who are different. Theo stands out because his job is all about finding life on other planets, something which to most people seems too far removed from reality to be taken seriously. Robin, meanwhile, is neurodiverse and obsessed with saving endangered species. We meet these characters two years after Theo's wife and Robin's mother, Alyssa, has passed away and it is clear the two of them are struggling to exist in a world without her.

There is a sci-fi element to the story with Theo and Robin travelling to other worlds, worlds which for various reasons have not been able to support intelligent life. Sci-fi is usually something that would put me off a book but I didn't mind it at all in Bewilderment. I think this is because it is used quite subtly in the novel. It's almost like a bedtime story Theo tells Robin to calm him or to remind him of the vastness of the universe when
the ever-declining state of life on Earth gets too overwhelming.

Bewilderment, in what is a relatively short novel, explores a number of interesting ideas including the over-medication of children, the ethics of science, tackling climate change and grief. All these topics, each a heavy-weight in its own right, are handled with a lightness of touch that speaks to Powers' confidence and skill as a writer. No spoilers but the ending of this book caught me completely off guard - I did something I almost never do and audibly gasped,

As I write this review, Bewilderment is up for the Booker Prize and the National Book Award and I can completely see why. It is a novel so of this time that as many people as possible need to read it now while these issues are still ones that we have some hope of doing something about. I wish this book every success for the awards it has been nominated for, in my view it deserves to win them all if only to get this novel into more hands, hearts and minds.

Shortlisted for 2021 Booker prize.

3.5* rounded up.

First of all, I should mention that Bewilderment is the 1st novel I’ve read by Richard Powers. As a result, my opinion was not biased by reading his so called masterpiece, the Overstory. I had a conflicted opinion about this book which is understandable taking in consideration its subject. There are a few aspects that I appreciated about this novel but others left me a bit disappointed.

Let’s start with the plot. Theo is the single parent of a 9 years old boy with behavioural problems, Robin. Theo works as an astrobiologist and creates models of planets where life can exist. After repeated bursts of violence the school gives Theo an ultimatum to start Robin on psychoactive drugs or be expelled from school. Instead, the father decides to enrol his son in an experimental neurofeedback treatment. While Theo is passionate by finding life on other planets, Robin is deeply preoccupied by saving his own.

The aspect that I liked most about the novel was that it made me ask questions about my behaviour towards the environment. Who am I kidding? It scared the shit out of me. I was moderately preoccupied by the subject mainly because I have enough reason to be anxious, I had no need for a new one. Thinking that there might not be a liveable place for pour kids in the near future does not make sleep easy. Secondly, I really, really like meat and have no intention to become a vegetarian. Somewhere in my brain being preoccupied by the environment equals vegetarianism or worse, veganism. Bewilderment was the first book that has environment protection as a main theme and it opened my eyes to some aspects. Subjecting young children to the horrors of human destruction is another story and, in my opinion, one major parenting mistake Theo makes. I do not rate parenting skills but I do appreciate that the book made me care enough about the characters to argue with them in my head.

Another aspect I like was how the author wrote the characters and their relationship. I thought most of the dialogue between the two main characters was well written and thought provoking. Again, I disagreed with most of Theo’s parenting choices but I welcomed the intellectual and emotional torment it raised in me.

Finally, and this might be a spoiler for some, I enjoyed how the novel is a n approximate retelling of Flowers for Algernon since the novel is a favourite of mine. The father and son discuss the book in the beginning and it made me realise early on the direction the plot will take. I found it a smart artifice and enjoyed the ride even though I knew how the novel will finish.

Now, to the parts I did not appreciate as much as I wanted. The writing was nothing special to me. I do not like flowery and complicated prose but I was expecting a bit less flatness. Except for the dialogue which was pretty good, I found the prose a bit uneven. The parts about astrobiology and invented planets were very boring and interrupted the flow of the story. Another aspect which made me cringe a bit was the author’s decision to write about people and companies that exist in real life (Trump, Greta Thunberg, Ted talks) but under invented names. I don’t really know why but it did not work well.

Bewilderment follows astrophysicist Theo as he tries to raise his son, Robin, alone following the sudden death of his wife. The grief and loss is very beautifully written and the complex personality of Robin who presents on the autistic spectrum was very well done. Theo is desperate to avoid medical intervention for Robin when he starts to have more and more physical outbursts, and so partakes in a scientific experiment which looks to retrain the brain pattern to copy someone recorded as ‘ecstatic’ - his wife.

Overall I enjoyed the book, the storyline is clever and the characters are likeable however the level of unnecessarily complex scientific explanation continually dropped the pace of the storyline and I kept disconnecting from the narrative. Even after finishing I am still unsure what purpose that was trying to serve.

It’s definitely a sad but thoughtful book. I’m left needing something uplifting to read next.

An important story of personal and worldly loss. At the heart of Bewilderment is the relationship between astrobiologist Theo raising his 'unusual' (from the book jacket) son Robin. We learn very early that they experienced the loss of Robin's mother, and the book follows the relationship as Theo raises Robin his own way, seeking non-medication routes to a more settled future. The book is infused with a love of nature, both seeking life on other worlds and in the world around them, as Robin follows his mother's interests and dedication. It is also a book with global issues as a backdrop, seeking new life whilst the nation goes in a direction to threaten it's own.

A heartfelt book with personal relations and love mirrored by love of the natural world, with (warning!) difficulties at all levels as the book moves towards it's climax.

I did like the idea of this book but it just didn't deliver for me. The writing was beautiful but I didn't connect with the story fully and it just didn't fulfill itself in the way I expected it to. I did like how it explored grief from both the parent and child's perspective and thought it handled this beautifully. It wasn't for me but I can see why it has been nominated for the booker prize this year.

An extraordinary novel, full of the universe.
A story of a father and son.
A book that concerns itself with life on Earth and man as, the careless caretaker.

I did find the story itself slow to reveal itself but I resigned in the knowledge that if this book had been shortlisted for the Booker prize, then I should try to stick with it. And I did.

I found Bewilderment both fascinating and beguiling, for the science bits alone. And I found myself researching and cross referencing as I worked through the book. Regardless, I enjoyed seeing the universe through Theo’s eyes.
Whilst fascinating in itself, the amount of science bits did steer me off course and I found this slightly distracting; was this a story about a father and his son or was this something else?

Powers’ descriptions of life on other planets were both captivating and insightful.
And then, there is the story of a father and his son.
The relationship between Theo and Robin is clear; they are both awkward in that they are still learning about each other and how the universe works. They both care about each other and they both care about life on Earth. They both hold each other’s interests for themselves; Theo teaches Robin about the universe and Robin keeps Theo busy with his inquisitive mind. Robin is both passionate about nature as well as being incredibly vulnerable to the natural cycle of life and his father tries to protect him from this.
They are missing the third member of their family and it is clear to me that she was the pin that held them together.

There is dialogue, it is somewhat sparse but the book is in first person as told by the father. There is also very little participation from any other characters. So, the bulk is Theo’s thoughts regarding the universe and his son.
Regardless, I felt I learnt very little about Theo himself. The only sense of him I felt was when he recalled memories with his wife and also in the last stages of the book. And I would have liked to understand him more. Having said that, in context to the story, ‘this boy made the world good for me’ probably told me all I needed to know about Theo.

I recommend everyone give this book a go.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to review this book.

I was sent a copy of Bewilderment by Richard Powers to read and review by NetGalley. This was an intriguing novel with some fantastic ideas about retraining the human mind with the use of mind maps of other people. I do not know if this is a current branch of science but it seems to me that this technology could be a great way of dealing with certain mental health issues without the need of intervention with drugs. As to the episodes of the book that pertain to visiting other planets, this for me was somewhat irrelevant. It seemed to me to be a bit of navel gazing by the author rather than enhancing the story – I’m sure I will be in the minority in thinking this! All in all this is a book worth reading, although I’m not sure that I actually enjoyed it – at least until I got into the rhythm of the writing. I can’t say I am surprized that it has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize though!

#Bewilderment
With thanks to #NetGalley #RandomHouseUK #WilliamHeinemann #Cornerstone

Bewilderment is a novel constructed in its contradictions. There's charm but severity of message. Powerfully imagined natural landscapes but a narrative driven by scientific discovery. Powerful human bonds, love and relationships but clinical in its treatment of the human mind. Never dull, this reads as a book of investigation as Powers unravels the emotive and unusual relationship between the central characters. Father and son, Robin is autistic, suffering in a near future of our own planet, to come to terms with the loss of his mother and equally the loss of humanity's respect for their planet. Throughout the novel's plot, Powers is consistently questioning our appraoches to the world around us, which in turn puts into motion the enigmas of our own mortality and progression with technology. Ultimately he produces here a meditation of what the progression of our society means, positioned as an interweaving thread, stitching moral cause and some stark observational commentaries into the fabric of a tender central story.
The power of this novel is bedded into the emotional driver of the father and son bond at its core. Yes, it's shocking at times how the action and events are so maddening, so frustrating, and even so humorously bizarre, that as readers we have to step back to evaluate the characteristics of a father who would permit experimentation on his own son. Yet every time, he was never found wanting. He was a father doing what he could to resolve the pain of his only son in the face of grief, death and injustice.
Robin is the real magnet and pace pusher in the book - a young boy, with a keenly written voice that you can't help but become attached to. Voicing the autism of a child here, there are echoes of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, or The Colour of Bee Larkham's Murder. Affable, curiousity-provoking and whose fate became the driver for continuing to turn the pages.
Powers in this sense is a skilled storyteller, ensuring a level of engagement is consistent. It's not necessarily most powerful in message or lasting impact, but Bewilderment is a vibrant piece of storytelling which thrives in the world it creates between the covers.
This was a multi-faceted book, which sets out to achieve something that perhaps isn't consistently achieved. It cannot be denied that this is a good read - the discord and at times drawn out musings on the planet detracted from the potential to be wholly great.

This is a relatively short book about a father that's struggling to keep control of his son after the death of the boy's mother. He has been diagnosed by different clinicians as a kid with ADHD or other disorders, but the father refuses to get him on drugs at the early age of 9. And then, he hears about an experiment with neurofeedback that might help his son control his impulses, so he signs him up for that.

I really wasn't sure how to rate this book. It's beautiful to read, and the science-y bits are clearly explained. However, I do work with brains and have a higher than average understanding of these neurofeedback techniques. I can't say what's in the book is factually wrong, but it's presented (probably for artistic purposes) as much more of a panacea than the methods really are. The combination of neurofeedback and AI made me cringe -- yes, it's real and mixing these two things is fairly commonplace, but again, he just made it sound way too simple. And the travels to other planets were not for me. I ended up almost skipping those mini chapters, but that's just a personal preference, because to me the book at some point felt a bit too slow and I wanted to go straight to the neurofeedback and how it was affecting Robin -- occupational hazard I guess.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

It was a pleasure to be back inside Richard Powers' writing - his fascination with the natural world results in writing that has me pausing to examine leaves and flowers on my walks, and feeling quite moved by the world that we live in.

This novel makes commentary on a lot of contemporary issues with key themes of climate change/environmentalism. One of the main focuses of the story is the relationship between Theo, and his son Robin who is neurodivergent (diagnoses have been made in the story, but aren't accepted or used by parent/child) and is experiencing frequent meltdowns. Theo is determined not to medicate his son, however Robin's school is making threats of getting authorities involved if the situation doesn't improve. Robin has inherited a love of nature from his late mother, and the atrocities happening to animals and the environment are making him desperately distressed. Enter an experimental behavioural therapy that has remarkable results.

Interspersed throughout the story are trips to other (imagined?) planets that Theo describes to his son; we as the readers can draw parallels between these other planets and the difficult (inconvenient) truths that father and son are coming to terms with on Earth. I ultimately enjoyed these interjections, however it took me a little while to understand their place within the story.

I will be keen to reread a physical copy of this book (I read an e-arc courtesy of NetGalley and Random House UK) as I think I would have found the story more impactful had the formatting been better, a few of the punchy moments were a bit lost to the wall of text read on a screen. This was an exploration of grief, love, discovery and joy that I enjoyed so much and I love Powers' writing. I think on a reread this could potentially get 5 stars, it just wasn't quite there for me this time - I found it a bit bleak overall, which I understand within the context of the story, but I didn't find myself emotionally connected enough to appreciate the honesty of it.

The Overstory was my first encounter with Richard Powers and it blew me away. I was just staggered by the quality of RP's writing. Needless to say, I was in a state of high anticipation for this one. I was not disappointed.
The writing is so good - so light and effortless, so subtle but packing huge emotional punches. Like the very best of writers, RP makes it seem simple, easy, when, of course, it is anything but. I find his writing soothing, so easy to absorb but also capable of pushing buttons, both intellectual and emotional, with inescapable force.

I won't describe the plot as other reviews here have already done so, but I found it intriguing and heartbreaking in equal measure. There is grief and joy, hope and despair, all so beautifully rendered by Powers that my emotions were scattered to the four winds by the end of the book. As with The Overstory the descriptions and appreciation of the natural world are glorious, brimming with a joy that is harshly juxtaposed with Robin's anger at the destruction of all that he holds precious.

I thought the political and polemic aspects of the book were done effectively and I didn't feel they were heavy handed at all as some press reviews have expressed. The environmental message could've been gruelling and self-defeating but it was so integral to the narrative that it avoided being preachy.

The characters are excellent, well formed and fascinating. The relationships are realistic and touching. The ending is utterly devastating, a spark of joy crushed out leaving me emotionally exhausted.

An absolute joy to read.

When you read a Richard Powers novel you more or less know what you are going to get: a very well-told story, a very original story and a lot about scientific ideas, particularly cutting-edge ideas. In the past, these ideas were often (though certainly not only) in the realm of computers, In his previous book Powers fully moved into environmental issues and the natural world, and this is very much the concern here, though we have the issue of intelligent life on other planets, a topic he has previously touched on, as well as behavioural modification techniques. Don’t let that put you off. If you are like me, you probably won’t understand it all but that is not really necessary to appreciate this book.

Our hero is Theo Byrne, an astrobiologist working in what he calls Madtown, Cheeseland, i.e, Madison, Wisconsin. He is a widower. His wife, Alyssa, a keen animal rights activist, was killed when she swerved to avoid an opossum. They had one (unplanned) child, a boy called Robin who will turn nine early in the book.

Robin has issues. What exactly those issues are is not exactly clear. Robin has been subject to tantrums and violence and variously diagnosed with Asperger’s, OCD, and ADHD. Theo does not accept the doctors’ diagnosis. He has, he feels, a highly intelligent, very sensitive son, who does not fit into the system and does not conform with the general view of what a boy of his age should be like. The problem is that he had been violent at school and has missed school. He has been cut some slack because of the death of his mother but the school principal can no longer accept either his absences or his behaviour, particularly when he throws a thermos at the only boy he is friendly with and badly injures the boy’s cheek.

At the beginning of the novel, Theo takes Robin away for a few days camping in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The closeness to nature has a calming effect on both father and son. Six different kinds of forest all around us. Seventeen hundred flowering plants. More tree species than in all of Europe. Thirty kinds of salamander, for God’s sake. They commune with nature the whole time. Theo has something of a game with Robin. He invents imaginary planets which always have different structures, different life forms and they discuss them.

However once back in the real world… As Alyssa was into protecting endangered species. Robin decides that he is going to draw pictures of every endangered species in the United States. He does not realise that there are more than two thousand. However, he gets obsessed with the project and refuses to go to school, causing problems with both his father and the school. As Theo says I could no more raise a child than I could speak Swahili.

Before Alyssa’s death they had both become involved in a project called Decoded Neurofeedback. Basically, it maps people’s brains when they enter specific emotional states. The idea is to make a detailed map based on mapping the brain activity of a large number of people in these specific states, therefore giving them a good idea of what emotional state a person is in when their brain activity corresponds to the mapping.

To define these states, they use a classification based on Plutchik’s wheel of emotions. Plutchik identified only eight emotional states, Powers calls them Terror, Amazement, Grief, Loathing, Rage, Vigilance, Ecstasy, Admiration. Interestingly the Wikipedia article linked has the same states but with different names, i.e. Anticipation, Joy, Trust, Fear, Surprise, Sadness, Disgust, Anger. Whatever they are called, I am sure we would all disagree with their choice but no matter.

When Alyssa and Theo were doing it, Alyssa was given Ecstasy. In other words she had to think of something that made her ecstatic. (Theo got Grief.) Whatever she thought about it clearly had a profound effect on her. When they got home, Robin is shoved into his room and the couple have sex.

Theo now wonders whether this project could help Robin. Currier, the man in charge, seems to think it could. Robin is shown a mapping of Alyssa’s brain scan and he has to try and map it with his own brain. This initially succeeds.

Much of the rest of the novel is about how this project works out. However, there are other things going on. In the real world, there is a president who is trying to restrict immigration and restrict civil liberties. (I suspect this novel was written before the November 2020 US presidential election.) He soon turns his attention to science which he neither likes nor understands. He tweets Why are we pouring ever more money into a BOTTOMLESS PIT that will never return a SINGLE CENT on investment??? Socalled “Science” should stop inventing facts and charging them to the American People!! Both Theo’s project and the Currier project are in danger, the latter more so as the pro-life brigade do not like it.

Robin becomes more and more interested in nature and the environment and soon discovers Inga Alder (clearly based on Greta Thunberg) and finds great affinity with her. Indeed, he wants to be like her. Like his father and lots of other people he is getting increasingly concerned about what is happening in the wider world, not just the actions of the US president but also the effects of climate change. Not all agree. Earth had two kinds of people: those who could do the math and follow the science, and those who were happier with their own truths. His father adds People, Robbie. They’re a questionable species.

As always with Powers, there is a lot going on in this book. Firstly, there is the whole issue of bringing up a child. We probably all do it wrong and, as mentioned above, Theo struggles with it. The key issues in this book are, firstly, how do you bring up a child who is different, special. Often we label them, as Powers indicates here (ADHD, OCD, Asperger’s) and then proceed from there. Does that work? Powers thinks not. Each child is different and there is not a generic treatment.

The idea of behavioural modification using a parent’s brain scan is of course fascinating but can it, would it work? Could it even exist or is it just another Ritalin?

Secondly, Powers is clearly pointing out that we are losing our contact with nature and that this is having disastrous effects on the planet and its people and animals. This is not, of course, an original idea but Powers does make it forcefully.

Thirdly, the world or, more particularly, the US is tilting to the right. He does not examine the root causes but he does point out the dangers though obviously he is by no means the first person to point out how dangerous Donald Trump is/was.

Related to that, he is pointing out the importance of science whose objective is not commercial but aimed at increasing our knowledge of both our world and the world beyond our world. If we want to know who and what we are we need independent but well-funded scientific research.

Finally, he looks to other planets. He is not saying that extraterrestrials have been or will be popping down for a visit any time soon but he does say that life can take many forms and not necessarily ones we are familiar with. Moreover, he points out that intelligent life could and almost certainly would have evolved in ways different from the ways we know.

The idea of the Fermi paradox (that if there is intelligent life out there why hasn’t it paid us a visit) and its variation the Zoo hypothesis is important and he has suggestions as to why it exists and why they have not visited us or, at least shown themselves. This is, of course, a standard trope of science fiction but still interesting.

The title, by the way, comes from a quotation from Plato, which appears in Flowers for Algernon, a key book for Theo and Robin. The quotation reads Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light.

In conclusion I can only repeat what I say after reviewing any Powers books. This is another superb novel, full of interesting ideas and with a great story to tell and, as always, very well-told.

I loved Power’s Overstory, so I was beyond excited to read his new offering – it sounded right up my alley, especially given its environmental themes.

The narrator of this novel is Theo Byrne – a forty-five year old astrobiologist, recently widowed, and the father of a challenging but interesting nine-year-old boy, who may be on the autism spectrum. So besides the environmental themes, we also have grief, parenting and some politics – as I said, themes right up my alley.

I’m trying to make sense to myself why I didn’t love this novel. Was it my disinterest/ignorance of all things astronomy related? Could it be that it bugs me to no end that we spend so much money on astronomy projects, university courses etc, when this planet is dying? I found the astrobiology and the astronomy passages beyond boring, not to mention they pulled me out of the story. As someone who generally bemoans the dumbing down and anti-intellectualism of society, I also gave myself a stern talking to - Bianca, just because something is beyond your understanding, knowledge and capacity, means nothing. So, I’m conflicted.

Let’s forget about the astronomy bits, how did the rest of the book go? Well, the more relatable aspects of it were fine – the challenges of sole parenting, especially parenting a neurodiverse child, were well done. I did have a few quibbles about the father’s opinions on diagnoses and treatments, amazingly enough, they didn’t bother me that much, even though his views didn’t necessarily align with mine. His nine year old son, Robin, is a very interesting character, intense, super intelligent. An alternative treatment, a sort of cognitive manipulation using the mother’s old profile is used to create new neuropathways for Robin. Those aspects were interesting, I should do some googling to see if they actually exist. Powers uses the child as a conduit of ideas, not unusual in literature. Unfortunately, I never found Robin as a believable character and I was never truly touched on an emotional level, which I found disconcerting.

The mother and wife sounded like an incredible person, out of this world. Both husband and son put her on a pedestal.

Now onto the political, topical aspects of the book. As I’ve confessed before, I’m a full-fledged lefty. I loath Trump & Co, I greatly admire Greta Thunberg, and the environmental concerns are close to my heart and mind. While Trump remains unnamed, you would have had to live in a cave not to recognise the president’s stance on things. Thunberg is given a different Scandi name, but you’ll recognise her as the teenage girl on the Autism spectrum, who’s scolding the politicians of the world. It pains me to say this, but I found these aspects a bit on the nose – for lack of a better expression.

The reading experience wasn’t smooth, I appreciated some aspects of it, but emotionally I was completely disengaged.

An extraordinary book about science, nature, the heart and mind, and what it means to live in a world where all we want to do is 'correct' what's around us and each other. I was captivated by Robin and his views on animals and nature, and how connections to nature through art and discussion can guide a new kind of healing. I felt for Theo as he struggled to know the best things for Robin, and for himself. This is a quiet, moving study of two people navigating grief and space. I absolutely loved it.

I am *bewildered* at the praise of this book, yes the writing is lovely but as Shania would say about Brad Pitt - that don't impress me much. I only assume it is from the same people who loved The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, those who want a stereotype of a neuro-divergent character to humanise so that they can open their eyes to the world not being accessible to all - a Manic Pixie Dream Neurodivergent if you will.

Basically, this novel boils down to "Robin is neuro-divergent and his dad (Theo) doesn't like the fact that doctors are telling him this. Also, medicine is bad and so is the anti-science government - a BIG deal is made from the Trump-like government being anti science...while Theo is actively denying his son's diagnoses from doctors because "he knows his son better" - which I don't know I guess the latter is slightly toucher upon near the end of the novel, but the comparison between his disbelief and dismissal of autism and ADHD (not just in his son but also in Greta Thunberg, oops I mean 'Inga Alder', who Theo rolls his eyes at for being proudly and publicly neurodivergent) and the anti-science of the government is not there.

Richard Powers is rapidly emerging as our leading chronicler of climate change. After the sprawling The Overstory, Bewilderment is a tighter, more focused novel that shows how a small cast and a straightforward story can still pack a huge emotional wallop in the hands of a good writer. This novel is not for the fainthearted, and perhaps like We Need To Talk About Kevin should come with a health warning for parents of nine-year olds.

The small cast is recently widowed scientist Theo; his nine-year old son Robin and (via memories at first, then science) their dead activist mother and wife Alyssa. Theo is literally otherworldly - an astrobiologist fighting to keep his research into life on other planets funded in a Trump-era USA. He struggles as a single parent to cope with Robin, whose autistic tendencies are balanced with a complete conviction of the right of other species on the earth to an equal life. When an academic colleague of Theo enrols Robin on an experimental programme of neuroscience, Theo sees a way to avoid medicalisation and drug therapy, and to preserve Robin’s singular character while ensuring he fits into the system enough to progress.

Power’s calls to science fiction through Theo’s work and background make this a unique combination of precise emotional family drama and speculative fiction. SF looms large as a way of imagining, like Theo’s research, a wider and richer set of lives than just those on earth. Despite Theo and Robin’s journeys to the imagined ecologies of distant planets,this is a novel about today that shows Power’s anger and frustration at the philistinism of the Trump era, and the lack of any serious government engagement with the climate crisis.

It’s no accident that Robin is inspired by a thinly-veiled Greta Thunberg, another young person whose anger at the injustice and cynicism of the adult world burns too bright for adult comfort. Powers gives Robin and Theo no easy way out, and binds his neurodivergence and unbounded compassion into a set of events that unfold at the end of the book with a tragic inevitability.

Is it a worthwhile read, yes? Can you enjoy the precise and unfussy prose, yes? Will you enjoy it? Possibly not always, but you’ll find it hard to look away from the characters as the world darkens around them.

Having been slightly terrified by the weightiness of Powers' last novel The Overstory, and completely blown away by it, I was eager to see what his next offering had to say. it is a much more approachable and much more intimate story, but it deals with the same broad concerns - primarily the climate emergency and the havoc we are wreaking on the environment that sustains our race, but also the rise of totalitarianism even in hitherto democratic Western countries.

The broader losses the story deals with are set against the personal losses of astrobiologist Theo Byrne and his neurodiverse 9-year-old son Robin, both struggling to make sense of a world after the death of their environmentalist activist wife and mother in a freak accident. Theo manages Robin's challenging behaviour in school by taking him away from the world, either by trips to the dwindling wilderness of America's national parks, or through trips of the imagination to other planets and the weird lifeforms they may sustain. But in a world with little tolerance for difference, as Robin's behaviour becomes more difficult and his school threatens a referral for psychoactive drugs, Theo desperately accepts an offer to enrol him on a trial for an experimental treatment of neural feedback reprogramming using his dead mother's emotional imprint.

The bewilderment of the title permeates the whole novel. Theo does not know how to manage his son's uniqueness but knows that the conventional way is not the right one. Robin, with his raw grief for the loss of his mother and his lack of filters to manage the world, cannot understand or cope with the continued wilful damage the human race is inflicting on the natural world in the name of progress and economics. And meanwhile, an unnamed right-wing president insidiously enacts ever more draconian legislation to suppress any voices of dissent, whilst brutally cutting funding for research that doesn't have an immediate economic benefit, like astrobiology or neural feedback treatments. The effects are devastating on a personal level for Theo and Robin, and threaten to be so for humanity at large.

This is a squarely dystopian novel - there are no happy endings here. It is a heartbreaking plea for change before it is too late, without much hope that it will come to pass. Like The Overstory, though on a much more intimate scale, this is a hugely important book that is also a riveting read.

Another amazing book by Richard Powers! I loved The Overstory - Bewilderment did not disappoint.
Poetic dystopia set in the near future (a future very similar to today's world) - a celebration of nature and love.

There were aspects of this book that I loved, and others that I found difficult to follow.
This is a book essentially about the love of parent for his child and, ultimately, concern for his child’s well-being, but it is set against a backdrop of the cosmos and space and the unknowable universe that surrounds us.
Theo is fairly recently widowed and is trying to raise his troubled, undiagnosed ASD/OCD/ADHD son, Robin. The relationship between these two characters is compelling and heart-breaking. Theo does not know how to help his bereaved son whose condition means that he regards and responds to the world in quite unique and unpredictable ways.
When Robin is threatened with exclusion from school, Theo explores alternative treatments that do not require his son to be medicated. He allows Theo to receive experimental therapy which maps recordings of his dead mother’s consciousness over his own. The transformation is greater than anyone expected or anticipated as Robin ‘becomes’ his mother. He is always portrayed as a sensitive soul who struggles with the harsh realities that nature and man create, but following his treatment he becomes eloquent and passionate about the wrongs in the world: mimicking his mother’s causes as an animal right’s activist. I’m not sure that Robin is any more in touch with reality or able to see beyond his own skewed ‘polarised’ vision at any time in the book, but there something so compelling about how he develops. Theo is trying to be the best father he can be in the face of an almost inconceivable situation.
I enjoyed how Robin and Theo bond over camping trips and the sense of indulging what seems right and normal to them. I desperately wanted them to find an even keel in their turbulent relationship. I was not prepared for the final revelation. The astrobiological explorations were quite difficult to follow and, for me, felt unnecessary. The author made me think about the world in which we live and how we respond to it and each other.

“You know. The mouse, Dad. The mouse.” - from ‘Bewilderment’ by Richard Powers.

My thanks to Random House U.K./Cornerstone William Heinemann for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Bewilderment’ by Richard Powers in exchange for an honest review.

Powers’ Pulitzer Prize winning ‘The Overstory’ was one of my favourite reads of 2018 and so I was very keen to read ‘Bewilderment’. While ‘The Overstory’ was an epic, the focus of ‘Bewilderment’ is primarily upon the relationship between a widowed father and his troubled son; though themes linked to ecology and the Anthropocene are also found within its narrative. It is set in a slightly alternative USA, as indicated by chilling events playing out in the background.

Theo Byrne is a promising young astrobiologist engaged in the search for conditions suitable for life on other planets light years away. His nine-year-old son, Robin is an imaginative child, who feels deeply about nature and animals. He is also artistically gifted, quite capable of spending hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered species.

Yet Robin is also behaving erratically at school and is being threatened with expulsion from the third grade following a violent incident with a classmate. Robin is grieving the loss of his mother, Alyssa, killed in a car accident two years previously. Theo, too, is struggling to come to terms with her sudden death.

Theo encourages Robin’s art and his interest in the global campaign to address climate change. Theo also utilises his experience of mapping theoretical worlds to create scenarios of new planets for Robin to explore. This helps some though Theo is being pressured to put Robin on psychoactive drugs or risk social services stepping in.

Then Robin is referred to a radical experimental program that uses mind mapping for behaviour modification. Will this be successful and what are its ramifications?

‘Bewilderment’ is a work of literary science fiction that aptly demonstrates to those that continue to disparage the genre that it is capable of exploring serious, wide-ranging themes. Theo’s lifelong interest in other worlds, both in actuality and in his reading of science fiction, is highlighted, including mentions of ‘Flowers for Algernon’, a novel that has a poignant resonance with aspects of the story.

Overall, I found this an intelligent, thought provoking novel that explores the relationship between a father and son and encompasses themes of loss and bereavement as well as the possibilities inherent in human consciousness. It also made me weep. That’s a rare combination.

As I know that this is a novel that I shall want to return to and think upon, I had preordered its hardback edition.

I was pleased to see ‘Bewilderment’ shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize for Fiction.

Very highly recommended.