Author:Richard Powers Availability:
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Editorial Review:
Winner of the 2006 National Book Award
The Echo Maker is "a remarkable novel, from one of our greatest novelists, and a book that will change all who read it" (Booklist, starred review).
On a winter night on a remote Nebraska road, twenty-seven-year-old Mark Schluter has a near-fatal car accident. His older sister, Karin, returns reluctantly to their hometown to nurse Mark back from a traumatic head injury. But when Mark emerges from a coma, he believes that this woman--who looks, acts, and sounds just like his sister--is really an imposter. When Karin contacts the famous cognitive neurologist Gerald Weber for help, he diagnoses Mark as having Capgras syndrome. The mysterious nature of the disease, combined with the strange circumstances surrounding Mark's accident, threatens to change all of their lives beyond recognition. In The Echo Maker, Richard Powers proves himself to be one of our boldest and most entertaining novelists.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
Good idea, poorly executed and very slow:
Reminded me of the Philipp Roth books I've tackled. Great reviews and covers smothered with high-octane accolades. But too clever for its own good and painfully slow. There are beautifully written passages, and some clever thoughts put to paper. But the novel lacks pace, plot and as mentioned above character development. Extemely disappointing. I persevered because I thought there was a good story in there trying to fight its way through the endless descriptive prose. My mistake. Ho hum.
surreal landscape that sucks you in...:
Powers knows how to suck you into the turmoil and conflict in a character's life. This book deserves all the accolades it received. I could not put this down. Great stuff on identity, sibling relationships, what it means to be intimate after decades in a romantic relationship, and how we are so ignorant about whether we are in control of our brains or vice-versa. I love how he weaves in neuroscience research without being tedious or preachy. It takes a gifted writer to tell a compelling story and at... more info
Toooooooooo Looooooong!:
I stayed with this book for over 200 pages before I finally abandoned it! Powers has the power to write beautifully captivating prose but I just couldn't stay with the dragging story line and I really got sick of Mark's character - just seemed too artificially contrived. Life's too short to spend toooooo loooong with a book that isn't holding you!
Intelligent and entertaining:
This novel, the winner of the 2006 National Book Award, addresses the question of how we know who we really are. This novel is extremely well-crafted and a worthwhile read. Intelligent and entertaining.
