In the Garden of the Beasts: Next Up for Book Group

Read an excerpt?  NPR link
Review New York Times Review

The Echo Maker: Discussion

Although the book was a bumpy ride for some--the best parts were end of the beginning and the end?;  the talk flowed in a steady stream--evenly balanced between negative and positive comments.  What follows are a few remembered comments.

The repetitiveness of The Echo Maker left some of us thinking the author was being self-indulgent--pouring out all of his deep scientific knowledge about the brain, birds, land use--without editing to help the reader.  "Everything thrown in ( including or but) the kitchen sink."

Seesaw to the idea that some of the characters were really delightful--Mark and his friends in particular.  One member said that she was happy to read a book with characters who were NICE for a change.

And...
It is rare and refreshing for a book to be about siblings.

What made the meeting really fun, was the collaborative unraveling and dissecting of the themes in Echo Maker:   Some remembered...

1.  Not only the brain injured suffer from delusions.  After 9/11 Americans have bought into delusions that led us into two wars, torture, detention camps.  We all still get electronic news proving that the Pentagon wasn't hit by an airplane.

2.  Like a number of characters in this novel, we all feel inauthentic at times--we are our own doubles-- an echo of  our true selves.

3.  We are facing the inevitable ruin of our planet by the greedy and the powerful and the corrupt.


Some links:

New York Times Review

The Guardian Review

Richard Powers Website

Gilgamesh Made More Readable...

Reminder that the March book is not just any old Gilgamesh...it is the version by Stephen Mitchell.  Don't show up with your old college version and think you can talk myths at the March meeting. ( February is In the Garden of the Beasts..)