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The Echo Maker
 
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The Echo Maker [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Richard Powers (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. A truck jackknifes off an "arrow straight country road" near Kearney, Nebr., in Powers's ninth novel, becoming the catalyst for a painstakingly rendered minuet of self-reckoning. The accident puts the truck's 27-year-old driver, Mark Schluter, into a 14-day coma. When he emerges, he is stricken with Capgras syndrome: he's unable to match his visual and intellectual identifications with his emotional ones. He thinks his sister, Karin, isn't actually his sister—she's an imposter (the same goes for Mark's house). A shattered and worried Karin turns to Gerald Weber, an Oliver Sacks–like figure who writes bestsellers about neurological cases, but Gerald's inability to help Mark, and bad reviews of his latest book, cause him to wonder if he has become a "neurological opportunist." Then there are the mysteries of Mark's nurse's aide, Barbara Gillespie, who is secretive about her past and seems to be much more intelligent than she's willing to let on, and the meaning of a cryptic note left on Mark's nightstand the night he was hospitalized. MacArthur fellow Powers (Gold Bug Variations, etc.) masterfully charts the shifting dynamics of Karin's and Mark's relationship, and his prose—powerful, but not overbearing—brings a sorrowful energy to every page. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Late one night, near the Platte River in Kearney, Nebraska, where the sandhill cranes pause every year in their spectacular migration, Mark Schluter flips his truck. Brain damaged, he develops Capgras syndrome, which makes him think that his sister, Karin, is an impostor. Despondent at Mark's constant requests to produce his "real" sister, Karin writes a letter to Gerald Weber, a cognitive neurologist whose case histories of bizarre brain disorders have best-selling appeal (think Oliver Sacks). Weber, who is suffering a very different kind of identity crisis himself, agrees to examine Mark. Powers has taken the primal question--"Who am I?"--and traced it to its chemical elements, exploring the ways the mind constructs smooth narratives out of messy reality. But his investigation is larger than the individual, leading him to explore how humans as a species smooth out the rough spots, tuning out the natural world, straying from the instincts that might keep us alive on our own long journey. Powers has complete command of storytelling skills, building questions of both plot and philosophy so deftly that, in their denouemont, there is no surprise, only recognition. A remarkable novel, from one of our greatest novelists, and a book that will change all who read it. Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Unique Narrative Powers, Sep 3 2011
This review is from: The Echo Maker: A Novel (Paperback)
There *are* things that are missing from Richard Powers' writing. For one, this does seem longish in parts and you feel like he could have trimmed some pages. He does employ beautifully descriptive passages all too judiciously (especially in his descriptions of the cranes) only to slide into seemingly pedestrian, expository prose for extended periods of time.

None of those issues are at all relevant when you look at the things Powers does accomplish that no other writer seems capable of, and the big picture this novel creates. He develops characters and their inter-relationships so intricately that the story's length is not only necessary but entirely redeemed by this quality. He tells a story so richly resonant that few literate novels seem really capable of. He describes the function of our brains in creating the world we live in, in a way that is clinical yet far richer than thematic "explorations of memory" like you might find in Ishiguro or Marquez. I've read many great novelists but Powers truly accomplishes something rare here - he has truly changed the way I understand the way we look at the world.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Immensely Powerful, Oct 17 2007
By 
Nicola Manning (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Echo Maker (Hardcover)
This is an immensely powerful book! Simply staggering. At the core of this novel is a search for self. Who are we really? Are you who you think you are or are you who others think you are? The 3 main characters are all struggling to find their true self: Mark, a man who received a traumatic head injury in a car accident, his sister, whom he believes is an impostor and the famous neurologist who takes on the case.

I found the medical information about the brain and the case histories absolutely fascinating. As a fan of shows such as ER and House, this was right up my alley! I found myself relating to all the main characters and becoming fond of them all in different ways. On top of all this there is a riveting mystery story concerning the cause of the car accident. An extremely satisfying read!
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2.0 out of 5 stars it's too psychological for me, April 11 2010
By 
A. Jacques (Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Echo Maker: A Novel (Paperback)
This book is much too long for the story it has to tell. There's an awful lot of brain description which felt like the author had to show off all of his knowledge about the intricacies of brain function. Many of it could have been omitted. For me it was not worth the time.
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