Orfeo -

[Steven Koteff]

Admittedly haven't read a *ton *of Powers. What I have read, I've felt is
interesting and largely successful on a macro/structural scale, on the
level of ideas, etc., (i.e. reading an outline of one of his novel's you'd
think he must be really worthwhile), but then once you actually read the
thing and get inside the actual scenes, he's often very obtuse, sort of
clumsy with prose, limited (in some ways, in other ways just broad or too
technical) insight with regards to human emotion/psychology, tends toward
the cliché, so on. I guess ultimately I felt like his scenic skills
diminished the book and its broader ideas as a whole (maybe this is not
uncommon with idea-driven writing?), and I think I would've gotten more out
of someone just telling me what the book was about (the less to roll one's
eyes at).

This is mainly in response to *The Echo Maker*. Happy to be argued with and
to have my mind changed, of course.

On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 7:53 AM, Becky Lindroos <bekker2 at icloud.com> wrote:

> I finished Orfeo by Richard Powers and have to tell you all that this is
> the best thing Powers has done since The Goldbug Variations.
> Excellent.  I was googling all the musical references and the artists etc.
> so it took longer but I was in a little piece of heaven for awhile.
>
> :-)
>
> Bekah
> https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com-
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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