mcnutt's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
nevabentley's review
I don’t have enough understanding of genetics or music for this book to work for me. I also had a really hard time with the way the book jumped from narrator and time in history with no clues to let the reader know when a switch had occurred.
jdglasgow's review against another edition
3.0
I decided to read THE GOLD BUG VARIATIONS based on the recommendation of several strangers in response to a Twitter thread by @southpaw asking for good fiction books. Several mentioned this book, although at least one suggested it might not be the most accessible Richard Powers book for first-timers. In my hubris, I thought this caution wasn’t meant for *me*. Also, to further qualify my reaction to the book, I must admit that I have six other books from the library right now, one of which I had been waiting for on a hold list for weeks; as a result, I was anxious about how long it was taking me to get through this 639-pager and eager to finish it.
With those caveats stated, I liked it. I didn’t love it. A lot of this book is very technical discussion about genetics and DNA, or about the intricacies of music, and if you are not well-versed in these topics already they are not very intelligible. Luckily for us boneheads (the majority of us, I suspect), the way Powers writes is full of such humor and poetry that there’s often something to latch onto even in the denser passages.
I didn’t keep a running list of the phrases or ideas that I particularly liked, but some that come to mind are:
* The assertion that Keith (Keithy) didn’t have to advertise for friends because he had friends in advertising.
* The comment that that culling undesirable traits makes for successful reproduction, summarized as: “Weed it and reap.”
* The suggestion that chance is Ressler’s god but that after death there is “no chance to appreciate chance”.
* An extended bit of philosophizing about DNA as parasite, using our bodies merely as a convenient conduit to replicating itself.
I also liked the structure of the book—it cut between three different time periods: (1) Jan’s initial meet-up with Franker and Ressler in 1983; (2) Ressler’s time as a genetic researcher in the mid-1950s; and (3) Jan in present day, after Todd has left the country and Ressler has died of cancer. Jan’s sections are written in first-person, whereas Ressler’s is written in third-person omniscient, drawing to mind for me BLEAK HOUSE which I read somewhat recently.
However, the “plot” of the book such as it were was not particularly engaging for me. Ressler in the ‘50s struggles to decode DNA while carrying on an affair with a married woman. In the ‘80s, Jan struggles with the decision to leave her live-in boyfriend of several years for the empty promise of Franklin’s inscrutable interest in her. In the present, Jan struggles with whether to respond to a letter received from Frank after they’ve had some sort of falling out, not explained until close to the end. I didn’t really care much for any of these characters, and their vague and high-brow way of talking to one another didn’t really endear me to them. I kept waiting for some revelation to occur but there wasn’t really anything that stands out. Perhaps that’s the idea—that these are, at base, just normal, fucked up people who don’t have the answers to the world at their fingertips. Nevertheless, it isn’t really gripping until a computer hacking scheme toward the end.
That’s not to say there aren’t moments of beauty and intrigue in the happenings as much as there is in the language. One scene that comes to mind is Ressler coming outside to see what he believes to be an evacuation prior to a nuclear attack. But these are just bright spots in a story that doesn’t thrill overall and, again, is populated by a lot of dry, unreadable text about nucleotides and ribosomes.
It’s clear that Powers is a very good writer; those bits of poetry and the occasional interesting thought attest to that. I’m certainly interested in giving another Powers book a shot because I think he could really win me over. Unfortunately, this is not the book that does it.
With those caveats stated, I liked it. I didn’t love it. A lot of this book is very technical discussion about genetics and DNA, or about the intricacies of music, and if you are not well-versed in these topics already they are not very intelligible. Luckily for us boneheads (the majority of us, I suspect), the way Powers writes is full of such humor and poetry that there’s often something to latch onto even in the denser passages.
I didn’t keep a running list of the phrases or ideas that I particularly liked, but some that come to mind are:
* The assertion that Keith (Keithy) didn’t have to advertise for friends because he had friends in advertising.
* The comment that that culling undesirable traits makes for successful reproduction, summarized as: “Weed it and reap.”
* The suggestion that chance is Ressler’s god but that after death there is “no chance to appreciate chance”.
* An extended bit of philosophizing about DNA as parasite, using our bodies merely as a convenient conduit to replicating itself.
I also liked the structure of the book—it cut between three different time periods: (1) Jan’s initial meet-up with Franker and Ressler in 1983; (2) Ressler’s time as a genetic researcher in the mid-1950s; and (3) Jan in present day, after Todd has left the country and Ressler has died of cancer. Jan’s sections are written in first-person, whereas Ressler’s is written in third-person omniscient, drawing to mind for me BLEAK HOUSE which I read somewhat recently.
However, the “plot” of the book such as it were was not particularly engaging for me. Ressler in the ‘50s struggles to decode DNA while carrying on an affair with a married woman. In the ‘80s, Jan struggles with the decision to leave her live-in boyfriend of several years for the empty promise of Franklin’s inscrutable interest in her. In the present, Jan struggles with whether to respond to a letter received from Frank after they’ve had some sort of falling out, not explained until close to the end. I didn’t really care much for any of these characters, and their vague and high-brow way of talking to one another didn’t really endear me to them. I kept waiting for some revelation to occur but there wasn’t really anything that stands out. Perhaps that’s the idea—that these are, at base, just normal, fucked up people who don’t have the answers to the world at their fingertips. Nevertheless, it isn’t really gripping until a computer hacking scheme toward the end.
That’s not to say there aren’t moments of beauty and intrigue in the happenings as much as there is in the language. One scene that comes to mind is Ressler coming outside to see what he believes to be an evacuation prior to a nuclear attack. But these are just bright spots in a story that doesn’t thrill overall and, again, is populated by a lot of dry, unreadable text about nucleotides and ribosomes.
It’s clear that Powers is a very good writer; those bits of poetry and the occasional interesting thought attest to that. I’m certainly interested in giving another Powers book a shot because I think he could really win me over. Unfortunately, this is not the book that does it.
snowmaiden's review against another edition
5.0
I picked up this book after having just finished [b:Cryptonomicon|816|Cryptonomicon|Neal Stephenson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327931476s/816.jpg|1166797], not knowing anything about it except that it was another very long book that was supposed to be very good. Powers is a different kind of writer than Stephenson; while they both use scientific topics as the basis of their work, Powers also has a background in the humanities, which means he looks a little deeper under the surface of things and writes in a slightly more intellectual style.
The main character of this book is a librarian named Jan who falls in love with a younger patron. He asks her to investigate a coworker of his who used to be a brilliant scientist before turning his back on academia. She agrees, and the three of them fall into an uneasy companionship, eventually revealing many secrets to each other. This is really the only surface-level plot of the book, but along the way we learn a lot about music, genetics, and computer programming circa 1985. Powers' writing on each of these topics is very masterful technically but also very poetic, and he eventually shows the reader the similarities in the patterns underlying each of these seemingly different phenomena. I'll never think of DNA or Bach in the same way again!
May 2019 addendum: This remains one of my favorite books of all time. I hadn’t read [b: Possession|41219|Possession|A.S. Byatt|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391124124s/41219.jpg|2246190] yet when I wrote this review, but I wanted to mention it now. Although the two novels are written very differently, one thing that unites them is that both are about the thrill of academic research, especially when done in tandem with someone you love. I think more of my friends need to read this book, so if you love Possession, as so many of you do, maybe you should give this one a shot.
The main character of this book is a librarian named Jan who falls in love with a younger patron. He asks her to investigate a coworker of his who used to be a brilliant scientist before turning his back on academia. She agrees, and the three of them fall into an uneasy companionship, eventually revealing many secrets to each other. This is really the only surface-level plot of the book, but along the way we learn a lot about music, genetics, and computer programming circa 1985. Powers' writing on each of these topics is very masterful technically but also very poetic, and he eventually shows the reader the similarities in the patterns underlying each of these seemingly different phenomena. I'll never think of DNA or Bach in the same way again!
May 2019 addendum: This remains one of my favorite books of all time. I hadn’t read [b: Possession|41219|Possession|A.S. Byatt|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391124124s/41219.jpg|2246190] yet when I wrote this review, but I wanted to mention it now. Although the two novels are written very differently, one thing that unites them is that both are about the thrill of academic research, especially when done in tandem with someone you love. I think more of my friends need to read this book, so if you love Possession, as so many of you do, maybe you should give this one a shot.
donyala's review against another edition
5.0
Complicated beautiful story of genetics and music and love. Goldberg variations plus the goldbug plus ACTG equals excellence.
le_lobey's review against another edition
5.0
I’m just over halfway through just finished this brick, and so much has happened that I feel justified in taking some time to reflect. Richard Powers’ work resonates with me on so many levels, and I particularly admire his devotion to concept. In The Gold Bug Variations, he’s turned his focus on the information encoded in DNA, exploring the hodgepodge of mechanics, mystery, and miracle that is genetic heredity. How do four letters — A, C, G, T — account for all life on earth? How does this non-conscious string of nucleotides encode the infrastructure of its own replication? And how, at the level of the conscious organism, does that same encoded self-replication translate to desire, romance, and sexual longing? In true Powers fashion everything — including his characters, the structure of the novel, and even the punning style of his prose — is designed to develop these explorations further.
At the structural level, GBV is comprised of two interlocking complementary narratives: in the mid-fifties, a geneticist working in Illinois seeks to crack the genetic code and falls in love with a married coworker. Thirty years later that scientist dies, and a reference librarian at a public library in Brooklyn Heights quits her job so that she can better understand him, his life’s work, and the way that their friendship (and the affair she had with his present-day coworker) uprooted her marriage and rekindled her excitement for living. I can’t say much more because the two time-displaced couples have only just gotten together, though I know it will not end happily for either.
Regardless, Powers has thus far done an incredible job of describing and depicting what it’s like to fall in love, and pairing both love stories with themes of seasonality and cycle has added a naturalism and nostalgia that I enjoy. The characters have gone through a lot, but the emotionally fraught decisions, recollections, couplings, and dissolutions are all handled with such nuance and understatement that I am regularly heartbroken by the beauty of moments that would wither in the hands of a lesser artist. I also love the strong musical through line of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which both drive the plot forward and even lend the novel its structure.
Richard Powers’ books are so intelligent, emotionally resonant, and informative. They unify huge scientific and cultural trends with historical marginalia and individual experience in a way that is so humbling and makes you marvel at the world in a way you didn’t see before opening the pages. This novel is utterly sublime.
At the structural level, GBV is comprised of two interlocking complementary narratives: in the mid-fifties, a geneticist working in Illinois seeks to crack the genetic code and falls in love with a married coworker. Thirty years later that scientist dies, and a reference librarian at a public library in Brooklyn Heights quits her job so that she can better understand him, his life’s work, and the way that their friendship (and the affair she had with his present-day coworker) uprooted her marriage and rekindled her excitement for living. I can’t say much more because the two time-displaced couples have only just gotten together, though I know it will not end happily for either.
Regardless, Powers has thus far done an incredible job of describing and depicting what it’s like to fall in love, and pairing both love stories with themes of seasonality and cycle has added a naturalism and nostalgia that I enjoy. The characters have gone through a lot, but the emotionally fraught decisions, recollections, couplings, and dissolutions are all handled with such nuance and understatement that I am regularly heartbroken by the beauty of moments that would wither in the hands of a lesser artist. I also love the strong musical through line of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which both drive the plot forward and even lend the novel its structure.
Richard Powers’ books are so intelligent, emotionally resonant, and informative. They unify huge scientific and cultural trends with historical marginalia and individual experience in a way that is so humbling and makes you marvel at the world in a way you didn’t see before opening the pages. This novel is utterly sublime.
cpa85's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Amidst the incredibly, painfully, infuriatingly dense and overwritten prose, there is a beautiful story with wonderful characters. I just wish Powers’ editor had understood their job.
stewreads's review against another edition
5.0
I could have read this forever. It’s so easy to get lost in.
saltgranat's review against another edition
3.0
"Postmodernism är sämst (titta bara på all reklam och på alla som sitter och kollar på sport med ljudet avstängt och ger livekommentar (finns en karaktär som basically bokstavligen gör det, med kostym på sig)); var en genetiker som gillar medioker romans och som lyssnar patologiskt på Bach istället. Juste, USA är sämst, också. Särskilt försäkringsbolagen. Man borde terrorisera dem med poesi samtidigt som man håller en monolog om hur Goldbergvariationerna relaterar till DNA, och därmed Livet Utan Gud. Kryptografi är viktigt, också. Poe kan lära en person allt hen behöver veta om kryptografi" -Richard Powers, antagligen.
bluestraveler's review against another edition
3.0
On this day in History:
1884 – Dow Jones & Company publishes its first stock average.
1938 – World speed record for a steam locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 125.88 miles per hour (202.58 km/h).
1970 – Dan-Air Flight 1903 crashes into the Les Agudes mountain in the Montseny Massif near the village of Arbúcies in Catalonia, Spain, killing all 112 people aboard.[1]
1884 – Dow Jones & Company publishes its first stock average.
1938 – World speed record for a steam locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 125.88 miles per hour (202.58 km/h).
1970 – Dan-Air Flight 1903 crashes into the Les Agudes mountain in the Montseny Massif near the village of Arbúcies in Catalonia, Spain, killing all 112 people aboard.[1]