Bewilderment

By Richard Powers

In his latest book” Bewilderment”, Richard Powers touches on a topical subject: the destruction of the Earth by humans. He does it subtly through the medium of the story of a father and his son who each tries to survive the death of their wife and mother.

The son is 9 year old boy vividly haunted by the memory of his dead mother, a former nature activist. He is extremely sensitive, focused on the extinction of animals and plants and cannot understand why adults are acting the way they do (with total indifference) when it comes to deforestation, climate change and consequently extinction of certain animal species. All this makes him angry and irrational.

His father, an astrobiologist, who in his own way is also very affected by his wife’s death, tries to soothe his extraordinary troubled son by telling him stories of new planets where life is different.

Thanks to a neuroscientist friend, the boy will be able to participate in an experiment to help him control his feelings ( an experiment that will be used to help other children with psychological problems), to be calmer and more confident. He even decides to pursue his ecological mother’s militancy on behalf of nature. But then one day the authorities decide to stop all the scientific experiments. Deprived of his treatment, the boy suffers a major setback and loses hope in humanity.

Richard Powers uses this story to remind us that the Earth is in men’s hands and that we should stop destroying the beautiful nature that nourishes us.

Personally, I was very affected by this book and to quote Barack Obama who read “The Overstory” by R.P. (who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2019)

“It  changes how I think about the Earth and our place in it, it changes how I see things”.

This is a book worth reading that makes you think or rethink.

Paulette Duncan