Echoes

The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

A young man swerves off a straight country road and into a coma. Three sets of tire tracks and an anonymous note on the table next to his hospital bed are all that remains to tangibly tell the tale. Human drama interplays with nature, set against the backdrop of an influx of migrating cranes in small town Nebraska. A thoughtful and lyrical examination of consciousness and the power of the brain to deceive and conceive reality. The novel is peppered with tales of the brain's foolery, patients recovering from trauma who do not recognize their own body parts, or are unable to recognize faces, or cannot form new memories.

"Back in the waiting room, she witnesses eight middle-aged men in flannel standing in a ring, their eyes slow scanning the floor. A murmur issued from them, wind teasing the lonely screens of a farmhouse. The sound rose and fell in waves. It took her a moment to realize: a prayer circle, for another victim who'd come in just after Mark. A makeshift Pentecostal service, covering anything that scalpels, drugs and lasers couldn't. The gift of tongues descended on the circle of men, like small talk at a family reunion. Home was the place you never escape, even in a nightmare."

Nominated for a Pulitzer in 2007 and Winner of the National Book Award in 2006, this novel captivated me for several days. I kept thinking of my friend, a newly graduated Occupational Therapist who has been working on the various units of a busy downtown hospital. The brain is a mysterious thing and how difficult it must be to assess and work with those who have experienced such life altering trauma. My one criticism, is that each central character spirals into their own self absorbed reality, where even the most selfless act achieves a narcissistic goal. Their respective grasps on reality seem tenuous at best. Perhaps this is the point.

I may as well quickly mention two other books I've been meaning to return to the library! I had planned on attending my meditation class this afternoon, however it has been rescheduled. I recently learned that there are allegations that this type of yoga meditation is in fact linked to a cult. Wonderful. No, No. Listening to tinkly Indian music, sitting until your ass aches, trying not to think, and being reduced to a near sleeping like state does not a cult make.

P.G Wodehouse. Comforting read in the manner of Agatha Christie with more chirades and chuckles. Suprising little quips about life and love. A clever narrative voice. Strong female characters, though sometimes they are perhaps a simple mockery...considering the era, plays on gender or? I really should look it up.

"I can't stand brave men," said Jane, "it makes them so independent. I could only love a man who would depend on me in everything. Sometimes, when I have been roughing it out in the jungle," she went on rather wistfully, "I have had my dreams of some gentle clinging man who would put is hand in mine and tell me his poor little troubles and let me pet and comfort him and bring the smiles back to his face. I'm beginning to want to settle down. After all there are other things for a woman to do in this life besides travelling and big-game hunting. I should like to go to Parliament. And, if I did that I should practically have to marry. I mean, I should have to have a man look after the social end of life and arrange parties and receptions and so on and sit ornamentally at the head of my table. I can't imagine anything jollier than marriage under conditions like that. When I come back a bit done up after a long sitting at the House, he would mix me a whiskey and soda and read poetry to me or prattle on about all the things he had been doing during the day....Why it would be ideal!"


I can't help but read this as a mockery of the things men used to expect of marriage from women. Ha. As if anyone needs that.



First published in the U.S. in 1949 this is a classic written by one of the major Finnish writers of the 20th century: Mika Waltari. The tale of Sinu, a doctor from birth to death during a time of religious and political strife (the latter part of the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom, 1386-1293 B.C.E.). This doctor become disillusioned with humanity and scornful of war. These themes had resonance during World War II when it was conceived and helped propel it to acclaim. An epic read and a bit of a struggle for myself to reach the end...I tend to have a hard time reading books that end in the later years of someone's life...you know how it will end. Shocking in it's gore at times...the work of embalmers, soldiers, brain surgery, temple priests...These were bloody times. I just noticed on Wikipedia that this novel was first published in Finnish in 1945 and in 1949 an abridged English edition was published. Oh dear, my copy was abridged?