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Bewilderment
Bewilderment
Author: Richard Powers
A heartrending new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning and #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory. — The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780393881141
ISBN-10: 0393881148
Publication Date: 9/21/2021
Pages: 304
Rating:
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 11

4.1 stars, based on 11 ratings
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Book Type: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 27
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review
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reviewed Bewilderment on + 1451 more book reviews
Theo is a widower coping with a nine-year-old with behavioural problems. He is an an astrobiologist who creates models of planets where life may be. Repeated violent bursts prompt Robin's school to give Theo an ultimatum. Begin psychoactive drugs or be expelled. However, Theo opts to try experimental neurofeedback.

Between them they create worlds where life may exist, describing that life as they 'see' it. Yet Robin develops an empathic connection to the world in which he lives. He is consumed about growing on earth and is deeply worried about man's effects. All life is affected by climate change. Linked with these concerns is the grief both feel about the loss of Aly, his mother and Theo's wife.

The question that plaguied me mind was how a parent can help a child cope with a changing world in which so many deny climate change. Set against a background of losing someone who was deeply loved, the problems loom large in this novel. This is a read that stimulates much thought about climate and what individuals may do to improve our lovely planet.
BigGreenChair avatar reviewed Bewilderment on + 461 more book reviews
You will be forever changed---read it! It's so incredible it's hard to describe...you have so many emotions.
reviewed Bewilderment on + 669 more book reviews
Beautifully written, but the book ultimately fails because it becomes overly political, polemical and cliched in its last portion. Too bad.


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