My rating:

add to my books

Generosity: An Enhancement

by Richard Powers

3.45 · rating details · 593 ratings · 188 reviews

FROM THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD–WINNING AUTHOR OF THE ECHO MAKER, A PLAYFUL AND PROVOCATIVE NOVEL ABOUT THE DISCOVERY OF THE HAPPINESS GENE

When Chicagoan Russell Stone finds himself teaching a Creative Nonfiction class, he encounters a young Algerian woman with a disturbingly luminous presence. Thassadit Amzwar’s blissful exuberance both entrances and puzzles the melanch...more

Hardcover, 296 pages

Published September 29th 2009 by Farrar Straus Giroux

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2009

77th out of 100 books — 127 voters

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Lab Lit

68th out of 73 books — 28 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 1,289)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Sep 11, 2010

Jessica rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: mad scientists; depressives; genetic predisposers

Picked this up in the airport bookstore, and on the plane recalled that I DO like reading! So yeah, Pregnant Widow? Gate at the Stairs? That newish McEwan? I was beginning to think it was me, but it's not. It's just them, actually. I can still enjoy books. (Whew.)

It would be unconscionably perverse for me to waste any further limited precious moments of my too-short life on Solar, when I could be reading this awesome book instead. Sense of duty to finish, you are neatly dispatched! T...morePicked this up in the airport bookstore, and on the plane recalled that I DO like reading! So yeah, Pregnant Widow? Gate at the Stairs? That newish McEwan? I was beginning to think it was me, but it's not. It's just them, actually. I can still enjoy books. (Whew.)

It would be unconscionably perverse for me to waste any further limited precious moments of my too-short life on Solar, when I could be reading this awesome book instead. Sense of duty to finish, you are neatly dispatched! Thanks, Mr. Powers. You make me so happy.
----------

So Richard Powers appears to have undergone some experimental form of gene therapy (or else possibly just had someone hit him in the head with a two-by-four) whereby he has traded in some measure of his wildly intimidating, aspergery brilliance for a dose of human empathy. This is a sweeter, nicer, simpler-minded Richard Powers who I really do believe now does love his characters, where in the past I wondered if he couldn't help looking down on them a bit for not knowing everything the way he obviously does.

The problem is that I still didn't love his characters nearly as much as he did, nor did I love them nearly as much as I loved him. I think a problem this guy might have is that Richard Powers's narrative voice is about twelve thousand times more compelling and great than any of the characters he ever creates. This may be why, of the three books of his that I've read, I only truly loved the one written in the first person. Whenever I start getting a bit bored with the people in Generosity, I'd be whipped back in and amazed by some authorial address. (Left my copy at work, but I'll add in some astoundingly great quotations later as an example of how this guy can really WRITE, holy hell, he can WRITE. [Or okay, maybe not really WRITE, but really TALK INTO HIS COMPUTER, as the case may be.]) The stuff this guy regularly busts out with is incredible, these sentences that are so funny, and so true, and so sad, and so intense, that it really knocks the wind out of me, and just leaves me reeling. I mean, he can just make these pronouncements about huge concepts like love, or the world, or history, time, humanity, writing, science, etc. that no one should get away with -- they're too big -- but he totally can.

I think he's less adept at the nuts and bolts of novel-writing -- character development, plot, etc. -- and I'm pretty sure he knows this about himself. Generosity is one of those somewhat deconstructed, seams-showing kind of novels where the author is hovering, agonizing a bit about the impossibility and artificiality of the story he's telling. That sounds a bit irritating, but it worked very well here. What didn't work for me was the characters, and also the fact that I don't find the basic subject particularly interesting. I mean, a lot of that's just personal. I don't find the idea of a genetic basis for mood very threatening or exciting, and I'm just in general not as moved by the whole future of genetics and bioethics as I guess maybe I should be. It doesn't naturally capture my imagination, and this book didn't make me care about those things any more than I did when I started.

The basic setup of this book is that it's about a sort of sad-sack writing teacher (one of two characters that felt solid and interesting to me, the other one being the TV journalist) in Chicago. He's got an Algerian refugee in his class who is impossibly generous and happy, despite having experienced a very traumatic life, and the plot unfolds from there. One of the problems with this book is that the girl's supposed to be so wonderful that everyone she comes in contact with loves her, but that's a really hard character to write without making her annoying. It's sort of like trying to have Helen of Troy in a movie. Impossibly beautiful characters work well in books, because the readers can just imagine them, but impossibly wonderful, generous, lovable ones are a lot harder, and she didn't work for me here. For awhile at the beginning I thought the point was going to be that the girl was all doped up on some new psychotropic drug, and I kind of liked that, but then when she wasn't, I got a bit bored and felt mostly annoyed or underwhelmed. There's a magnificent bit where he illustrates how happy and generous Thassa is by describing the film that she's made, and I really loved that part, but just describing her words and actions kind of made her seem perky and annoying, not magical or genetically freakishly wonderful. Of course, it's possible that I'm just a crabby bitch or missed the point here or something. I didn't really understand the ending, so maybe I missed something I was supposed to understand. There were quite a few things in this book, especially in the last quarter, where I was like, "What?" Like (sorry, spoiler alert) one character's brother having been struck by lightning. What? Why? Huh? Maybe this was just all over my head, as I did feel confused by some stuff toward the end.

I dunno, I didn't really feel that Powers was able to get enough tension going here so that I cared what happened. There was a conflict midway through with one character's career and personal relationships that drove a lot of the events but just seemed manufactured and boring to me. Ultimately, the immense excitement I felt at the beginning did not last, and I didn't wind up loving this book. However, I did love a lot of it, and I believe Richard Powers is a fabulous writer. He doesn't make the greatest characters, which I know's supposed to be important, but his narrative voice is so awesome and -- hahaha! -- powerful that it's not as big a deal as it normally would be. Yay Richard Powers! You're not perfect, but I love you! Maybe someday they can do something with his genes and manufacture the perfect writer who has all of his special talents and none of his flaws. I'd totally read that, but until then I guess I'm stuck with this version, and that's fine. I'm gonna read Galatea 2.2 next, since that seems to be the one everyone loves so much.(less)

like 13 likes

· see review

Jan 04, 2012

Jennifer (aka EM) rated it

I need to put some serious thought into this review - there's about 100 strands of plot, character and theme that I'd like to touch on. But right now, I can't do that - so suffice it to say, this book is fabulous. Don't be scared of it - even though it takes on some pretty weighty issues - freewill v. biological determinism; positive psychology and social cognition biases; and the absolutely fascinating, speculative fictional premise of what and how people would respond to a person who was gen...moreI need to put some serious thought into this review - there's about 100 strands of plot, character and theme that I'd like to touch on. But right now, I can't do that - so suffice it to say, this book is fabulous. Don't be scared of it - even though it takes on some pretty weighty issues - freewill v. biological determinism; positive psychology and social cognition biases; and the absolutely fascinating, speculative fictional premise of what and how people would respond to a person who was genetically predisposed to having an off-the-charts level of extreme well-being. Happy all the time, in other words.

It's a slightly satirical, future-looking morality play - but it's also a tale just plain told well. It doesn't lecture or patronize (or worse, bore) its reader and although Powers grazes dangerously close to exposition, he doesn't make the same mistake Shriver does in so much for that -- putting all the heavy research findings and stats directly into his characters' mouths as dialogue.

Instead, he uses a meta-fictional technique of a very self-conscious, break-through-the-wall narrator to develop his plot, characters and themes. I couldn't decide what that was about at first, or whether it was annoying, but I realized quickly that it was an essential way to tell the story and AVOID the otherwise tragic need to put too much stuff into dialogue. (and that, in and of itself, highlights this theme of fiction-writing that he manages to explore - it's really complex, yeah? But fun! Like an Escher drawing).

So, while he also creates characters - Miss Generosity, Thassa Amzwar, herself; Russell Stone as depressive-realist Everyman; his love interest Candace, college counsellor who can interpret all the psych mumbo-jumbo in layperson's terms for Russell (and for us readers) who represents the "nurture" side of the argument; Thomas Kurton, mad scientist/geneticist who represents the "nature" side, they are also still characters in a compelling story (as the narrator reminds us), and interesting, likeable ones at that.

Last few things before I run ... Powers' reminds me quite a lot of Jennifer Egan in the way he makes contemporary technology and its influence on human behaviour a central theme while at the same time risking the anachronisms that are sure to emerge. Just two (three?) years post-publication, his references to MySpace, to facebook "pokes," to Kurton punching something into a Blackberry (oh, please -- the man's an iPad user if I've ever met one) and the lack of reference to twitter (word would NOT spread via blogs, it would be twitter all the way) -- are all outdated.

While all that's forgivable, I did truly stumble at some of his Canadian references. First, I laughed out loud when, in seeking some kind of explanation for Thassa's ever-present "niceness," Russell rules out "even the time spent in Canada." HAHAHHAHAHA. But then, Powers talks about "states" visible from the Sears tower: "75% of which are not ours." (Don't call Canada's provinces states. It pisses us off.) And he references, twice, "council flats" in Montreal - which is a U.K. term not used anywhere in Canada - it's public housing, low-income housing or subsidized housing. Finally, he talks about Thassa being sexually naive - and makes some reference to that being a fact of her time in Quebec. Uhhhh ... no. You could pin that on uptight Ontario, but never never on Quebec.

Anyway -- little quibbles -- kind of like the Doomsday Book's potatoes (right, Simon Evnine??) - that ultimately were only slightly distracting.

Looking forward to more Powers.
(less)

like 7 likes

· see review

Aug 15, 2009

James rated it

This is probably the most accessible of his books that I've read, not overly technical but certainly not patronizing. But for those who appreciate Powers' tendency towards erudite digressions on any imaginable high-brow subject, you may feel that this book is somewhat lacking in that department; it even reads at times like he is making a deliberate effort to rein himself in and to focus on the momentum of the plot. This is interesting because one strand of the plot is a sort of meta-narrative o...moreThis is probably the most accessible of his books that I've read, not overly technical but certainly not patronizing. But for those who appreciate Powers' tendency towards erudite digressions on any imaginable high-brow subject, you may feel that this book is somewhat lacking in that department; it even reads at times like he is making a deliberate effort to rein himself in and to focus on the momentum of the plot. This is interesting because one strand of the plot is a sort of meta-narrative on the nature of fiction, a counterpoint metaphor to the central question of the main storyline, which is: Can we, as a species, create or rewrite our nature/destiny? And should we?

Despite the relatively quick pacing, there is no shortage of ideas. The insinuations are profound, and the questions he asks us to ponder are deep and complicated, at once intellectually stimulating and viscerally disturbing. This book is best when read slowly. There are so many ideas, allusions, clues and metaphors packed into single paragraphs that you will be most rewarded by reading carefully and taking nothing for granted. On a sentence level, Powers sometimes condenses to the point of aphorism, something that I found generally pleasing but occasionally cloying.

I don't think Powers is completely successful in his effort to illustrate what it is exactly that makes Thassa so remarkable. Sure, she's a very likable, vibrant, and cheerful character, but it's hard to appreciate why she has such an extreme effect on everyone she meets. It is only through the reactions of the characters that she interacts with that we are really able to recognize her outlier status.

Overall though, I loved the story, the ideas, the structure, the little satirical touches, the topicality, and the well fleshed-out characters. For anyone who has read and enjoyed Richard Powers in the past, you won't be disappointed in this; and for anyone who has yet to discover this brilliant, indispensable author, "Generosity" is a perfect place to start.

(less)

like 7 likes

· see review

Sep 30, 2009

oriana marked it as to-read

from the Powells.com book review: The story postulates the existence of a "happiness gene" that would enhance the whole species. Thassa Amzwar, improbably happy despite her suffering, might be the donor who will usher in the "age of molecular control." Yet the novel's affect, first to last, isn't admonitory so much as amazed, a word half-buried in Amzwar's name. Generosity may be jam-packed, but it's genius: It soars, it boggles.

like 3 likes

· see review

Aug 08, 2011

Holli rated it

Shelves: book-group, healing-and-wholeness, literary-fiction

I give this book four stars partly because it's so thought provoking. When you read it you'll get all caught up in your thoughts about the ethics of genetic enhancement. The scene involving the debate between the Nobel Prize winning author and the "notorious geneticist" really brings this home. I was really pulling for the author, but the geneticist had some good points . . . it's not easy to choose sides.

But this plot line is only part of the story. Throughout the n...more

· see review

Mar 22, 2011

David Hebblethwaite rated it

Russell Stone is a washed-up writer making ends meet by teaching a ‘Journal and Journey’ class to a group of art students at a Chicago college. One member of that group stands out because of her remarkable personality: Thassadit Amzwar is a young woman from Algeria who is apparently happy all the time; nothing seems to bother her, and people are naturally attracted to her sunny disposition. Even after everything she has experienced in her life, Thassa remains in perpetual good humour; Russell sp...moreRussell Stone is a washed-up writer making ends meet by teaching a ‘Journal and Journey’ class to a group of art students at a Chicago college. One member of that group stands out because of her remarkable personality: Thassadit Amzwar is a young woman from Algeria who is apparently happy all the time; nothing seems to bother her, and people are naturally attracted to her sunny disposition. Even after everything she has experienced in her life, Thassa remains in perpetual good humour; Russell speaks to Candace Weld, one of the college’s counsellors, who can only conclude that nothing is wrong, and Thassa is just a naturally happy person. At the same time, we read about Thomas Kurton, a biotechnologist with an evangelical zeal for his work in the field of genetics. Kurton’s current project is to isolate the genetic basis for happiness; when he hears about Thassa, he invites her to participate in his study – and soon she becomes public knowledge.

Generosity has a number of concerns, but the one that’s most prominent to me is stories. The novel is full of then: the creative nonfiction taught by Russell makes a story out of one’s life; media reporting makes a story out of science; science itself makes a story out of the stuff of the universe. The characters are presented to us through filters of story: we first encounter Thomas Kurton as talking head in a science documentary; and there are frequent asides from the narrator (whose identity is unclear; it may be Richard Powers himself, or perhaps Russell Stone, or the science broadcaster Tonia Schiff, or someone else entirely) which emphasise the fictional nature of what we’re reading. The effect of this is to suggest that reality is mutable: our conceptions of the world change with the telling, and there is no escaping the web of story, however much we might think otherwise (some of the most effective passages in the book show this in action, describing the spread of information in an age when the boundary between public and private has all but dissolved).

This leads into another of Generosity’s main themes, which has to do with the ethics of science and its reporting. Powers is more concerned with dramatising questions than providing answers, and paints a complex picture: is it unethical for Thassa to profit from her genes, if it means that she can improve her family’s lot to a degree that would otherwise be impossible? When Kurton makes a song and dance in the media over his company’s research, is he feeding the flames of hype, or just doing what he has to do to get noticed in that day and age? Such issues never quite lose their shades of grey in the book, as characters are shown to both benefit and lose out from the choices they make.

I’ve been thinking about the characterisation in Generosity for some time, particularly that of Thassa. For one so charismatic with by definition an extraordinary personality, she comes across on the page as remarkably unremarkable – I never felt Thassa’s charisma when reading about her. At first, I considered this a problem, because generally I want to experience characters’ traits, rather than just read about them. But now I tend to think it’s a way of showing how this aspect of her character can be a space that other people fill in their own way; there’s a striking scene where Thassa makes an impassioned speech that spreads all over the internet, but we witness its detail only through the online reactions and imitations. Of the other characters, I found the depiction of Russell Stone particularly vivid; in some ways, he is the opposite of Thassa – where her personality faces naturally outwards, his turns inwards (when we first meet him on the train to work, Russell is described as being ‘dressed for being overlooked’). Over the course of the novel, Powers traces the (fairly complex) development of Russell’s character, as he becomes less withdrawn, but without shaking off his doubts.

Generosity leaves one with much to think about in a variety of areas, from ethical issues in science to the effects on people of being caught up in scientific change; from the place of story in the world to the effects of contemporary communication methods. Recommended.(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Mar 12, 2011

Greg Zimmerman rated it

Actually, Generosity: An Enhancement could probably be more accurately classified as "fiction about science...and fiction." That's Richard Powers' shtick: He has a unique gift for giving readers multiple entry points to his novels; fusing real science with literary themes into tightly constructed novels of ideas.

And Generosity: An Enhancement illustrates that gift nicely. If you're interested in genetics (or genometics, as it's now more accurately called, apparently), then t...moreActually, Generosity: An Enhancement could probably be more accurately classified as "fiction about science...and fiction." That's Richard Powers' shtick: He has a unique gift for giving readers multiple entry points to his novels; fusing real science with literary themes into tightly constructed novels of ideas.

And Generosity: An Enhancement illustrates that gift nicely. If you're interested in genetics (or genometics, as it's now more accurately called, apparently), then this novel is right in your wheelhouse. Or, if you're interested in how fiction helps us interface with the real world, that's there too. Bioethics, filmmaking, Chicago, psychology, and even a love story, are all part of this slim, but stocked to the hilt, novel.

The story is about an Algerian refugee and Chicago college student named Thassa Amzwar, who is "cursed" with preternatural happiness. Despite a horrible past which included the death of her parents and escaping from the Algerian civil war, she is constantly buoyant and enthusiastic. She meets our other protagonist, Russell Stone, in a creative non-fiction writing workshop he is substitute instructing. Stone is a rather misanthropic mid-30s magazine editor, who has all but given up on life and has taken the teaching gig on a whim. Thassa's infectious happiness soon wins over the hearts and minds of her fellow students, Stone, and university psychologist Candace Weld — Stone's eventual lover.

Meanwhile, celebrity scientist Thomas Kurton (think a more suave, dashing version of Richard Dawkins) is studying how particular genes and their interactions can result in traits like happiness or generosity — far beyond the conventional notion of genes affecting only height, or weight, or risk for certain disease. When he learns about Thassa, he realizes she (or, more accurately, her genetic make up) may be the piece of evidence he needs to prove his theories and publish his findings. If happiness is based on genes, then can't these genes be implanted in embryos to "genetically design" happy children?

But the paper Kurton publishes also results in a swell of public attention and media scrutiny on Thassa — all of which is none too welcome. So, amidst the bioethical questions about whether humans can or should be enhanced with particular genes for mood and disposition, the novel builds to the question of whether Thassa's happiness (her nature) will help her withstand the pressure exerted upon her by the world's attention to that happiness, or will she fold under the stress her environment (her nurture) imposes upon her?

And yet another ball in the air is Powers' meditations on fiction. He literally talks to us in the form of an intermittent meta-narrator, implicitly assuring us that this is all an invention. Part of the point, it seems, is to juxtapose (or maybe just compare?) the way science tries to explain and enhance the world with how fiction tries to help us understand it.

The novel has been very well-received by critics (Jay McInerney did the guest review for the NY Times!) and Amazon reviewers alike. But have you ever read a book you know is good, and brilliant, and well-written, but you just can't find your way in? That's sort of how I felt about Generosity. I didn't understand a lot of the very detailed science, and didn't put in the work required to read up and try to understand. Normally, I don't mind difficult, heady novels, but here I was more worried about finishing it quickly instead of extracting every ounce of meaning.

I also committed another cardinal sin: I gave up on the novel too early. After the first third or so, the novel speeds up and becomes incredibly engrossing, but I'd already mentally checked out, just cruising through it to get it finished. Whoops. So, my advice if you decided to take this book on: Slow down, think it through, make it meaningful. It can be difficult at times, but it's not un-overcome-able, by any means. I really should give Powers his due, and read it again — but, alas, on to other things.(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Dec 05, 2010

Melissa rated it

Total brain food about creation, whether it be scientific or artistic. Intelligent writing, captivating, worth reading at least a couple more times. The book is a beautifully composed snapshot of today's culture and the fascination and controversy over the use of genetic discoveries. (A high school knowledge of biology is helpful but not required.) As much about the creation of art as it is about human manipulation of creation, the structure alone is worth the read, especially for a would-be ...more

like 1 like

· see review

Oct 03, 2010

Jen rated it

Shelves: fiction, chicago-related

Richard Powers is one of my favorite writers. Generosity is not my favorite of his books, but I almost feel like I will have to reread it again in a few months in order to review it appropriately.

The book jacket says this book is about the search for a gene that determines happiness and a woman who is the happiest person in the world. And, yes, that's the plot, more or less. I would say the book is about how we live now, about how we measure our purpose and existence. If you're inte...more

like 1 like

· see review

Mar 29, 2010

Roger rated it

The creative use of language can either be an enhancement or a distraction to a novel. Some writers try to use language like jazz music—riffing on words, parts of words or vernaculars—which often makes it hard to read and interferes with whatever plot is being set up.
Richard Powers, on the other hand, uses easily understandable words in such playful and imaginative ways, it not only enhances the plot, it makes the reader eagerly anticipate his next simile, metaphor or paradox that serve ...moreThe creative use of language can either be an enhancement or a distraction to a novel. Some writers try to use language like jazz music—riffing on words, parts of words or vernaculars—which often makes it hard to read and interferes with whatever plot is being set up.
Richard Powers, on the other hand, uses easily understandable words in such playful and imaginative ways, it not only enhances the plot, it makes the reader eagerly anticipate his next simile, metaphor or paradox that serve to emphasize the plot points.
Powers’ new book, Generosity: An Enhancement, postulates that there is a “happiness” gene, embodied in an Algerian refugee, who has experienced horrific experiences in her life, yet somehow manages to see the positive in everything. Thassadit Amzwar, a student in Russell Stone’s creative writing class, captivates Stone and the other students with her personality, and leads Stone on a quest to discover the reason behind her “generous” outlook on life.

By using some arcane science (made easily understandable by a somewhat nebulous moderator), Powers sets the stage for Stone’s own search for happiness, and he flashes back to a time when he is delirious happy on a trip with a former girlfriend. On the way back, he writes, “Just hearing her hum contentedly under her breath as she drove home was like returning to a country he didn’t know he’d been banished from.”

Powers brings up the old “nature vs. nurture” argument regarding happiness and presents different sides of the case. In his own situation, Stone has seen depression within himself and his family. A second plot, concerning a highly successful genome scientist searching for the secret to happiness is sometimes distracting, but ties together at the end of the book.

Overall, Generosity: An Enhancement is an enjoyable read that also makes the reader think about deeper issues. Any book that can accomplish that is award winning. And this book did just that, receiving the National Book Award for 2009. Don’t miss it.
(less)

· see review

Dec 19, 2009

Clara rated it

Shelves: 2009, dc-public-library, read-it-in-dc

I wanted to adore this book so desperately that I read a few sections more than once, waiting for the themes (positive psychology; the human genome a la Craig Venter; an Algerian war refugee: so alluring on their own!) to solidify into one self-reinforcing text. Instead, I found myself increasingly cynical about the existential narrator and plot that solves its own problems. Powers sets up the nature vs. nurture debate only to walk you through the monologue of objections you may have experien...more

· see review

Nov 29, 2009

Debbie (Readerbuzz) Nance rated it

Shelves: happiness, surprise

I call myself a big Richard Powers fan. I’ve only read one Powers book, but it was a wham-doozy. I often list it on my favorite all-time reads. It was brilliant, with clever word play and subplots that intertwine and characters who are---very strange---scientists and stories about human genes and computers, none of which I really know much about. It was fun and unexpected and, really, brilliant.

And now I’ve finally completed my second Powers, though, truth be told, it was actually a ...more

· see review

Oct 31, 2009

Eric rated it

Powers lets the natural seams show in his science fiction. That makes for some clunky transitions between the straight science and crooked humanities he keeps trying to knit together. Here it's genetics and the exploration of exuberance as a quasi-"medical" condition, the lives of his struggling characters and the nature of writing itself. (It's a post-modern novel; gotta be about that, at least in part.) Generosity lacks the sweep and/or emotional punch of "Gold Bug" or ...more

· see review

Feb 24, 2010

Chuck rated it

Imagine that a rare individual suddenly appears on the scene -- a person who, despite having experienced horrific events while growing up in war-torn Algeria, nevertheless projects a constant and contagious glow that seems utterly unshakable by anything that the world currently has on offer. What could be the source of her remarkable buoyancy? Might she be harboring some kind of "happiness gene"? And if a genomic research company were to pin it down, would the company then own the r...moreImagine that a rare individual suddenly appears on the scene -- a person who, despite having experienced horrific events while growing up in war-torn Algeria, nevertheless projects a constant and contagious glow that seems utterly unshakable by anything that the world currently has on offer. What could be the source of her remarkable buoyancy? Might she be harboring some kind of "happiness gene"? And if a genomic research company were to pin it down, would the company then own the rights to her genetic constitution? What effects might such an exploitation have on the human subject? These sorts of questions lie at the heart of Generosity, and if (despite the ancient "nature vs. nurture" debate) they seem overly futuristic, consider the future shock that was aroused by the arrival of the world's first "test tube baby" in 1978 or the cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1996. Since then, the human genome has been mapped, spawning research that not long ago would only have been the stuff of science fiction, e.g., genetically targeted treatments for previously incurable diseases.

Richard Powers is a novelist, not a science reporter, but his novels gain authenticity and authority from his astonishing mastery of factual detail In Generosity the science is represented in the character of Thomas Kurton, a highly intelligent and ebullient proselytizer who sees no reason not to provide genetic "enhancements" to all of mankind. The subject of his genomic analysis is Thassa Amzwar, a young Algerian student at an art school in Chicago who, through a series of inventive plot twists, comes to Kurton's attention. Filling out the main cast are Tonia Schiff, a successful science documentary filmmaker; Russell Stone, Thassa's writing teacher; and Candace Weld, the school psychologist. Not surprisingly, these various professional perspectives eventually collide.

Powers' descriptive prowess is successfully deployed on many fronts. There's the science, of course, but his powers of observation are equally acute in other arenas: he knows the smells, look, customs, and local jargon of a Tunisian market; the mechanics of producing an Oprah-like television program; the world of contemporary computer games and online social networks; and the less-traveled neighborhoods of Chicago. And he conveys all this without ever seeming pedantic.

In Generosity the author/narrator occasionally infuses himself into the text (the book both begins and ends that way). This device does double duty. First, it raises the question of who/what is in control (the author or his characters?), just as the story itself is raising that very question (Thassa, her genes, or her life history?). Second, it proves very effective in the book's concluding paragraphs, which vividly remind us of the redemptive power of creativity.

Although Powers is both brilliant and a terrific storyteller, he isn't quite the brilliant novelist I keep wishing him to be. The reason is that too often his characters lack full dimensionality. They are invariably witty and engaging, but not fully fleshed; it's almost as if their bodies exist primarily as a vehicle for transporting their heads. Thus, when the plot of Generosity reaches a long-delayed moment of inevitable sexual encounter, Powers dispatches the scene routinely and quickly, as if he can't get it over with soon enough. Perhaps Powers would dismiss this criticism with one of his own narrative lines: "talk beats passion, two out of three falls". Even if that's true, there are moments when passion is all-consuming, and the best writers don't shy away from that fact; they depict it graphically rather than simply mention in passing. But my primary point here isn't just about passion; it's rather that, despite our towering intellectual achievements, we remain embodied creatures, and I'd like to see Powers do greater justice to that reality in his presentation of character. Whether or not he ever manages to do so, however, I'll continue to read him. The life of the mind may not be everything, but there's plenty there to admire, and Powers' portrayals of gifted and interesting people are always rich and rewarding.
(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Apr 26, 2011

Kyle rated it

There is easily a thousand things I could say about Generosity. Powers is a brilliant writer and thinker.

Here's the bigger picture:

In Generosity, I like what it says about the function and "fate" of the novel in a scientific world that is always pursuing progress in the fields related to bio-genetics. This novel is interested in what happens when medical science discovers the gene for happiness. Traditionally, people in the humanities have always been critical of t...more

· see review

Nov 16, 2009

Erik Simon rated it

Three things:

1. I'm hard pressed to think of anyone who is using language more playfully and imaginatively than Richard Powers.

2. Powers continues to amaze me with his ability to use contemporary science, which is so arcane, as a vehicle to probe the oddities of our modern society. And yet, despite the esoteric nature of his writing and his delving into science, he is obsessed with those old human verities--love, death, joy, etc. This tale about happiness in our world rev...more

like 8 likes

· see review

Jul 23, 2010

Steve rated it

Although he is one of my all time favorite authors, this story was not among the ones I enjoyed the most. For those not familiar with him, Richard Powers is one of the best writers who can incorporate scientific concepts into brilliantly elaborate and readable stories. I was never in the front row during my forced years of high school science. Yet, he makes it accessible. He is one of the writers who entertains you and makes you better informed in the process. Generosity achieves this as well wi...more

· see review

Dec 02, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine rated it

Shelves: jan-feb-2010

Hailed as Powers's most accessible work to date by the Denver Post and, conversely, as his most demanding novel thus far by the Washington Post, Generosity created a stir among critics. While Newsday protested the throng of subjects vying for readers' attention, others praised the complexity of Powers's novel of ideas. Critics also diverged over Powers's characters—"flesh-and-blood" (Denver Post) or "two-dimensional" (Los Angeles Times)—and his unnamed, postmodern narrator, w...more

· see review

Oct 16, 2010

Jaja Alindog rated it

I originally choose this book due to the word “Generosity”, at first I thought that I was going to teach me about being generous, according to the title. But as I kept on reading, it was completely different. The book was a complete science fiction, but a very legit, can actually happen science fiction, that I can’t argue with the facts Powers used. His details, vocabulary, and facts were actually correct, which I must say not a lot of books I read contains. So I love the science and psychology ...more

· see review

Aug 02, 2011

Candace Burton added it

a hot mess. there's no other way to describe this book. there are so many things going on, so many threads running through the story, and despite powers' feeble attempt to joke about books that have a "25 page dash to force a denouement," that's exactly what happens. it starts off as as interesting story--the characters are not hugely compelling, but they're soundly developed and one rather wants to see where they're heading and when they'll collide. unfortunately, where they end up is...more

· see review

Aug 06, 2010

Tim rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I recently read an an interesting comparison between two dominant strands of how we approach reading a book, particularly for reviewing -- the journalistic approach and the literary criticism approach. While I don't necessarily agree with all the observations, it does fairly define those approaches and, as this review demonstrates, I find myself largely in the journalistic view.

Why is that? Because the journalistic approach is based on the individual reader's response to a book. A...more

· see review

Jun 21, 2010

Aaron rated it

Please don't let the fact that this book took me a while to finish as a reflection of how good it is. I am certain that if I didn't have work to do, a show to rehearse for, and video games to distract me that I could have cranked through this novel in one day. It goes that quickly. It is, in fact, possibly the most accessible of Powers' novels. One can almost imagine him having a conversation with his publishers in which they remind him that he just won a National Book Award: "Better tone i...more

like 1 like

· see review

Feb 01, 2010

Emily rated it

I really thought I would like this book -- and it's obviously very popular right now.

Really, I just didn't like the plot arch of the whole book. I don't want to make any spoilers, so I'll just say that it wasn't just the ending, it was the way the whole book unfolded. I also felt like the 2nd plot line could've been integrated in a better way. It started maybe 50 pages in and I just had no idea who or why these people were involved. And I do like having a couple of story lines to fo...more

· see review

Dec 13, 2009

Krok Zero rated it

Shelves: winter-09-to-10

So, this is pretty fuggin' fantastic. My first Powers--I've always resisted, thinking of him as literature's Bill Nye the Science Guy or something. And maybe he is. And maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Some might complain that there's too much stuff packed into this novel's relatively slim, 295-page frame. We've got five (or six) major characters. There's Russell, the depressive writer/editor/teacher; Candace, the therapist and Russell's love interest; Thassa, the young Algerian wom...moreSo, this is pretty fuggin' fantastic. My first Powers--I've always resisted, thinking of him as literature's Bill Nye the Science Guy or something. And maybe he is. And maybe that's not such a bad thing.

Some might complain that there's too much stuff packed into this novel's relatively slim, 295-page frame. We've got five (or six) major characters. There's Russell, the depressive writer/editor/teacher; Candace, the therapist and Russell's love interest; Thassa, the young Algerian woman in Russell's class who captivates every other character and sets the plot in motion with her seemingly preternatural glow of happiness; Thomas, the hotshot scientist specializing in genetic research who takes a (too?) keen interest in Thassa's case; and Tonia, the TV journalist who doesn't exactly have a clear reason for being in the book except to be a foil for the scientist, with whom she engages in a series of televised interviews. And lurking behind them all is Mr. Disembodied Authorial Presence (henceforth Mr. DAP), a metafictional narrator. (More on him later.) But boy, there are goodies on every dense page. An aesthetic and intellectual feast, this novel.

Generosity is at its most compelling when it focuses on the Russell-Thassa-Candace triangle. The other two are pretty much plot/theme devices rather than fleshed-out characters, but Powers knows this (Mr. DAP lets us know he knows it, at one point), and it's a sin I had little trouble forgiving. If character-as-mouthpiece has been a stumbling block for you in the past, it might trip you up here w/r/t Thomas and Tonia--but that's only if Powers fails to hypnotize you with the stylish richness of his prose and the nonstop deluge of his complicated ideas. Which he won't. The scientist represents a possible future in which happiness, as well as any other human trait, is a malleable and marketable commodity. He isn't exactly the villain of the piece--I don't think Powers cares enough about him as a character for that--but he could be. If Russell were the narrator instead of Mr. DAP, Thomas the "transhumanist" would be pretty near mustache-twirling in his villainy.

Lemme address Mr. DAP. At first I was thinking, okay, this is just kind of a goofy (but well-done) metafiction trick of the kind we're all pretty well familiar with--commenting on the characters and the action as "he" "creates" them. But it actually does have some thematic relevance. See, the issue of "the happiness gene" (essentially this book's MacGuffin) raises questions about free will and determinism (Powers studiously avoids these terms, maybe because they're too obvious), nature vs. nature, and the like. If our entire personality, and thus our choices and actions, is coded in our genetic make-up, then how can we be the authors of our own lives? Mr. DAP is trying to be the author of a group of fictional lives--fiction being, theoretically, a way for us to exercise some absolute control over someone's destiny, even if haven't any over our own. But the joke here is that Mr. DAP can't even sustain authorship of these fake lives. He becomes more of an observer than an author--at one point, Thassa says something in Arabic and Mr. DAP mentions that he translated it "later." And there are other instances like that, and various references to Mr. DAP passively watching the characters do things. Even in fiction, agency is slippery.

Powers also wants this to be a Way We Live Now novel, and it's there that he runs into a wee bit of awkwardness with constant references to the virtual life of the internet. (A paragraph about a character's Facebook page contains the unfortunate sentence, "Her pokes exploded.") Powers isn't exactly the writing staff of 30 Rock when it comes to being glib about stuff like this, but he does have a strong grasp of how information exchange has changed so dramatically in the past decade, and he integrates that into the plot quite plausibly. There's even an Oprah analogue ("Oona"--weirdly, also the name of a character from Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City), and the paragraph describing her importance is maybe the best thing I've ever read about Oprah. Powers is a frighteningly smart dude, and he's very much in touch with contemporary culture. And he wants us to know it. Pretty refreshing, actually, with so many intellectuals of a certain age hiding with tail betwixt legs at the mere thought of engaging with our modern mores and info-overload. There's no looking backward for Powers.

And the great thing is that there's nothing clinical about this. It's a very emotional book, both despite and because of the science. Thassa is such a great character--at first she seems like a fantasy, someone you have to suspend your disbelief to buy as real, but Powers slowly cracks the shell, and by the outstanding third act...well, let me quote David Cross's parody of James Lipton: "And no one was left unmoved!" Powers shares Bill Nye's gift for making science palatable to the layperson, but Bill Nye never made me cry. I'll be reading more Powers, hopefully soon.(less)

like 10 likes

· see review

Nov 30, 2011

Nicole rated it

Shelves: literary-fiction

Another idea-ride from the fearlessly exuberant and intellectual Powers. Not a book to love the way I loved "The Echo Maker," but one full of endless pleasures and provocations nonetheless. There's the depressive antihero, Russell Stone, teaching "creative nonfiction" on spec, too nose-to-navel to realize he's set himself up for this entire trip. He's also the intrusive authorial voice of the book--or, at least, the prop/foil for it. His peculiarly effervescent student, Thass...more

· see review

Jan 20, 2011

Miranda added it

Shelves: audio-bookin-it, our-fabulous-untitled-book-club

Where do I start with this? There were a few things I disliked about the book but when I finished it, there was a relief that maybe those things I disliked were done in a purposeful manner. As if Mr. Powers was being clever. Maybe too clever for me. And then I have to wonder if that is a good or bad thing. Thus, I've left this book star-less for now.
I guess I found that Powers was trying to keep the science and the fiction apart. But then he wanted to bring them together and it just was not...moreWhere do I start with this? There were a few things I disliked about the book but when I finished it, there was a relief that maybe those things I disliked were done in a purposeful manner. As if Mr. Powers was being clever. Maybe too clever for me. And then I have to wonder if that is a good or bad thing. Thus, I've left this book star-less for now.
I guess I found that Powers was trying to keep the science and the fiction apart. But then he wanted to bring them together and it just was not happening. Here's a story about writing but here's a story about a science/social experiment. How could he possibly tie the two together? It was not connecting. It could be the fault of the voice. In having a very wishy-washy narrator, there was no stand being taken. Different points of view were being presented but you couldn't get into the narrator's mind. He was too busy looking out.

And then there's the fact that the whole point of reading is so that you can be taken to places. I went nowhere in Generosity. I was in the here and now; it was almost news-like. There were far too many references to this world and more than obvious links to personalities and media. "Newsweek", "Facebook" "Youtube" "Oona" (Oprah), street corners and subway lines. Even the art students' preferred medium made it too modern to be enjoyable. This book was not an escape. I kept trying to think about books, graphic novels, movies, etc where the setting was very present, but how at the same time, it was given an element where it could be a different world. After reading it, I wondered if people felt the same after reading The Great Gatsby. That was a book about the Roaring Twenties that was written & published during the Roaring Twenties. I think Fitzgerald captured a history, the culture with that book. Still he told a worthwhile story. Powers captured a culture too but without substance.
And while we're sort of talking about setting, for a writer to be from Chicago and to write about that city, he sure made it dull. Of course, Chicago has been written about, sung about, and filmed. What could Powers have added to the City of Big Shoulders? But he made Chicago like any city in Generosity. Again, a purposeful manner? Was that the point? Alas, Chicago was left simple. Far from legendary.

But let's get onto things I did like. Candace and Russell's relationship was written in a very genuine way. I even liked how it developed slowly which is lacking with most authors. They either don't go there or they overdo it. In making Candace and Russell an afterthought, Powers gives their relationship more depth.
I also like the parts simply about writing. Powers would have done better to actually write his own creative non-fiction textbook. His prose was beautiful. His anecdotes were perfect. Funny that his own fiction comes off as non-fiction.

Onto Thassa who I had many mixed feelings about. Having taken in this book in an audible fashion, I loved her voice, her spunk. But she was summed up for me in one way: when Candace suggests Russell come over for dinner with her and Thassa when she returned from Boston, she tells him that Thassa will be happy to see him. And Russell thinks to himself that she's happy when they're bombing her neighborhood. Because of this statement, and just the whole book, I felt she had no scale on her happiness. How could I believe her relationship with Russell and Candace was special if she treated everyone in a very loving way? Where was her 1-10 scale on how she experiences new things or mundane habits; when she sees an old friend or when she's making a new one? How could Thassa see the uniqueness in a person if she treated practically everyone the same? It ended up making her flat and the rest of the cast quite unidimensional as well.
She also slightly took on the stereotype of the Magical Negro or Noble Savage. Of course she is given more of a background and history than these characters usually get. There is credit given there. But she is still YOUNG, FEMALE, and ALGERIAN. She brought Russell and Candace together. She is an experiment for Kurton. She is a headline. An internet meme. An object. And this bothered me. How can this character be so beautiful, so wonderful but be relegated to nothing?

In conclusion, I think Powers wrote a very eased in ending for a very laborious piece of work. Everything I did not like seemed to make a ridiculous sense for the ending. I guess I didn't like the story within the story as much as the actual "plot". I found Powers to be a very innovative writer. Did Thassa, Chicago, Russell flatline for a reason? Did the story seem meaningless, tiresome, and arduous just to make a point? Yes. I think so. And I think it's kind of funny that it had to be done in such a bad way. So is it good because the terrible parts were there to serve a fantastic punchline? Or is it just plain bad? I'm left very torn about Generosity.
(less)

· see review

Jul 19, 2010

Crosby rated it

What would happen if a person was genetically endowed to be perpetually happy? This is the premise of this book and it explores the scientific, religious, sociological, etc aspects. As a scientist I liked how the author used science in the plot. The book can be most appreciated by someone with a science background since Powers almost never explains the science he introduces in layman's terms. The plot centers around a perpetually happy person but there is very little joy throughout the book. No...more

· see review

Feb 07, 2010

Ryan Mishap rated it

Shelves: novel

"The price of information is falling to zero. You can now have almost all of it, anytime, anywhere, for next to nothing. The great majority of data can't even be given away.

"But meaning is like land: no one is making any more of it. With demand rising and supply stagnant, soon only the dead will be able to afford anything more than the smallest gist."

A subtle satire sliding sharpened needles into the body of our modern, digital age, this novel is also a ...more

· see review

May 27, 2011

K.D. rated it

Shelves: sci-fi

This book could have been a big hit for me if I had not first read Eric Weiner's 2008 book, The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World. That and this book both floated the idea that there is the so-called "happiness gene" in our DNA make up in the same fashion that there said to be a homosexual gene, a cancer gene and other anomalies that found to have been probably caused by gene abnormalities.

It tells the story of a young Algerian woma...more

like 8 likes

· see review

Apr 27, 2010

Janet rated it

Shelves: fiction

I read back-to-back Richard Powers novels: “The Echo Maker” and “Generosity.” That’s enough; I won’t pick up another for a while. I liked both books – maybe The Echo Maker a little better, because I read it first and I was learning to be impressed with Richard’s (incredible writing) Power. I read “Generosity: An Enhancement” because I was curious how science would connect happiness to genetics in the story, besides citing a condition called hyperthymia (mania without depression) I liked both nov...more

· see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 42 43 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (14)

More editions...

Genres

Novels

4 users

Science Fiction

4 users

Literary Fiction

3 users

Book Club

3 users

Literature

3 users

Literature > American

2 users

Adult

2 users

Biology > Neuroscience

2 users

Adult Fiction

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers Also Enjoyed

Typhoon
by Charles Cumming
Amateur Barbarians
by Robert Cohen
Love and Obstacles
by Aleksandar Hemon
The Confessions of Edward Day
by Valerie Martin
Love and Summer
by William Trevor

About Richard Powers

Richard Powers is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology.

Powers was born in Evanston, Illinois, and his family later moved a few miles south to Lincolnwood, where his father was the principal at a local school. When Powers was 11, his family moved again, this time to Bangkok, Thailand, where his father had accepted a position at Internatio...moreRichard Powers is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology.

Powers was born in Evanston, Illinois, and his family later moved a few miles south to Lincolnwood, where his father was the principal at a local school. When Powers was 11, his family moved again, this time to Bangkok, Thailand, where his father had accepted a position at International School Bangkok and where he attended until the end of his Freshman year, 1972. In his time outside the United States, Powers developed a love of music, with notable skill in vocal music as well as proficiency in cello, guitar, saxophone, and clarinet. He also became an avid reader, enjoying classics such as The Iliad and The Odyssey, but primarily works of non-fiction.

At age 16, Powers moved back to the U.S., and following graduation in 1975 from DeKalb High School in DeKalb, Illinois enrolled as a physics major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During his first semester, however, he switched his major to English literature, receiving his undergraduate degree in 1978. He continued his education at Illinois, and in 1980 received his MA in literature. He decided not to pursue a PhD in the field because of (a) his aversion to strict specialization, which was also one of the reasons for his earlier transfer from physics to English, and (b) the apparent absence of pleasure in the reading and writing that graduate students and their professors do (see his novel Galatea 2.2).

After receiving his master's degree, he worked in Boston, Massachusetts, as a computer programmer until an encounter with the 1914 photograph "Young Farmers" by August Sander, at the Museum of Fine Arts, inspired him to quit his job and spend the next two years writing his first novel, Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, which was published in 1985. The novel contains three alternating threads. The first is a fictional story about the three young men in the picture during World War I. The second is about Peter Mays, an editor for a technology magazine, who is obsessed with the photograph. The third is the author's own critical and historical musings, mostly concerned with the mechanics of photography and the life of Henry Ford.

Powers then moved to the Netherlands, where he wrote Prisoner's Dilemma, a work that juxtaposes Disney and nuclear warfare, and then his best-known work to date, The Gold Bug Variations, a story that ties together genetics, music, and computer science. Powers has said that he moved to the Netherlands to avoid the publicity and attention generated by his first novel. When asked about his reclusive tendencies, he responded, "All that sort of thing [author publicity] just creates confusion about the nature of the book, deflects attention from what you've done. That's what always seems to happen in this culture; you grab hold of a personality and ignore the work."[cite this quote]

Operation Wandering Soul, a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction in 1993,[1] is about a young doctor dealing with the ugly realities of a pediatrics ward. It was mostly written during a year's stay at the University of Cambridge, and completed when Powers returned to the University of Illinois in 1992 to take up a post as writer-in-residence.

Galatea 2.2 (1995) is a Pygmalion story, about an artificial intelligence experiment gone awry.

Gain (1998) is a look at the history of a 150-year-old chemical company, interwoven with the story of a woman living near one of its plants and succumbing to ovarian cancer. It won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction in 1999.

Plowing the Dark (2000) is another novel with parallel narratives, this time of a Seattle research team building a groundbreaking virtual reality, while at the same time an American teacher is held hostage in Beirut.

The Time of Our Singing (2003) is a story about the musician children of an interracial couple who met at Marian Anderson's legen(less)

More about Richard Powers...

Books by Richard Powers

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Pin It

Trivia About Generosity

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Generosity

“Maybe happiness is like a virus. Maybe it's one of those bugs that sits for a long time, so we don't even know that we are infected.” — 7 people liked it

“When you're sure of what you're looking at, look harder.” — 4 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Generosity: An Enhancement
avg rating	preview: Generosity: An Enhancement Goodreads rating: 3.45 (593 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346773-generosity?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312039324m/6346773.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346773-generosity?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Generosity: An Enhancement by Richard Powers[/url]

Generosity: An Enhancement

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Readers Also Enjoyed

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website