Manderson's review of The Gold Bug Variations
The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers
I actually didn't finish this book. I got 1/3 of the way through it, when I suddenly realized that I didn't like any of the characters. This is a book about socially awkward and introverted people for whom mundane occurrences are wrought with brooding revelation and significance. It is well written, with prose that at times can be as disjointed and cryptic--yet feelingly flowing--as its subject matter. But this is a problem I have had with some other of the author's books (which I finished)--it's like he's trying a little too hard, thinking a little too much. I have a reading policy with works of fiction which states that if I have to keep forcing myself to read something, then it isn't worth the effort (unless it's Gravity's Rainbow). I think the moment of epiphany, when I realized that I didn't care to read this book anymore, came last night when I suddenly recognized that the Jan O'Deigh character in the novel acts and...more
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