The Echo Maker (2006)

annoying characters, forced writing ( )

I knew nothing about The Echo Maker going in, save what I'd read on the back cover: near-fatal car accident...traumatic head injury...coma...Mark emerges and believes his sister is an imposter...famous cognitive neurologist diagnoses him with some sort of syndrome...mysterious disease combined with strange circumstances surrounding the accident threaten to change all of their lives beyond recognition. Wow, sounds like a soap opera, a cheap thriller at best. And yet the "National Book Award Winner" stamp on the front cover suggested the exact opposite.

I normally avoid much (if not all) forewarning and inside information about a book before I start reading, but this time I googled/searched for some reviews, quickly found Margaret Atwood's glowing/gushing review in the NY Review of Books, skimmed the first few paragraphs, got to some claptrap comparing this novel to The Wizard of Oz, figured it would be best to just dive in, and so I dove in.

I'm often amazed (amused?) at how expectations going into reading a novel can unrealistically set a tone to the benefit/detriment of the reader. E.g., the last book you read by an author sets your expectation for the next one, which you assume will be of a similar vein, and if it is/isn't you are pleased/disappointed, depending on what you were anticipating. (See my disappointment around The Prague Cemetery.) Similarly, the "blurb" on the back of the book may help sell more copies, if worded in such a way to make a potential reader think he is picking up a quick thriller, if such a reader is looking for a quick thriller, but the book will ultimately be a disappointment when he figures out it is, in fact, a slow psychological drama that unfolds at a painstakingly deliberate pace. I, on the other hand, was simply reading this book based on a recommendation and would otherwise have avoided it based on the "cheap thriller" denouncement via the back blurb and was therefore pleasantly surprised that what I got, instead, was a brilliantly crafted psychological puzzle laid out in pieces, one page at a time, until they all merged together to create an entire picture at the book's end.

Not much of a review so far, I realize, rather an explanation of how I got here, to this point, where I, too, am thinking of writing my own glowing/gushing praises for this book. But I think I won't. I've gone back and read what Atwood said, and she sums it up pretty nicely (except for the Oz stuff, which is still under jury deliberation in my own mind). Instead, let me share a few of my thoughts randomly:

1. Some novelists are great writers (i.e., they can string together an impressive set of words) while others are great story-tellers (i.e., this one should be self explanatory) but Richard Powers is* a rare blend of both. If you're looking for a novel that is pure lyrical poetry, go check out Proust. If you're looking for purely plot driven novel, you probably already know which section of the bookstore you should be shopping in. But, if you're like me, and constantly on the lookout for a complimentary blend of both worlds, here is a great example.

* I say "is" based on this one book, which I acknowledge could technically be a one-off, but let's trust (for now) that the National Book Foundation wouldn't award Powers their highest honor if his preceding catalog read like the mindless blather of a madman.

2. That said, and know how difficult it is to find such a blend, I'm very happy to see the National Book Foundation recognizing this effort, this talent.

3. If you read this, be aware of tense shifts across different POV's. This is not so much important to the story as it is a clever way to distinguish differences in states of mind. As a literary device, I've seen this before, but in Powers' hands and in the framework of this story, I'm not sure I've ever seen it better utilized.

4. To the naysayers who suggest this novel could have been trimmed back, especially in the technical/scientific/medical discussions around various brain injuries/illnesses and their subsequent effects on those suffering from them, I think you missed the point. This story is told from three main character's POV's, alternating, and each three sees things from his/her own perspective. So ask yourself this: if you were a "famous cognitive neurologist" who writes books about the various test subjects you've encountered over the years, wouldn't those be the ruby-colored lenses through which you see the entire world? And if your own world view was crumbling around you, wouldn't those lenses get darker and darker?

5. And how brilliant was it when Weber inserts himself into his own ongoing litanies of case studies at the end of the novel?

Wow, I cannot say enough good things about this book, so instead I will just warn those who are looking for a cheap/quick thriller: this isn't. But if you're looking for something else, something well written, something rewarding, especially if you like to think about what you're reading while you're reading it and make it all the way to the end and then keep thinking about it for a while longer before you drop your final judgement: this is. ( )

not overwhelming, despite the hype; neurologist, meat plant worker w/Chagras' syndrome & his sister, mysterious caretaker

This 2006 winner of the National Book Award (USA) is set in Nebraska 2001-2003. Amazon synopsis: ”On a winter night on a remote Nebraska road, twenty-seven-year-old Mark Schluter has a near-fatal car accident. His older sister, Karin, (arrives) to nurse Mark back from a traumatic head injury. But when Mark emerges from a coma, he believes that this woman–who looks, acts, and sounds just like his sister–is really an imposter. When Karin contacts the famous cognitive neurologist Gerald Weber for help, he diagnoses Mark as having Capgras syndrome. “

The Echo Maker of the title is the sandhill cranes which descend in spectacular numbers on the Platte River in Nebraska each spring during their annual migration north. “Where cranes gathered, their speech carried miles (…) One of the Anishinaabe clans was named the Cranes—Ajijak orBusinassee—the Echo Makers.”
The cranes play only an ancillary and not even necessary part in the story which reads more like a commercial novel than a literary prize winner.

Read this if : you are interested in how the brain functions, especially in making and retrieving memories; or if you enjoy the structure and pacing of John Grisham novels. 3 stars ( )

Totally not what I expected -- and way, way, way too much extraneous plot points. Did not get the whole 9/11 connection. Liked the parts about how amazing and strange the brain is, but other parts were just too much. Felt like it would have been a MUCH better novel if about 100 pages were cut from it! ( )