Zu viele Kraniche: Für mich das erste Buch von Powers und ich bin mir noch nicht sicher, ob es das letzte sein wird. Zu viel langatmiges Gefasel über die Kraniche, zu wenig packende Szene und zu detaillierte Beschreibung der Vorgänge im menschlichen Gehirn, bei denen man schon mal abschaltet, sind die Hauptkritikpunkte. Die Story an sich ist interessant, die Charaktere werden ausführlich dargestellt und Powers versteht es, den Leser bei der Stange zu halten, weil man unbedingt wissen möchte, ob Karin und Mark ihren Frieden noch finden werden. Das Ende und die Auflösung sind allerdings etwas abrupt geraten. Trotzdem ein lesenswertes Buch, wenn man sich mit dem Phänomen "Erinnerung" auseinandersetzen möchte.

In "The Echo Maker" Richard Powers gives us an encylopedic recap of neurological pathologies, and a fraught scientific debate about the current state of neurology.

This book portrays accident victim Mark Schluter and his grappling with Capgras Syndrome, the inability to recognize one's loved ones - and the resulting assumption that persons close to you are impostors. Gerald Weber, MD, the cognitive neurologist and popular author, takes time out from his busy book-promotion tour to visit, but why? Is it merely to exploit Mark for his new book? Or does this unique case present a scientific opportunity to further research the illness? Or maybe it's because he finds Mark's sister Karin's pleading for help too appealing to turn down. Whatever the reason, Dr. Weber's visit coincides with a precipitous drop in his popular reputation, and a frightening downward slide in which he begins to diagnose numerous neuropathologies in himself.

Powers's gift lies in his erudition. He succeeds in personalizing quite a bit of current neurology for the reader, but his narrative thread frays at the end. I didn't quite credit Dr. Weber's breakdown, and am still confused about the character who poses as a nurse's aide throughout. What in the world is her motivation? The sandhill crane migration, and the environmental politics surround it, serve as a background, and a highly poetic one at times, but is there more to it than - these birds are simply a good example of focused and useful consciousness? The story's greatest success lies in elucidating the shifting and fragile nature of human consciousness and memory. Otherwise, this book is overlong, particularly as regards Dr. Weber, whose deterioration I found quite forced. ( )

When Mark Schulter has a near-fatal car accident, his sister comes home to take care of him. Family secrets, old loves and Mark's recovery changes all their lives. It's very detailed and confusing but also deeply insightful about one family in one small town. It was worth the time and reflection to read this book. ( )

To find the soul it is necessary to lose it.

A man is left in a coma after a car accident. When he wakes up he believes his sister to be a fake, an impostor, identical to his real sister in every way, but fake. His mind struggles to cope with the deception and he imagines all sorts of conspiracy theories to explain what he is experiencing. All kinds of things, of course, apart from what is really going on.

The novel is one of great psychological realism and depth, how one man's delusion, called Capgras syndrome, profoundly affects those around him; his friends, his family, even his doctor. Running along side this is a story about the threatened habit of migrating cranes which divides the town. The bleak landscape of North Dakota is beautifully evocated and the tensions between human development and the needs of nature tensely juxtaposed. The simple, direct instincts of the birds compares very favourably to the confused, deluded 'higher' consciousness of the novel's protagonists.

I appreciated the author's subtly; his ability to make the dramatic seem viable, not at all sensational and to show how even the healthy mind deludes itself in an effort to cope with the stress of circumstance. Food for thought, indeed.

Could not finish this. Subject matter not of interest to me. But the writing is excellent, if sometimes a bit overwrought.