I normally can't stop reading any novel by Richard Powers. His ability to straddle the disciplines of Humanism and Science is without peer in the literary world. His grasp of science fascinates my non-scientific mind, and his characters are always out somewhere on the frontiers of research.

Always, in his double helix plots, there is some tension between humanism and science that makes the novels interesting, but they are never so directly in conflict as they are in Generosity. That conflict is central to the first half of the book, and it makes for a bit of a slog, because not much really happens to the characters themselves.

The central character is Russell Stone, from whose point of view the story is told, but only with the removal of time. He's a schlub of a failed essayist, an editor of a small magazine, and a teacher of English composition who encounters in one of his classes a student who is congenitally happy. Although he is her teacher and her friend, he envies her her happiness and consults a psychologist about her condition. This leads to a chain of events, in which her genes are mapped by a Genomics firm, she becomes the subject of a TV program on genetic engineering, and finally, when her name gets out, appears on an Oprah-like talk show which drives the public into a frenzy, from which she cannot escape.

In a sense, Russell Stone is her antagonist, though he's also her mentor and protector. His feelings of emotional inadequacy are writ large in the populace, as her story is covered on the public stage. The public is not so benevolent, however, and the demands of fame, and eventual infamy, drive her to the brink of madness.

Perhaps it is because Generosity is driven more by ideas than its characters, and it isn't until the end, when the ideas drive people into a frenzy, that the reader begins to empathize with the plight of the protagonist, that the story develops some traction.

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, Thassa, dubbed "Miss Generosity" by her fellow students, enters his classroom and takes over his life, though he's invented her as surely as she's invented herself. Nature v. nurture, genes v. genomes, chance v. choice. An author whose character writes notations for him in his writer's manual. Generosity driven to suicide by American cultural anarchy. And an author and his beloved creation sitting across a table from one another watching the sun set. There's nobody quite like him. ( )

I figure I must be living right to have three of my four favorite novelists all releasing new books within about a six-month stretch. First out of the chute is Powers' latest, a short, haunting story that gets a little postmoderny, but in an interesting rather than pretentious way. As always, Powers tackles big ideas and does more to illuminate our possible future than almost anyone else I've read. ( )

This is not one of Powers' s best books, but this author at his worst is better than most novelists at their best. An entertaining read as well as a serious critique of contemporary society and an exploration of some of the problems of biological enhancement for humans. ( )