Review By Harsimran Kaur

Rating: 3.5/5

Richard Powers has magnified a book so close to the perils of human disinclination. Any variation in the natural habitat of our behavioural patterns makes the human mind present a corrigendum to alter the impermissible valley of thoughts towards a defined way of living. We deny ourselves any change in the magnum opera of our reflections and perceptions.  Robin is one of those minds which are perceived differently ambushed by a series of unflattering diagnosis and awkwardness. His age is no bar to his precocious infiltration to the planets travelled by his father, Thoe, an astrobiologist.

Its seems obligatory to marvel at a 9 year old brain making its own routes to proffer judgements on what makes the planet Earth so elusive incapable of holding people together in spite of having the right atmospheric pressure, an abundance of flora and fauna and millions of species at human mercy. He flosses the tributaries of other planets and their propensity for survival—a mission that he thoroughly enjoys with his father—both navigating the imperceptible fusion of molecules, chemicals and incomprehensible creatures. But his mind leaves him not of the indelible past and the implications of his intemperateness. 

Bewilderment by Richard Powers is a canvas holding the complex relationship between a father and a son. Thoe wants to protect his son from the conspicuous eyes of the intransigencies of people who label his mind as obnoxious and volatile. Robin is a soul-searcher pecking on the nuances of life and the idea of living.

TAKE AWAY

Richard powers has unleashed another magnum beholding the fascination of science and technology. How the brain captures the emotional subjectivity of another to makes its own is fastidiously explored in the book. It emphasis the proclivities of the mind to achieve what we deny every now and then. Nevertheless, the capability to survive among the violations and the insouciant watchdogs, what matters is the concoction of our varied beliefs for sustainability. The book is a beautiful read on what is lost and our efforts handpicked for a new beginning.