Forthcoming

I've been reading Richard Powers' new novel Generosity, and it stands with '09s best novels. Like the last book Echo Maker, the plots and subplots merge seamlessly, but essentially Powers ruminates on the nature of happiness; who has it, and what's wrong with them for having it. One member of a "creative non-fiction" writers group is an Algerian refugee whose tumultuous life to now shouldn't yield anything close to bliss, but Thassadit Amzwar seems to have overcome everything, and to have an instant, positive chemical effect on others around her.

It's a great hook and Power's if off to the races from there. He's a writer I try to read slowly, even as impulse demands a race to the finish. More a bit later.