The Gold Bug Variations

By Richard Powers

Book Overview

This is Richard Powers' first novel since the much-heralded Prisoner's Dilemma, about which Maureen Howard wrote in The Nation: Magnificent. Set it up there in the stratosphere with the American novels we study like pictures in the sky. The lives of four researchers twist about each other in Powers' double love story of two young couples separated by a distance of 25 years.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688098916
• ISBN13: 9780688098919
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co
• Length: 639 Pages
• Weight: 2.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.6" x 6.6" x 1.4"

Customer Reviews

my favorite book of all time

A brilliant novel about love, science, music, and the complexity of the human condition. Powers explores our impulse to unravel the mysteries around us (whether cracking the genetic code or excavating the narrative of the enigmatic Dr. Ressler) and our unrelenting impulse towards expression: artistic, verbal, and yes, physical. I'm in full agreement with the reader from Ohio: this is a passionate book. The characters are full-bodied, complex, and driven by a wide spectrum of desires, including love for eachother and for their intellectual pursuits. The prose is amazing, so keep a pen handy while you read if you're in the habit of marking passages you like.