Galatea 2.2

by Richard Powers

Book Overview

"Dazzling...a cerebral thriller that's both intellectually engaging and emotionally compelling, a lively tour de force."--Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

After four novels and several years living abroad, the fictional protagonist of Galatea 2.2--Richard Powers--returns to the United States as Humanist-in-Residence at the enormous Center for the Study of Advanced Sciences. There he runs afoul of Philip Lentz, an...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312423136
• ISBN13: 9780312423131
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

You can still learn and be moved

A magnificent book. I have loved all of Richard Power's books, and this is no exception. His writing is superb on several levels, and I'd like to mention just 2 of them. First of all, he is not afraid of feeling. Many young writers display his verbal virtuousity, but he is one of the only to indulge in true, heartfelt, unadulterated emotion. He is not ashamed to feel for his characters, even as an omnipotent storyteller (which he is in this book). The emotional makeup of a person seems to be his beacon in navigating his protagonists' lives and times. Second, he certainly manages to teach us and delight us simultaneously. This is a problematic genre, because most times these two goals come to blows somewhere in the book. I think this is because the authors usually begin to write (About science, music etc.) with set opinions. They want to transfer knowledge. Powers does not do this. He is immensely knowledgable on almost everything, but never does he force his opinions on us. He questions, sharing with us the basic premises leading him to these questions, and thus truly teaches and illuminates. His quests keave us no option but to join, making us better persons at their end. He has no answers, only the ever-continuing process of learning and questioning. I hope he continues this quest for a long time. Buy this book.

Deceptively PoMo

On starting this novel, I thought I had it pegged. The complex language, the conceit of having the author as the main character, the plot perfectly set up to explore the nature of language and knowledge.What I didn't expect was the sheer emotional power of this book. Powers is after bigger game than academia and the death of the author. His detailing of the relationship with C. is harrowing and heartfelt, and is the highlight of this book. The subtlety and truth in those sections inform the whole work, and cast the rest of the discussions of language, knowledge, and theory into a different light. He burrows so deep into his own neuroses and regrets, he digs straight through to the other side. This is the first Powers I've read. It won't be the last.

One of my favorite novels

Richard Powers is my favorite contemporary novelist and this book is easily one of his best. For their combination of intelligence and emotional complexity, his books have no rivals. In Galatea 2.2. I was once again immersed in a world rich with ideas and human desire, a world where the emotional rawness of C. and the philosophical curiosity of the neural network Helen illustrate the vast range of our age-old need for understanding. In the end, this novel illuminates not only the power of narrative, but our absolute need for it. It reminds us how greatly we depend on stories to understand the world, and to understand ourselves. The narrator Richard's best shot at explaining the world to Helen is by sharing the story of his own life -- the one true story he really knows. Powers suggests that our most intimate stories are carried through life as beautiful burdens -- narratives with the power to haunt, but ultimately save us. This book, like all of Powers' novels, will move you and inspire you. It's a hard one to shake from your mind.

Pygmalion Meets Douglas Hofstadter!

Without question, Richard Powers is my favorite living author - and reading this intricately crafted, Byzantine book only served to buttress my conviction that Fiction is yet endowed with the capacity to be a vital, compelling art form. Powers has an uncanny ability "to delight and instruct," and in Galatea this is evidenced by his musings on the moebius-twisted attempts of consciousness to unravel its own hidden workings (see pages 28, 218, and 276). He very effectively interweaves his Pygmalion story with a narrative built around an artificial intelligence (I'd wager that he's been greatly influenced by Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach - one of my personal favorites), and, as in Gold Bug Variations, populates his tale with complex, well-educated characters who lead ambiguous, interesting lives. In casting himself as the book's protagonist, Powers alternately comes across as a self-indulgent and a self-effacing writer; however, this works in giving the reader a glimpse into an Aphrodite-molded imagination. I read this novel after I read Gain, his latest, and was more impressed with Galatea's plot and characters. His trademark shimmering wordplay (I find it refreshing that he allows his readers to make their own associations, connections, and conclusions through this device) is in abundance here. All in all, a bracing read!

An enthusiasic review of a well-written novel for the 90s.

I am highly recommending Galatea 2.2, the newest book from the author Richard Powers. Powers writes dense books with multiple story lines that wrap themselves around each other like a double helix. Typically, his books weave these two stories (usually featuring different points in time) into a fascinating tapestry that holds the reader's interest until the very last page. Galatea 2.2 is no different. In this book, Powers relates a partially autobiographical story of his life and love from college through the writing of his first four books, with the story of his involvement in teaching a neural network based computer how to learn -- a kind of Pygmalion story for the 90s (hence the name Galatea -- she was the sculpture of a maiden created by Pygmalion and subsequently brought to life by Aphrodite). Like Powers' other books, this one features lush, beautiful language and imagery. The book is bittersweet in that it relates both the tale of a love that finally broke down and the tale of trying to build something from nothing. For fans of Powers' previous books, this one provides enlightenment into the frame of mind and life of the author when he was writing his previous books. For those who were not fans of Powers before, Galatea provides a window to those earlier works which should encourage readers to seek out the other works. Galatea 2.2 was a recent nominee for the National Book Awards, garnering Powers a second nomination. He is also a past recipient of one of the McArthur genius grants. I could hardly put this book down...and yet, I didn't want it to end. It leaves me wanting for another of his books.