Generosity

By: Richard Powers

Narrated by: David Pittu

Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

The National Book Award-winning author of The Echo Maker proves yet again that "no writer of our time dreams on a grander scale or more knowingly captures the zeitgeist." (The Dallas Morning News).

What will happen to life when science identifies the genetic basis of happiness? Who will own the patent? Do we dare revise our own temperaments? Funny, fast, and magical, Generosity celebrates both science and the freed imagination. In his most exuberant book yet, Richard Powers asks us to consider the big questions facing humankind as we begin to rewrite our own existence.

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year

©2009 Richard Powers (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Narrator david Pittou's easy, thoughtful voice is a pleasure to listen to.” —SoundCommentary.com

“Part of this production's power is the performance by Pittou, slightly sardonic as Stone, French-accented as Thassa, comfortingly bland as Candace. It's a reading that doesn't get in the way of the prose, but offers its own enhancements to Powers' good writing.” —Providence Journal Bulletin

Neuroscience

Richard Power's strength is in his ability to inform readers about subjects from genetics, to relationships, to education. In this volume he approaches neuroscience. In particular, he tells the story of one Thassadit Amzwar who is possessed by such happiness that it attracts attention from Russell Stone her creative writing instructor. This is another of his idea-driven novels and it readily informs and invigorates. My problem (with each of his good books) is that the characters really never come to life. They are the props around which the ideas are presented.

Otherwise, the writing is very good and the narration of David Pittu exceptional. If you are interested in the topic at hand - this is a keeper. Powers is the sugar that makes the medicine go down very well.

Ah Russell

I’m not used to meta-fiction, but this one worked fine since it was an author telling the story of an author. It was a bit dense in places, and I found myself losing interest when it got very technical into the genome area. My biggest criticism is the narrator’s voice for Tasha. She sounded like an old woman. Every other character in the novel sounded younger, but she was the youngest by far, so that made it even harder to relate to one of the main aspects of the book, her lightness of being.

I cried

This book is very long and there are quite a few long dull spaces. But, the story is very good.

Again I found another story narrated by David Pittu. He gets accents so perfect when creating characters. There is no one better.

An enhancement

No answers. Just long looks.
Still, what is creative nonfiction?
Ingredients
Essences of life well mixed.

All About Fiction

Most reviewers discuss the science of this novel. But, for me, it's all about the fiction. The magic of fiction, resulting from our willing suspension of disbelief, is that we read (or listen to) a novel as if it were a book of non-fiction about actual people confronting real events. But what if the narrator of a novel claims to be its author and comments, from time to time, on the process of his creation of the very fictional characters and plot? And what if that plot forces its characters, most of them student-writers of non-fiction that they sometimes make up, to wonder if they or their DNA or science or the media have created them? (It never occurs to them that they are characters in a novel.) Then we have a maze of a book--another amazing Richard Powers novel both intellectually provocative and aesthetically satisfying. What Powers also does so marvelously well here is to invent Thassadit Amzwar (nickname: Generosity) who makes us feel so good, we need her to be real. But whether she is or not, there is more truth in this Richard Powers novel than in a month of cable news.

if you liked this one ....

you should try "echomaker" by the same author. shame that they don't offer it here...it's his best work if you ask me. but of course generosity is very good, too.
peter germany

I finely found a fiction writer I love!

The way he writes is magical, like our thoughts at their wittiest. It is real authentic contemporary writing, with tangible characters that touch you.

I am so thrilled I found Richard and this book, I now have a modern, well-rounded, interesting writer that I can call my favorite.

Thought Provoking and Engaging

Wonderful writing and intellectually stimulating. This is my first book I have listened to by Ricahrd Powers, but it won't be my last. It was a feeling and engaging exploration of happiness, genetic engineering, manipulation, and patenting, all through wonderfully drawn characters. Loved it, and listened to it while I cleaned my house this weekend. I wanted to keep cleaning.