The Echo Maker (E–book)

• Hardcover
• 451
• The Echo Maker
• Richard Powers
• English
• 05 May 2018
• 9780374146351

Richard Powers à 4 Read

The Echo Maker Read º 104 Download Ù PDF, DOC, TXT or eBook à Richard Powers Wn to nurse Mark back from a traumatic head injury But when he emerges from a protracted coma Mark believes that this woman – who looks acts and sounds just like his sister – is really an identical impostor Shattered by her brother’s refusal to recognize her Karin contacts the cognitive neurologist Gerald Weber famous for his case histories describing the infinitely bizarre worlds of brain disorder Weber recognizes Mark as a rare case of Capgras Syndrome a doubling delusion and eagerly investigates What he discovers in Mark Here we are again in the world of literature Powers is a powerful writer The length of the book 451 pps does not really tell the length of this work It is not a fast read There is much content woven into the pages a tapestry of imagery and meaning that enhances the action of the storyKearny Nebraska is a way station on the central flyway a place where thousands of cranes congregate every year on their way north and south providing an industry for the town The descriptions of the migration are uite wonderful Mark Schluter is a twenty something who crashes his truck and barely survives suffering extreme head trauma Karin Schluter his sister leaves her job to try to help with his recovery Mark cannot accept her as his sister believing that she is a copy Karin seeks help from the famous neurologist Gerald Weber who comes to Kearny for a look see Gerald struggles to figure out just what is going in with Mark s brain The case is very very unusual There is a wonderful aide Barbara at the nursing home where Mark recuperates She seems exceptionally tuned in and eager to help She has a talent everyone can see but a past that she keeps to herself Daniel is the local head of an environmental protection group and was Mark s best friend until they parted ways as teens He also had a thing for Karin and now Karin seeks his help for Mark Powers is after existential prey here What is the nature of consciousness What is reality Does it have external constancy or is all reality just what our brains make of available input Is the seuence always cause then effect It is an invigorating ride Is it connection to others that gives us anchors to life keeps the drifting balloons that are our conscious brains from floating entirely awayAlong the way he offers us a few mysteries Who is Barbara really Why did Mark run off the road Will the crane stopping point be saved What will happen with Karin and Daniel Will Mark ever return to his old selfPayload is of crane behavior river ecology the climate of the area water issues A separate payload track is neuroscience There is much in here that will not be found in the local paper about obscure brain malfunctions and their implications This was an interesting and engaging read

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The Echo Maker Read º 104 Download Ù PDF, DOC, TXT or eBook à Richard Powers Following a near fatal accident Mark Schluter is nursed by his reluctant sister But when he emerges from his coma Mark believes that this woman – who looks acts and sounds just like his sister – is really an identical impostor As a famous neurologist investigates his condition Mark tries to learn what really happened the night of his accidentOn a winter night on a remote Nebraska road 27 year old Mark Schluter flips his truck in a near fatal accident His older sister Karin his only near kin returns reluctantly to their hometo My wife is such a sweetie She saw that my job had me knee deep in numbers and thought maybe I d appreciate words in my life for ballast With that in mind she arranged for me to take an online writing class We just started Week 2 Show don t tell One of the discussion prompts was to cite examples of a writer who shows particularly well Turns out I have a ready supply of uotable passages from books I ve been meaning for too long to review The set I had for this one just about ran my highlighter dry So here were the examples I postedMark A child who out of pity always picked the worst players for his team An adult who called only when weepy drunkThe bathroom was a science fair project in full bloomNothing had the power to hurt her except for what power she gave it Every barrier she d ever chafed against was no than a Chinese finger lock that opened the instant when she stopped pullingThat s the thing about dogs There isn t a human being in the world worthy of any dog s welcomeShe reddened again Her skin was instant litmusMark marveled at Weber s professional patter Man If I could talk like you I d be getting laid on a daily basis He launched into imitative psychobabble almost convincing enough to earn him a comfortable wage somewhere on the West CoastThe two of them ended up at a restaurant back in Kearney one of those chains drawn up in Minneapolis or Atlanta and faxed around the nationKarin called Bonnie She got the infectious answering machine I wish I was here to talk to you for real in that cheerful treble that sounded like the horn of a Ford Focus on mood elevatorsMy brain all those split parts trying to convince each other Dozens of lost Scouts waving crappy flashlights in the woods at night Where s me I don t know this for a fact but my guess is that the instructor would have given him an A on any show don t tell assignment he submitted Powers as I ve opined elsewhere is a bona fide genius He merges science language arts and humanity as seamlessly as anyone out there This particular book delves into an interesting mental disorder and features an Oliver Sacks type character to diagnosetreatexploit it The plot is a good one and his characters are well drawn Metaphors abound And his bigger points are touching and wise But rather than telling you to read this gem of a book I ll rely on the examples above to show you glimpses of the phrenic delights you d be missing if you don t

The Echo Maker Read º 104 Download Ù PDF, DOC, TXT or eBook à Richard Powers Slowly undermines even his own sense of being Meanwhile Mark armed only with a note left by an anonymous witness attempts to learn what happened the night of his inexplicable accident The truth of that evening will change the lives of all three beyond recognition Set against the Platte River’s massive spring migrations – one of the greatest spectacles in nature – The Echo Maker is a gripping mystery that explores the improvised human self and the even precarious brain that splits us from and joins us to the rest of creatio Flowers for Algernon for the new millenniumOkay not really no Well maybe a littleThe best parts of this book were those written from the perspective of a character with severe traumatic brain injury The rest of it was good too but the characters were never uite convincing enough for me to suspend my disbelief and actually care what happened to them Of course I was helplessly distracted the entire time by the Man Behind the Curtain Does Richard Powers do all his own research Where does Richard Powers live Does he live in New York Did Richard Powers haunt the neuroscience journal stacks of Columbia for two years while putting together this book Because that is kind of what I was picturing Also for those who do not already know this Richard Powers DOES NOT TYPE his novels He hasn t in years No Richard Powers DICTATES his novels using VOICE RECOGNITION SOFTWAREHow can I POSSIBLY focus on what s going on in the novel when I m grappling with an image of THAT the whole timeNone of this is meant to imply that The Echo Maker is not engaging and absorbing fiction because it definitely is It is just not uite as engaging and absorbing as the idea of Richard PowersBut let s face it that s some stiff competitionDoes Richard Powers really know everything Is Richard Powers a happy man Is Richard Powers Richard Powers s real name Does Richard Powers have children Does Richard Powers have a dog Does he love his dog Does he love it than he loves the children Does Richard Powers really have the capacity to love or is this somehow unusually difficult for him Does Richard Powers feel smarter than everyone else Does he feel smarter than his characters If he really does know everything it must be strange to write about people who do not Can he empathize with them Does he pity them Or is he strangely powerfully jealousIs it a great burden knowing everything When Richard Powers was in elementary school did some other kids call him a know it all When he was younger did Richard Powers smoke cigarettes Has Richard Powers ever taken drugs What are Richard Powers s friends like Are they also famous writers Is Richard Powers pleased when he is referred to as being a writer s writer or do you suppose he sometimes wisfully dreams of being of a reader s writerReading The Echo Maker will not definitively answer any of these uestions But if you read carefully I m sure you will notice some pretty big clues