Richard Powers' Bewilderment

 

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Frog Blog. My name is Philip Chen, and today we’re gonna look at Richard Powers’ novel Bewilderment, published in 2021. Powers has written many critically acclaimed novels in the past as well, such as The Overstory in 2018 and The Echo Maker in 2006, most of which focus on the effects of modern technology.

The novel focuses on Theo Bryne, an astrobiologist interested in finding life on other planets. His wife Alyssa passed away two years ago from the start of the book. Luckily, Robin, his nine year old son, has inherited his mother’s love for animals and his father’s love for astronomy. Unfortunately, Robin has been diagnosed with behavior issues like Asberger’s and ADHD, which have gotten worse after the death of his mother. An incident occurs at school one day, where Robin throws his metal thermos at his best friend Jaden out of anger when he told Robin that Alyssa trying to hurt herself caused her car accident. At home, Theo tells Robin that really a possum ran out and Alyssa tried to avoid it, leading to her hitting another vehicle, but keeps the secret that Alyssa was pregnant at the time.

One morning, Robin makes paintings of endangered animals to sell at the farmer's market and wants to donate the money from the paintings to one of the organizations Alyssa advocated for. Theo encourages this idea, but Robin has a meltdown later when Theo doesn't allow Robin to skip school to work on his project for two days in a row. Since the school is trying to get Theo to put Robin on psychoactive drugs because of all his meltdowns, Theo asks Martin Currie, a friend of Alyssa's and a well-known neuroscientist, for advice. He offers to enroll Robin in an experimental treatment known as Decoded Neurofeedback, or DecNef, to help Robin learn to control his emotions, and Theo and Alyssa both had their brains scanned for Currier's experiment once. It involves using the brain scans of others in certain emotional states and having Robin try to mirror their brain patterns using visual and sensory cues, and Robin is trained with Alyssa's old brain scan. How much will this affect Theo and Robin's life?

I love emotional stories a lot, and Bewilderment was no different. The father and son journey with both love, loss, and planetary connection is extremely beautiful, and it comes with the powerful lesson to cherish what you have before it's too late. I recommend you check this out if you like deep insightful novels too.

Thanks for reading the Frog Blog!

Philip