Bewilderment by Richard Powers - review

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Title: Bewilderment

Author: Richard Powers

Genre: Literary fiction/Ecofiction

Pages: 288

My rating: ★★★★★

Other notable works by author: The Overstory

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2021.

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It’s going to be hard for me to put into words exactly how this book made me feel. Almost from the moment I picked it up, until long after I turned the last page, I felt a medley of raw emotions.

Theo, an astrobiologist who spends his days searching for life on other planets, gets an ultimatum when his 9-year-old son, Robin, gets in trouble again at school: put him on drugs, or he’ll be expelled. He finds a middle point by starting him on an experimental neurofeedback treatment, no drugs involved. Robin, passionate about the environment and all living creatures, evolves with the treatment and so does his outlook on life. As Theo observes his son, and we do too through his eyes, we are offered a spectacular new vision of the world we inhabit.

Bewilderment is a heartbreaking story of love between a father and his unique son, but it is also so much more than that. It is an ode to our planet, the beauty within it and of all creatures who inhabit it. It is also a reflection on the loneliness of our species, seemingly alone in the universe, who are destroying the only planet we are able to survive on.

It is a story that will stay with you long after you finish it. Some of the emotions I felt while reading include: shame and guilt, for what we are doing to our planet, but also awe and wonder when confronted with the beautiful descriptions of nature. It will make you want to go out and hug a tree. It will make you want to stand up and scream about the injustice of it all. It will make you want to take action. It will make you weep and it will make you smile.