About this title: A novel which follows the lives of four scientific researchers as they twist about each other in a double helix of desire, weaving intricately through the themes of music, science, language and love. By the author of "Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance" and "Prisoner's Dilemma".
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Perennial
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780060975005ISBN:0060975008
Description: Very Good. No creasing to covers. Light rubbing to corners. No creases to spine. Binding tight and square. Pages clean and bright. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780356206554ISBN:0356206556
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Edition: First printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Morrow, (, New York
Date Published: 1991. )
ISBN-13:9780688098919ISBN:0688098916
Description: Ex-library with the usual markings, but overall tight and clean in a fine and unmarked dust jacket. Hardcover first edition-His third novel, a complex and brilliantly realized story of early DNA research and an intertwinedlove story of two couples separated by twenty-five years. Named by Time Magazine as the book of the year, finalist for the National Book Award. 639 pp. Dust jacket illustration by Honi Werner. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow & Co
Date Published: 1991
ISBN-13:9780688098919ISBN:0688098916
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Edition: Later Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: William Morrow & Co, Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1991
ISBN-13:9780688098919ISBN:0688098916
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. 8vo-8"-9" Tall. 3rd printing trade edition hard cover with dust jacket, VG/VG. Clean, tight, square, unmarked copy. Light reader's use and handling. Dust jacket with trace of rubbing at spine heel, offered in new mylar. 639pp. read more
Edition: First UK printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Scribners, (, London
Date Published: 1992. )
ISBN-13:9780356206554ISBN:0356206556
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket (a new copy. ) Hardcover first edition-His third novel, a complex and brilliantly realized story of early DNA research and an intertwinedlove story of two couples separated by twenty-five years. Named by Time Magazine as the book of the year, finalist for the National Book Award. 639 pp. Dust jacket illustration by Christopher Brown. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.,
Date Published: [1991]
Description: Octavo, cloth-backed boards. First edition. The author's highly acclaimed third novel. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Neat owner's signature in ink on front free endpaper, a fine copy in fine dust jacket. (#72657) read more
"I found that the book doesn't hold my attention as do other of Powers' novels because when I read his works I usually devour them in a few days. Comparatively, this is a much slower read and due to the esoteric side story of genetics I labor through some sections. His novels start off esoterically with an introduction of the subject matter and the characters involved; however, at one point in these novels a major shift occurs in which he introduces a highly humanistic quality to the novel and the novel departs from the esoteric to a uniquely beautiful and human story. Goldbug doesn't follow this patter and the story switches back and forth between the beautifully human to the esoteric discussion and explanations of genetics (not that this is written any less beautifully). What I think is happening is that he is telling the stories of his characters in different threads: one on Ressler, the geneticist and on O'Deigh and FTODD; however, under more careful scrutiny I learn that the discussion of the genetic code is itself another narrative thread of another major character: DNA, which is a component of the characters as well as the reader, adding a level of participation of the reader as part of the novel. The story of the genetic code takes place in both the page of Goldbug as it does in our own cells, in life overall.
(previous tentative review): This is a book I never finished for grad school and I decided to go back to it because I am huge Powers fan. i wrote my thesis on him and I loved his more recent novel. More to come..."
"It's about the underlying similarities between, and conflicts inherent in, music and the genetic code and programming and language and beauty and meaning and relationships and patterns; the twin quests of discovery that are science and love... and it just blows me away. I don't know how he can write so beautifully about such dense subject matter, and relate it so well back to the basic things that make us all human, but he can."
"This is the second Richard Powers book I've read and once again I'm left feeling that he looked up from his manuscript in the last 100 pages, realized he had to add a climax to the tale, and that this realization nearly spoiled everything.
I would not recommend reading this book during summer, while on the subway, or during a particular frenetic period in one's life, because this tome commands strict attention to detail and extracurricular reading/listening. I think I failed on all accounts. First off, I should have listed to Bach's "Goldberg Variations." I'm not even sure if I've heard the piece before, but I'm too cheap to buy it because I imagine (hope) I've inherited it in the form of one of my father's LPs, currently residing in a storage unit on the border of Nassau County. Secondly, I should have brushed up on my genetics, because several sections of this book explore the science and implications of genetics. Thirdly, I should probably travel with a small dictionary, because Powers challenged my vocabulary every few pages.
That said, I did enjoy the main characters in this tale. A shy, neurotic reference librarian and her eccentric patron/lover trying to figure out why an older colleague of his abandoned his promising work in genetics before becoming the next Watson or Crick. The secondary plots were less intriguing to me. Most intriguing was the subject of inheritance: the choices these men and women made (or were unable to make) regarding parenthood and the implications therein. What I like most about Powers is the issues he forces readers to explore that correspond to the greater Human Condition.
Written in 1991, The Goldbug Variations also serves as a capsule of a previous era: inchoate Internet, in-vitro fertilization not yet responsible every set of twins you see in their deluxe double stroller on the sidewalks of Brooklyn. Reading this reinforced how much information-seeking has transformed. Want to know about someone's past? "Google them." We have new excuses for abstaining from human contact, from that simple act of just--I know this is a radical idea--asking what happened. And that a major part of the plot is the inability to procreate, well . . . just fork over $90,000, and that's solved.
I doubt there's a demand for it, but I would love for Powers to release a new edition of his work with a preface examining the work against today's world. I struggled and fought against this book for a long time while reading it, but I know it will linger in my mind for ages, or at least until I read another Powers tome."
"Just too long. It could have been significantly shorter and still got its point across. It is a richly researched and well-written novel but it was just a bit too heady for my tastes. Some of you that thrive in this arena might love it - and I might have liked it better if I had a month instead of one week to read it."
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