Richard Powers is up to his old tricks. Things start reasonably enough, with cranes landing in Nebraska on their journey north, but by the fourth sentence I was worried: ‘Scores of Grus canadensis settle on the thawing river.’ Now, I’m as much against dumbing down as the next man, but you’re supposed to be telling a story, for goodness sake.
Mark Schluter is a run-of-the-mill 27-year-old who is severely injured one night when his truck rolls off the road. His physical wounds soon heal but the mental scars are more puzzling; Mark is diagnosed with Capgras Syndrome, which means that he can’t recognise his sister, Karin, who he is convinced is an imposter.
Bewildered and upset, Karin turns for help to noted neurologist Gerald Weber. Powers is often accused of being cold – and for a book ostensibly about emotions this is remarkably cool – but from Weber’s introduction things become dreadfully dull. The popular science writer’s interactions with his social worker wife are painful – she calls him ‘Man’, he calls her ‘Wife’; and do top scientists really wake up feeling ‘hypnopompic’? There’s a subplot involving a mysterious note left on Mark’s bed in hospital and a helpful stranger, but it’s not enough to keep you caring.
