Gain: A Novel Paperback – September 29, 2009

This is not an easy novel to read. But it is well worth the effort. The author Richard Powers is either a person who spends a great deal of time researching his subject or a genius (as asserted in reviews I read before purchasing the book). The integration of a History of American Manufacturing Business with a story about a sick lady was done seemlessly and in and of itself is extremely, extremely clever.After I finished reading the book, I bought a copy for a friend, something I don't do very often. I also ordered another book by the author. I have a feeling that having discovered Mr. Powers, I am about to become a groupie of his.

This was a great book! I actually liked it better than Generosity! I am usually direct in a way where I don’t need to say too much.The one thing about this book, is that some of the pages were in wrong. So just be aware.

I had not read any of this author's earlier works, so I did not have a basis of comparison, but I must say I was underwhelmed by this effort, and was frankly very surprised at the effusive praise it received. First, I think it is difficult to write fiction about an inanimate entity such as a corporation. It makes it hard to grip the reader because while people come and go through the corporation, they are secondary to the main star which is the company itself. In the first part of the book, it was different, because then the 3 sons more or less equalled the corporation so the book was about people at that point. But even by the time of Peter and Douglas Clare, Jr., and certainly beyond that, the people passing through Clare became less and less important (and the book became less interesting). Of course, to a large extent, the book is a kind of generic account of any "mega-co-USA" got that way from humble 19th century origins, and the ups and downs they all have to endure. But for that, why not just look at a real company? Second, because of the complete lack of any twists or turns in the plot, its predicability left me bored. The author more or less tells you where he's going within the few few pages of the book and then inexorably moves there without any deviation whatsoever. Third, while I appreciate the author's efforts to add detail (and thus presumably authenticity) regarding (1) the soap and candle-making process and (2) the nature of cancer from a purely medical perspective, I found that he went into SUCH exhaustive detail that my eyes would just glaze over when he became Richard Powers, MD, or Richard Powers, Ph.D. in Chemistry. Finally, if the book was intended to be some sort of indictment of corporate conglomerates in the 20th century, I was unconvinced. Is the author saying that the DuPont's of the world are inherently bad or should not exist? That Clare should never have progressed beyond the stage when the 3 sons ran it? That Clare should have ceased all technological progress? What is his point? (Or, if he has a point, what is his solution?)

Very disturbing themes, and brilliantly written. having recently discovered powers through his first novel, I was gratified to meet this work without the reservations of the earlier work. The two narratives of the rise and rise of corporate America via the lens of the humble cake of soap, find inexorable linkage with the contemporary pervasion of cancer in the same Illinois town of Lacewood. The tone of the two stories is distinct but free of the clunliness of,'Three Farmers'. The sweep is broad while pinned to personal and inimate details. Quite a harrowing look at the world we have created and succumb to. And it still resonantes as a story of today! I'll keep following Powers. He has it.

Richard Powers does a great job of showing how business and chemistry have taken over our lives...it's a good read and very important subject....highly recommend this

intricate weaving of parallel story lines

How does anyone get this smart? I have read several of Powers' books and each time he surprises me with how complete his fictional world is. You can learn a lot about capitalism in this one. I enjoyed it. Pretty dense reading, but that's one of the pleasures for me.

This is a very dissapointing book by Richard Powell.It traces a history of a company up into the age of corporations, then pollution and the possible high incident of cancer caused by chemicals in the town of Lacewood. Parallel to this is history is a woman dying from ovarian cancer, possibly due to the effects of the chemicals from the factory. The history of the company and the change in doing busnines over 100 years and the changes required to keep the company above water. The history of this company driven to form a corporation involves a history going on all over the US. As a history lesson, it is boring and repetitive, poorly edited, with little in depth characteration. The story of the woman dying of cancer is excrutiating and except for the heroine, the other characters are not developed. His books do follow a formula which worked with such a novels as Three Farmers becomes increasingly ineffective. He needs a fresh new start.

not his best, but worth buying, the treatment of the woman who comes down with cancer and her evolving relations with those around her is well don

Richard Powers makes the mundane epochal and the tragic a laugh. Again. In this phenomenological comedy on the corporatization of life, we follow the sweeping checkered history of an American chemical leviathan, starting with its 19th century discovery of packaged soap and mass advertising to the present day where anything is possible and a divorced housewife is dying of ovarian cancer. In the end, we can't help but Gain.