Gain - Hardcover

Powers, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374159963 ISBN 13: 9780374159962

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc, 1998

Synopsis

Richard Powers's Gain attempts nothing less than a history of America as told through the tale of a singular enterprise. When three Boston merchant brothers coax from an Irish immigrant the secret of making fine soap, they set in motion a chain of events that will spin a family-run cottage soapworks into a multinational consumer-goods giant by the millennium's end.

Set against the sweeping, 170-year rise of the Clare Soap and Chemical Corporation is the contemporary story of Laura Bodey, a real-estate broker. Laura, her two teenage children, and her ex-husband all live in Lacewood. Illinois, a place that owes its very existence to the regional Clare factories that have nursed the town from nothing. The Clare Agricultural Division now sponsors every aspect of Lacewood, from the corn boil to the college library. But when a cyst on Laura's ovary turns malignant and the local industry is implicated, the insignificant individual and the corporate behemoth collide, forever changing the shape of American life.

Gain examines the runaway experiment of modern business and where that experiment has left us. Gain is at once Powers's most historically ambitious and his most accessible novel to date.

About this title

Review:

"Erudite, penetrating and splendidly written . . . There is no gainsaying the remarkable artistry and authority with which Powers, in this dazzling book, continues to impart his singular vision of our life and times."--Bruce Bawer, "The New York Times Book Review"
"With "Gain," Richard Powers launches his own strong bid for entry into the canon of America's best novelists, delivering a work both epic in scope and universal in emotional resonance."--David B. Livingston," Detroit Free Press"
"What is most remarkable about this novel--and, indeed, about the body of Powers's work so far--is how much life is in it, and how much intelligence . . . I can think of no American novelist of his generation who makes a stronger [case]--that the writing of novels is a heroic enterprise, and perhaps even a matter of life and death."--A. O. Scott," The New York Review of Books"
"Mr. Powers clearly has done extensive research on the development of industry in the U.S., and his prose is rich with memorable images and sharp observations on industry and society."--Elizabeth Bukowski, "The Wall Street Journal"
"Ambitious . . . The most accessible and straightforward of Powers' novels thus far . . . The most emotionally affecting work Powers has done to date."--Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times"
"Brilliantly observed . . . Powers is a writer of blistering intellect; he has only to think about a subject and the paint curls off. He is a novelist of ideas and a novelist of witness, and in both respects he has few American peers . . . ["Gain"] is a blast at the destruction, ecological and otherwise, wrought by the Bonnie-and-Clyde-like partnership between American technology andAmerican capitalism."--Richard Eder," The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review"
"Richard Powers has created a rare thing: a contemporary business novel that is also an important work of fiction. At once an insightful history of American capitalism, a formula-wielding primer on soapmaking (yes, that's right), and an intimate portrait of a woman who is dying of ovarian cancer, Gain is a demanding volume that will leave readers marveling at the author's erudition and troubled over the apparent price of civilization."--Hardy Green, "Business Week"
"This is a harrowing and powerful novel, uncompromising in its depiction."--Joan Mellen, "The Baltimore Sun"
""Gain "consists equally of horizon-busting breadth of knowledge and excruciating depth of vulnerability . . . Powers hovers impossibly between extremes with a tightrope walker's perfect balance. He may be at once the smartest and most warm-hearted novelist in America today."--Melvin Jules Bukiet, "The Chicago Times"
"An acclaimed, accredited genius . . . There are many moments when the ideas absolutely dazzle."--Adam Begley, "The New York Observer"
"Richard Powers has proven himself a visionary writer . . . Throughout "Gain" there are dreamy, uncannily accurate little paragraphs on the Promethean messianism of corporate America."--Greil Marcus, "The San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle"
"Subtle, provocative, and powerful . . . Richard Powers' deceptively simple and terrifyingly effective novel "Gain" says it better than anyone has in a long time: buyer beware."--Rick Moody, "Village Voice Literary Supplement"
"The elements of a major novel, and "Gain" only confirms that Powers is, in fact, a major Americannovelist."--Adam Kirsch, "The New Republic"

A "NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW "NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
"Powers is a writer of blistering intellect."--Richard Eder, "Los Angeles Times Book Review "

"["Gain"] is erudite, penetrating and splendidly written."--Bruce Bawer, "The New York Times Book Review
"

"Richard Powers has proven himself a visionary writer."--Greil Marcus, "The San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle "

""Gain "only confirms that Powers is, in fact, a major American novelist."--Adam Kirsch, "The New Republic

"

Powers is a writer of blistering intellect. "Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times Book Review"

["Gain"] is erudite, penetrating and splendidly written. "Bruce Bawer, The New York Times Book Review"

Richard Powers has proven himself a visionary writer. "Greil Marcus, The San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle"

"Gain "only confirms that Powers is, in fact, a major American novelist. "Adam Kirsch, The New Republic""

"Powers is a writer of blistering intellect." --Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"[Gain] is erudite, penetrating and splendidly written." --Bruce Bawer, The New York Times Book Review

"Richard Powers has proven himself a visionary writer." --Greil Marcus, The San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

"Gain only confirms that Powers is, in fact, a major American novelist." --Adam Kirsch, The New Republic

From the Publisher:

'one of the exceptional American novels of recent years' TLS
'brilliant' Telegraph

'Seeded with bitter ironies and subtle symbolism, this is a novel of understated strength and unsentimental grace, less raging polemic than silent scream at an America dedicated to gree' Sunday Times

'exhilarating... the tender, aching tale of Laura Bodey is a superbly fragile achievement' Independent

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0374159963
• ISBN 13: 9780374159962
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 355