PositiveThe Guardian (UK)Here Powers weaves together the four-note motif of Bach\'s Goldberg Variations, the four nucleotides (don\'t ask) described in the structure of DNA, and the tetragrammaton, the four-letter Hebrew word for God ... With his interest in isolated, atomised individuals and his attempts to yoke together seemingly incompatible disciplines, Powers has probably got EM Forster\'s humanist cry from Howards End, \'only connect\', hanging over his writing desk ... The story is told in short episodes that move back and forth across five decades, so that we return again and again to the same events. The novel begins with the competition triumph of Jonah and Joey, but when we return hundreds of pages later to this same event, it is enriched by the new context in which it is placed ... Others may give us more complex characters, but it is rare to find a novel as intellectually and emotionally engaging as this.
