This novel is a convenient starting point for discussing Powers’ work in mid-career because it features a focal character named Richard Powers, whose background is remarkably similar to the author’s, and who has reached a point in his literary career at which he is struggling with writer’s block. So, on the surface, it may appear that Powers, whose first four novels were structurally intricate, linguistically dense, polymathically erudite, and thematically complex, has been reduced to exploiting the sudden exhaustion of his own resources as a novelist. In a review for

of London, Gordon Chivers remarks on this point: “Unpromisingly, the hero of the piece is called Richard Powers, a newly successful novelist in early middle age.”

Reinforcing this impression, the novel’s

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Citation: Kich, Martin. "Galatea 2.2". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 March 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21622, accessed 21 November 2024.]