text: The NY Times Book Review linked this novel to the aftermath of 9-11, but that may have more to do with the preoccupation of New Yorkers than with the story Powers wrote. While he does refer to 9-11 early on, this book concerns environmentalism and species conservation versus wrong-headed economic development in the Great Plains at the western edge of the midwestern farming belt. It is about the struggle not to loose even more economic ground relative to the rest of America in a region that is being slowly drained of its population due to the changing scale of agricultural operations. But since it is a Richard Powers novel, it is also about much more: neuro-physiology, brain function as reflected in behavior and personality, the devotion of a 30ish sister to her less-able younger brother, her sexual relations with two very different men, and a nationally-known writer (clearly modeled on Oliver Sachs) who has a late mid-life crisis. It is about love, devotion, and doing as much of the right thing as one can do. It involves escape and return. 
  Clearly, Powers should not be considered a regional writer. His books have been set entirely or partly in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Philadelphia, L. A., the Pacific Northwest, and the continent of Europe. But several books by Powers are set in the Midwest where he is based. Readers who know something of the areas in which those stories are set will gain an extra measure of appreciation for  the skillful way Powers incorporates subtle regional characteristics into these novels.
  As others have said, this is probably not the best novel this writer has given us, although it is quite carefully plotted, and full of the marvelous insights we have come to expect from him. I prefer The Goldbug Variations, Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance, and, despite my own musical illiteracy, In the Time of Our Singing. But even when Powers is not quite at his best, he writes a better book than most novelists ever manage ever to produce. Read, enjoy, learn
  