Orfeo

Not my favorite book.

This book is supposed to be derived from the Orpheus myth. I didn't see it, unless it's as simple as Orpheus being a musician, as the main character of this one is. Reviewers have remarked that Powers writes from his head, but not his heart, and I would have to agree with that in this novel.

Mostly I had a hard time with descriptions of music since I think that music is its own language with different truths. Here is just one clunky example from the novel trying to describe music. "The piece was simplicity itself: a triplet-driven, Phrygian figure in the high voices, while beneath, arpeggios moved in contrary motion, in wide slow waves. Each new entry took the evolving figure into higher registers. The blend strained toward something archaic, a folk tune an ethnographer might find in a remote mountain village of a failing monarchy, to bring back to his studio in the decadent capital and flesh out with volunteer harmonies."

I have no idea what that means. I mean, I understand what triplets, Phrygian, waves, etc. mean, but it doesn't tell me about the music. Especially since the paragraph starts out saying that the music was simplicity itself. The description doesn't sound like the music is simple.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that my biologist daughter would not approve of the science writing, either.