While, in my opinion, this is not Powers’ best novel, it is still an excellent novel and one that does continue to show Powers’ strengths in characterization, making lots of information relevant and interesting, and balancing multiple plot lines.

I’d recommend Gold Bug Variations or Plowing the Dark over The Echo Maker, though.

The movie is quite good and Emma Thompson is, as usual, excellent, but the play is MUCH better. If you have the time, read the play (it reads quickly) instead of or in addition to watching the movie.

This is a LONG movie, but it is worth the time.

This is Vonnegut’s best book and a great anti-war novel that somehow manages to not quite be an anti-war novel (at least in the traditional sense). It is funny and witty; it is also devastating in a sort of oblique way. Vonnegut describes the world as it is, as it should be, and as it seems to be. He does not argue that we should change the world or “make the world a better place” (that would be too much), nor does he argue that we should accept the world as it is (that would be too easy); instead, he shows us how absurd the world really is and thus how wonderful and how tragic it is.

It’s hard to know whether or not this book is worth consuming. It exists in that gray area of books which are neither recommend-able nor condemn-able. It’s a good book to have on hand for an afternoon’s easy read when there’s just nothing better to do or for a plane trip when something more substantial just won’t do. It’s okay. But that’s all.

This is an American classic, a book I feel I should read. And in small chunks, it’s great. But I don’t feel like it’s going anywhere, really, and I have trouble focusing on it for more than a few pages at a time. Sadly, I may never finish it.