Review: Generosity by Richard Powers

Have you ever met anyone who seemed to be completely happy, all the time? When their circumstances would have felled many a normal person? Is it part of Western culture to tend towards misery and depression? Do other ways of life result in contentment? I've taught a few like that - maybe they've got religion or music or something. Maybe they simply haven't learned that life isn't that happy (so they know more than we do: that it is?)

What if this tendency towards happiness was a genetic trait? Something that could be reproduced? Who would buy that treatment? For themselves, for their children? What would happen once big business and lawyers got hold of such discoveries?

All this is discussed in this thought-provoking novel. Richard Powers has produced another fascinating blend of science and how it affects ordinary human lives. I'm not quite sure why this author isn't as famous as other American writers - I consider The Time Of Our Singing to be one of the Great American novels. But feel free to tell me I'm not the only person in the UK reading his works!