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Richard Powers's ninth novel is both a mystery and a documentary. The mystery centers on the single-vehicle accident that shatters a young man's life. The documentary portion of the story, still fiction, delves into the human brain when it is injured. As a result of the crash, Mark Schluter is in a coma. When he re-enters the real world, he's left with a syndrome known as Capgras. He believes his sister, Karin, to be an imposter, a Hollywood actress who is doubling as his elder sibling. In addition, there is little evidence about an anonymous call to a 911 operator the night Mark rolled his truck into a ravine.
A note left on Mark's hospital bed stand is equally puzzling. It reads:
"I am No One
But Tonight on North Line Road
GOD led me to you
So You could Live
And bring back someone else."
Set in Kearney, Nebraska, a second scenario follows in tandem with the main storyline. Half a million Sand Hill Cranes migrate annually to the Platte River's edge along the flats. At winter's end, the birds converge on the area and blanket the wetlands to nest until spring. The night of Mark's accident, the cranes are disturbed by the sound of failing brakes, a broken scream and a plume flying through their midst. In the morning, quiet resumes when the cranes continue their eerie dance on the river's shore.
Portions of THE ECHO MAKER are written in present tense --- those passages that describe the cranes' migration and the annual tourist attraction they become --- while Mark and Karin's story is told in past tense. The novel is divided into four major parts but without numbered chapters; chapter breaks are denoted by bold type when a new scene begins, which is an unusual format. Once a rhythm is established, the reader expects the form to continue.
Karin's frustration with Mark's lack of progress peaks when she brings in New York psychoanalyst Gerald Weber, himself a renowned author of books that deal with bizarre brain disorders. He interviews a physically recovering Mark and tries to sort out the mystery of Capgras. At times, the clinical descriptions of the syndrome become a tedious read. But Powers wields his pen with dexterity and rescues his reader by depicting the personalities of his main characters when the storyline continues.
Gerald enters a plane of self-awareness that parallels those of Mark and Karin. They each bring a back story to be understood in light of present circumstances. Mark's longtime friends are useful as aids in his return to health, but the mystery remains about the causes of his accident. Mark had been a near professional driver, and drugs or alcohol was not an issue. When the writer of the note is finally revealed, backgrounds begin to make sense.
Small-town Midwestern life set against the panorama of the magnificent Sand Hill Crane migration is the essential portion of THE ECHO MAKER. The chosen title makes for thought-provoking analysis of Powers's riveting story. Both Karin and Gerald doubt themselves but muddle through the intricacies of solving the Capgras mystery in order to restore Mark's brain to self-awareness. A highly recommended read.
--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad
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