Operation Wandering Soul
A Novel
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1.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
This novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Bewilderment examines life in a hospital children's ward, innocence, and the power of storytelling.
In the pediatric ward of a public hospital in the heart of Los Angeles, a group of sick children is gathering. Surrogate parents to this band of stray kids, resident Richard Kraft and therapist Linda Espera are charged with keeping the group alive on make-believe alone. Determined to give hope where there is none, the adults spin a desperate anthology of stories that promise restoration and escape. But the inevitable is foreshadowed in the faces they've grown to love, and ultimately Richard and Linda must return to forgotten chapters in their own lives in order to make sense of the conclusion drawing near.
Praise for Operation Wandering Soul
National Book Award Finalist
"If you have children or will have children, if you know children or can remember being a child, dare to read Operation Wandering Soul. . . . [It] is bedtime reading for the future." —USA Today
"Powers's prose soars . . . memorably capturing the moments of joy and anguish, barrenness and grace, that add up to life." —Washington Post Book World
"Powers . . . continues to baffle and excite. . . . Powers has a remarkable, virtuoso voice." —Publishers Weekly
"Mingling wisps of whimsy and a hard-edged, surgical view, this cuts deeply into the human condition." —Kirkus Reviews
Customer Reviews
Never again
I've read Powers previously—Bewilderment, a powerful novel, short-listed for prestigious awards. I had great expectations for this book. I'm so disappointed, and not even sure what his intention was in writing this untidy compilation of historical info, madcap fantasy, and frenetic incoherence. Powers apparently wants his reader to know how very smart he is about a vast variety of topics and has an extraordinary vocabulary, neither of which he can use in most social conversation. So he threw them all into a book ostensibly about disadvantaged children suffering from numerous rare and not-so-rare debilitating maladies and the resident surgeon and physical therapist who have been charged with caring for them. I think this was a failed experiment in writing a challenging novel. I thought I was up to the challenge—I'm not. At the half-way point and I can’t believe I’ve suffered through this much. This is an exercise in futility, a drawn-out diatribe of complex and enigmatic gobbledygook, a frenzied rant against our apathetic society and government—too nonsensical and disjointedly put together for me. Wish I could get back the time I’ve spent trying to fight my way through this jungle—now I've got to find my way out . . .