Bewilderment is a contemporary novel by American novelist Richard Powers. Published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2021, it is Powers' thirteenth book and a follow up to his 2018 novel The Overstory that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Akin to the previous novel, Bewilderment incorporates the natural world and focuses on topics about the environment and climate change. It is also coupled with matters on mental health, behavioral disorders, and psychotherapy.
The novel follows Theo Byrne, a widowed astrologist, and father to a nine-year-old son, Robin, who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, OCD and ADHD. As an astrobiologist, Theo studies the galaxy in search of planets with the possibility of hosting life. It’s thus why he dwells on nature and the current ecological deterioration akin to his late wife who was an environmental activist. Facing challenges raising his behaviorally challenged son, Theo opts for experimental treatment over psychotherapy and medication. Through this, the recorded neural patterns of his wife—the former test subject—act as the basis for Robin’s neurofeedback treatment.
Powers seamlessly blends the subject of mental health and environmental degradation while exploring the relationship between father and son. The book matches his former work by delving into the vastness of nature in the same vein as some of the famed environmental authors. Rob Doyle of The Guardian wrote “Remarkable... Bewilderment channels both the cosmic sublime and that of the vast American outdoors, resting confidently in a lineage with Thoreau and Whitman, Dillard and Kerouac.”
