Some years ago, a kindly editor asked me to review the latest novel by the celebrated American writer Richard Powers. Having attempted the first 30 or so pages numerous times, I eventually gave up and pleaded that I found the thing literally unreadable. But either Powers has mellowed since then or I have got a bit better at reading, because I had no difficulty in finishing Orfeo, and had quite some pleasure along the way.
Our protagonist is Peter Els, a 70-year- old composer, of some obscure renown among the cognoscenti. One day before the events of the novel’s present-day timeline unfold, he reads about the DIY biology movement – people tinkering with DNA in their garages – and orders the appropriate equipment himself from the internet. Unfortunately, when the cops turn up for an unrelated reason, they become very suspicious on seeing Els’s lifehacking toys. Then something happens and Els becomes a wanted man, a bioterrorist on the run.
The publishers’ blurb plays up this aspect of the narrative – “a story of one man running for his life” etc – though it is largely just a framing device. Perhaps understandably, they don’t want to sell the book as what it really is: a novel about music. Worse than that: a novel about “classical” or art music. Mahler, Messiaen and so forth. Much better to emphasise the wanted-man angle.