Play Book Tag discussion

Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance by Richard Powers - 3.5 - My Review

Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance is Richard Powers' debut novel, published in 1985. It was inspired by a photograph taken by August Sander of three young German farmers dressed in their Sunday best, walking to a dance in 1914, just before the outbreak of World War I. Themes include history, art, memory, and time.

Powers weaves together multiple narrative threads: 1) the imagined lives of the three farmers in the photograph, 2) the story of the photograph itself and its survival through the tumultuous 20th century, and 3) a contemporary narrative set in the 1980s following a computer programmer who becomes obsessed with the photograph. It plays with the idea that a single moment can reverberate through history.

Richard Powers is one of my favorite authors, and while his debut contains flashes of brilliance, I don’t think it is quite as cohesive as his later works. I plan to eventually read them all. I love his erudite approach to tackling big complex ideas, and though this one is not a favorite, I came away from it with plenty of food for thought.

3.5

Interesting review!

I'm a sucker for a title like this. I have a bunch of Powers' books on my TBR, but haven't read one yet.

He is my current "author of the year" where I'm focusing on reading at least 5 books of his back catalogue.

My reviews of the others I've read so far (in case they are helpful):
- Playground - 5* - My Review
- The Time of Our Singing - 5* - My Review
- Bewilderment - 4* - My Review
- Generosity: An Enhancement - 4* - My Review
- The Overstory - 4* - My Review
- Operation Wandering Soul - 4* - My Review
- Orfeo - 3.5* - My Review

Galatea 2.2 is up next for me.