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groups have suffered at the hands
of mainstream society," he said.
For Powers, racism is not
driven only by fear of difference
but by fear of similarity. The
centuries-old history of political
and legal apparatus set up to
make sure there was no min-
gling, he said, may have been
motivated by the fear that we're
not all that different.
Powers spOke of identity as
both a blessing and a barrier.
The boys and Ruth can lose
their Jewishness in a way that
they don't lose their blackness;
they can reconstitute their
blackness elsewhere, but not
their Judaism.
"It's partly a reflection of the
asymmetry of American life,"
Powers noted.
Richard Powers:
alliances of all groups
Does the author see the black- are ad hoc, negotiatedfunctions of time."
Jewish alliance as "crumbling"?
At its peak, he answered, the
tions, the possibility of an empathic
alliance was portrayed as filled with
leap always exists, he said. This leap
more solidarity than perhaps it was,
is the basis of human understanding
and at its nadir, as crumbling harder.
and of all art.
"I think that this alliance and the
Powers is known as a brainy writer,
solidarity and the suspicion, all the
a novelist of ideas. When asked
hopes and fears, have to be calculated about this label, he said it's a bit of a
on a case-by-case, town-by-town
restrictive category.
basis," Powers said.
"I despair that creates a certain
"All alliances of all groups are ad
kind of reading that might preclude
hoc, negotiated functions of time —
other nuances or register. I can't get
just as blackness and Judaism are
away from ideas nor can my charac-
functions of time, not fixed things
ters. I don't think that a character's
but fluid, ongoing conversations."
thinking is different from a charac-
ter's feelings. We're passionate about
our beliefs."
Novelist Of Ideas
Powers' previous novels, which
The Time Of Our Singing is the only
include Galatea 2.2 (1995), Gain
one of Powers' novels with a signifi-
(1998) and Plowing the Dark (2000),
cant Jewish character.
have explored subjects such as artifi-
A Lutheran, the author grew up in
cial intelligence and information
Lincolnwood, Ill., just adjacent to
technology.
Skokie, where the Holocaust was a
"In some sense, this is a real depar-
"salient part of my life from the begin-
ture," he said of his latest novel. "I
ning," with many survivors and chil-
have a reputation as a science guy.
dren of survivors in his.neighborhood.
While there is a science subplot, it's
"I was the only kid in my school
nowhere near as fleshed out as in the
on the High Holy Days," he recalled. other books."
Later on, he lived in Bangkok and
For Powers, the connection is that
further experienced life as an out-
all of his books explore the "relation-
sider. "Writing a book exploring
ship between little and big."
belonging and non-belonging must
"This is the story of one family
always be for. the novelist are-cre-
who came to see themselves as some-
ation of the story you've been living
how playing out on a canvas too
in, transmuted," he said.
large for them to fully grasp or fully
At several moments in the novel,
evade, in a troubled attempt to nego-
various characters realize that "every
tiate a space that's small enough to
marriage is a mixed marriage."
live in, large enough to know where
"There's something inexplicable
it is." ❑
about the other person," Powers said.
"We are each our own category,
The Time of Our Singing is avail-
never identical to the other."
able through wwvv.Jevvish.com .
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NY Gilbert & Sullivan Players presents
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Fri., Mar. 28 at 8 pm
golden circle $38
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Guy Lombardo's
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