The key to Powers' writing is to be found in his life. He was born in 1957 in Chicago and, while still a boy, discovered music. He trained in the cello and vocal music but also plays guitar, clarinet and saxophone.

In Understanding Richard Powers, American literature professor Joseph Dewey writes of Powers' ""restless curiosity". I suppose that's one way of describing his educational path which meandered through paleontology, oceanography and archaeology before choosing physics at the University of Illinois.

. . .He wrote his first novel in the early 1980s and several more since then and is considered one of the most important writers of his generation. It is that "aerial view", that sense of the connectedness of all things, that is his dominant concern in his life and writing. The Time of Our Singing embodies this very thing.

With this novel, Powers has penned a major monument to that journey that transcends the boundary of race as few novels ever do. He knows racism intimately, without having had to experience it himself. And, he is able to express that knowledge clearly and convincingly.

The novel is tragic because lives scarred by the dehumanization that is the core of racism are inevitably painful. Yet, such lives can be inextricably bound to pleasure in doing well against the odds, something each of the young Stroms achieves. Johan becomes a virtuoso of classical music, a driving force who cannot be ignored. Narrator Joseph achieves measurable success as his brother's accompanist and the bass in a groundbreaking early music vocal group. Ruth, who despite being a broken vessel, reunites the Stroms with the Daleys, becomes the founder of a miracle working school in Oakland.

But, this is not some fantasy written to promote up by their bootstraps mythology. The Stroms bear the wounds of being 'the wrong color' in America. Johan is a self-centered, self-destructive man who feels most alive during America's recurring race riots, which he comes to seek out. Conciliatory Joseph sacrifices himself to Johan's whims and never seems to realize his own worth. Ruth is like a horse, frightened as a colt, who will remain skittish ever after.

I considerJonathan Franzen's The Corrections an excellent literary examination of an American family. But, The Time of Our Singing is that and much, much more.

Note: This entry also appeared at Mac-a-ro-nies.