Rating: 
Summary: Not for all tastes
Review: It's rare that I truly despise a novel, but that's the case with Prisoner's Dilemma. Powers is so steeped in the intellectual tenets of his "novel of ideas" that he seems to have had no time to spare for things like character and plot development. The result is pretension babble uttered by a collection of stick figures.
Rating: 
Summary: Individual striving run amok
Review: Taking its title (and part of its story) from the well known group dynamics exercise of the same name, this novel asks us to examine what extreme individualism and self-sufficiency has done to our modern world. It beautifully examines the disintegration of one man as he recognizes the limits of personal initiative and education and the corrosive effect this disintegration has on his family. In a time when our so-called leaders play to our basest and most selfish instincts, this novel asks us to see the real need we have to be able trust each other and work cooperatively for the common good. Powers delivers this message in a fascinating and cleverly written work with complex characters with which we can identify and about whom we care. This is a book well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: We Must TRUST One Another Or Die.
Review: There is no better way to sum up this novel than to steal from W.H. Auden. The first time through this book, I knew there was a wealth of power and beauty hiding underneath it. Perhaps this is a novel that you have to read at a vulnerable time. Perhaps events such as September 11th compel me to say to those of you who will read this review in the future "Read this book to someone you love and weep with them for the world we now inhabit. We have relinquished our own ability to see the magic inherent in the world." If, during the Grand Inquisitor scene in The Brothers Karamazov, Jesus deigned to respond to the questioner, this is perhaps what he would have said. It is a novel that attempts to free us from the gated enclaves of the suburbs, the fear and nightmare of double deadbolts, the paranoia of opening mail. Eddie Hobson, Sr. is a man who feels that he must take on the burden of everyone else's mistrust, no matter the personal consequences. He is reduced to speaking in symbols, the better to convey all the aching meaning he feels for his family and the world. He, who is the least physically able, warps his entire family to his side, forcing them to relive his transformation from naive child of the midwest to one who has seen the Brave New World brought about by anonymous men in secret offices. This novel is multi-layered, complex, and deep in ways that make this, IMHO of course, the best explanation of the American Experience since WWII. It's better than Delillo's Underworld by quite a way, and if, you want to escape from the realizations Powers forces upon you, there's always Chapter 11. Everyone's had their own version of Chapter 11, and it is gorgeous. I wanted to call people last night while reading it, just to share the wonder and beauty of it with someone. Fantastic novel, fantastic author, this book chides us with the realization that the only way out of the self-imposed isolation we've managed to hide ourselves in is to fight it every day.
Rating:
Summary: A Waste of Time
Review: This book is terrible. I read it for my book club and everyone thought the first 100 pages were unengaging. I felt that none of the characters were interesting and only about halfway through the novel felt that the book was worthy of a second thought. That feeling dissipated however after further reading. There is no climax in the novel and thus the ending does little to satisfy the reader. Skip this book, and read Powers' vastly superior Gold Bug instead.
Rating:
Summary: A Waste of Time
Review: This book is terrible. I read it for my book club and everyone thought the first 100 pages were unengaging. I felt that none of the characters were interesting and only about halfway through the novel felt that the book was worthy of a second thought. That feeling dissipated however after further reading. There is no climax in the novel and thus the ending does little to satisfy the reader. Skip this book, and read Powers' vastly superior Gold Bug instead.
Rating:
Summary: Powers guides the reader to an epiphany
Review: This book seems, for quite a while, to be more modest, more confined to interpersonal relations than Powers' other books. Then, suddenly, the reader's mind explodes with the realization of just what the Prisoner's Dilemma is, the realization of the scale of the human problem that Powers wants us--and the characters of the family that are the novel--to confront. This book is not light, casual entertainment, despite the humor that enters throughout. It is a book one cannot forget.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing Novel of Ideas
Review: We can only hope that Powers can one day surpass his wonderfully brilliant Gold Bug variations, but this may be his second best book. The romantic strands and existential depth of this work are more like Gold Bug than that more intellectual, analytic and distanced treatments of Galatea and Gain. There is a real humanity to this book, while the characters struggle with the meaning of life, especially one life, swimming in (or against) the tide of history. Powers is not for all tastes because he engages one at the level of ideas (as well). But if you like that stuff, I'd first get Gold Bug, but then I'd choose this.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing Novel of Ideas
Review: We can only hope that Powers can one day surpass his wonderfully brilliant Gold Bug variations, but this may be his second best book. The romantic strands and existential depth of this work are more like Gold Bug than that more intellectual, analytic and distanced treatments of Galatea and Gain. There is a real humanity to this book, while the characters struggle with the meaning of life, especially one life, swimming in (or against) the tide of history. Powers is not for all tastes because he engages one at the level of ideas (as well). But if you like that stuff, I'd first get Gold Bug, but then I'd choose this.
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