The nature of happiness then becomes the central theme in “Generosity: An Enhancement,’’ Powers’s 10th novel and a relatively simply structured one compared with earlier efforts that even he has described as “idea-crazy.’’ Dubbed an enigmatic and prodigious brainiac by many, Powers from his very first novel, “Three Farmers On Their Way to a Dance’’ (1985) has loved in his fiction to hybridize disparate elements in different ways. “Prisoner’s Dilemma’’ (1988) juxtaposes Disney and nuclear warfare. “The Gold Bug Variations’’ (1991) ties together genetics, music, and computer science. “The Echo Maker’’ (2006) links neural impairment, topology, and sandhill cranes.
One is therefore not surprised to find in his new novel another eventual nod in the direction of genetics. Thassa’s joyful personality, her capacity to befriend anybody and everybody, becoming the cynosure of wider and wider attention.
Dubbed Miss Generosity by her classmates, a.k.a. “The Bliss Chick,’’ she becomes an enigmatic challenge to all, not excluding one morbid and out-of-control student, John Thornell, a huge, impassive lout whose clumsy attempted rape of the confident and psychically stronger woman is thwarted by what might best be called Thassa’s happiness, a sort of St. Maria Goretti theme in the novel that leads to the speculation that goodness and ethics are distinctly aligned with joy.
Eventually Thassa comes to the attention of not only the video journalist Tonia Schiff and her spadework film, “The Genie and the Genome,’’ but also to the notorious scientist and advocate for genetic enhancement, Thomas Kurton, a laboratory egghead and something of a dull stick-figure in the novel whose research leads him to describe his search for the genotype for happiness.
