The Gold Bug Variations

What do you get if you smash together information science, genetics, some Bach, some computer programming and a dash of cryptography? An intensely smart novel that only Richard Powers could write. Data retrieval, translation, pattern recognition and puzzle solving is all over this story, where librarians, system administrators, scientists and art historians mingle to create this double helix of love stories. Bach's Goldberg Variations are the red thread leading us through this partial mystery, and are also hidden in the structure of the story telling. As always with Powers the information content is high, but his protagonists and the plot still get front stage. Most of the time at least. Sometimes he goes off on inspired tangents on the nature of DNA and code and information at large, but these lengthy segments are too overloaded with wild associations and smart language riddles, that it's hard to follow. The first half of the book was easy, the second half a bit less.