SOURCE: "The Assault on Children," in The New York Times Book Review, July 18, 1993, p. 19.

Wolitzer is an American writer whose works include Hidden Pictures (1986). In the following review, she offers a mixed assessment of Operation Wandering Soul, praising Powers's writing style and narrative structure while finding his characters emotionally unengaging.

In every reader's mental library, there are books that are remembered with admiration and books that are remembered with love. Those in the first category involve the intricate play of language, while those in the second rely on language to support a host of strong and resonant characters.

According to these fast and loose definitions, Richard Powers's sprawling new novel, Operation Wandering Soul, is firmly planted in the first category. This book is not easy to love. It isn't seductive, and its characters don't spring quickly to life. Instead, Mr. Powers offers a devastating phantasmagoria of words and...