Hearing America Singing in the Lives of One Family

“Hearing America Singing in the Lives of One Family,” a review of The Time of Our Singing, by Dan Cryer, Newday, January 22, 2003.

There has never been any doubt about Richard Powers’ bold ambition. When minimalism was all the rage in the ’80s, this writer dared to think big. In his very first novel, “Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance” (1985), he married the untamed imagination of Thomas Pynchon, the intellectual firepower of Saul Bellow and the vivid storytelling of John Irving.

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Powers is an authentic American original. His latest book, “The Time of Their Singing,” filled to the brim with passion, is not only one of the best novels ever written about race in America but one of the best ever written about the joys of music….