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    Gain
    Gain
    Gain
    Audiobook17 hours

    Gain

    Written by Richard Powers

    Narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Gain braids together two stories on very different scales. In one, Laura Body, divorced mother of two and a real-estate agent in the small town of Lacewood, Illinois, plunges into a new existence when she learns that she has ovarian cancer. In the other, Clare Company, a soap manufacturer begun by three brothers in nineteenth-century Boston, grows over the course of a century and a half into an international consumer products conglomerate based in Laura's hometown. Clare's stunning growth reflects the kaleidoscopic history of America; Laura Body's life is changed forever by Clare. The novel's stunning conclusion reveals the countless invisible connections between the largest enterprises and the smallest lives.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateNov 16, 2018
    ISBN9781980016687
    Gain

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    Reviews for Gain

    4/5

    126 ratings8 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Between the Corporations and Cancer, this was the most depressing and boring Powers' book I have ever skim read.If not being read for the American Authors Challenge, it would have been Pearled at Page 37.
    • 4/5
      Two intersecting stories: the 150 years of the Clare corporation, from candles and soap to a a modern chemistry conglomerate, and not even a year of Laura from cancer diagnosis to death. This would be the perfect book for folks to read five hundred years in the future, to understand where we are now and how we got here.
    • 4/5
      Laura Bodey is a 42-year old divorced mother of two teenaged kids who is struggling to make ends meet as a real estate broker in the small Midwestern town of Lacewood, Illinois. She manages just fine most days, but when she contracts ovarian cancer everything in her life starts to spiral downward in a hurry. Clare International Inc. is a major multinational corporation that is headquartered in Boston but has located its agricultural chemicals division in Lacewood. The firm has been a model citizen for as long as anyone can remember, but recently there have been reports that Clare is responsible for the spread of toxic pollutants that may have contaminated the land and water around town. Is the company responsible for Laura’s illness and, if so, what should be the remedy?In Gain, Richard Powers continues his on-going exploration of the trends and events that have shaped modern American society. In fact, in the tradition of the sort of promotional campaign used by companies like Clare, the author gives the reader a two-for-one deal in story-telling: the rise of a major corporation from its origins as a family soap-maker in the early 1800s to its modern-day status as a major industrial conglomerate is intertwined with Laura’s heart-breaking personal tale of physical decline. In an interesting literary device, the novel is structured without chapter divisions by alternating between the two story lines—each more or less linear in its own time frame—until they converge in the present day.I enjoyed reading Gain and I learned a lot in the process, just as I have with every one of Powers’ other novels. Surprisingly, though, Laura’s sad plight did not quite resonate with me, perhaps because there was not enough time spent developing her background before she became ill. On the other hand, the way that the author animated the corporation as a fully realized character in its own right was nothing short of amazing, particularly for all the research and imagination it required to fit the details of Clare’s fictional existence into the historical circumstances that actually occurred over the 170-year arc of the tale. For the most part, this is an even-handed and realistic portrait of what is both good and potentially bad about the corporate form of business organization and that alone should make this novel well worth reading.
    • 4/5
      Beautifully constructed novel that may not capture everyone's attention, but kept me plowing head first. It's been a while since I read this and someone ran off with my copy, but it's certainly something I'd replace in order to read again.
    • 5/5
      Though I applauded Powers’ 2006 National Book Award win for Echo Maker, this is still my favorite novel by one of my favorite authors. Corporations have long been treated like individuals under the law and in this book, Powers has done the literary equivalent--a corporation as a living breathing character. One plot line follows the corporation from its humble beginnings in 19th century Boston to a multinational conglomerate, and the other plot line is the painful story of Laura Bodey who is facing a terminal illness. You know how the stories will collide from the beginning, but you enjoy every second of the journey. The history of this fictional corporation is the history of this country, from cute jingles to advertising savvy, from family ownership to shareholder control, and the consequence of the shifts of American capitalism are written horribly on Laura’s life.
    • 4/5
      Richard Power's 'Gain' justaposes the history of a modern multi-national corporation against a small town woman dying of ovarian cancer--a victim of the chemicals that that corporation has been seeding into the local ecology of her town for years. From it's founding as a soap and candle making manufactory in Boston Massachusetts in the early 19th Century--the Clare corporation is shown as it grows over the next century and a half + through science and also innovation and through the ruthless dog eat dog ideology that pushes it over the top of its competition--swallowing up those competitors which has it adding and diversifying its product lines. As the country grows westward following the newly built rail lines the Clare company will set up in small town Lacewoold Illinois centrally located between Chicago, Kansas City and Indianapolis and become immediately the most essential part of that town's economy. Over the years its residents will depend on the Clare corporation for their livelihoods and it will act as not only that town's main benefactor but as a symbol of their small town values of good citizenship.But there is the darker story that Powers describe following one of Lacewood's residents Laura Bodey who as it happens does not and has not worked for Clare but has been poisoned by some of Clare's pollution which has gotten into the local ecology. She as we find out is not the only victim and there is a class action suit against the company being waged in court and many of the plaintiffs work for Clare. The behemoth company of course is fighting them every step of the way. It points to its good citizenship--the local hospital for instance is a gift to the community from them. Laura's ex-husband Don wants her to join in the lawsuit against the company--sometimes arguing bitterly with her. Their children seem caught somewhere between numbness and incomprehension.It's an interesting story that Powers tells well. His description of the cancer treatments that Laura recieves--whether Chemo or radiation are particularly gripping and are realistically drawn. The book is worth reading just for them. Overall however there are some lapses. In mostly short passages he chronilogically updates the companies history offsetting it in likewise short passages running side by side with that history he details Laura's life, illness and eventual death connecting both in time at the end. Sadly this does not require a rather large leap of the imagination as a story such as corporate neglect of the enviroment leading to devastating effects on nearby localities have been all to frequent in the last century or so. Not all that many books about it though.As a writer I think Powers is much too creative to the point where he is incapable of writing a bad book. This may not be his best effort but it is certainly good and has enough intensity and imagination to carry the reader to the end. How that reader may look back at this one afterwards may have as much to do with their personal ideology than anything else. The attack on the corporate structures holding up America's economic well being are understated but they are still there. This novel is as much about people disappearing into a void at the expense of a consumption driven culture bent on kowtowing to wealth, power and ambition on the one end and the obsessive drive of consumers to realize themselves on the other.
    • 4/5
      Gain reminds me of a fictional A Civil Action. Big company being implicated in a cancer case. Except it's more complicated than that. In trying to describe Gain to anyone here's what I would say, "There are two stories being told. In the here and now is Laura, real estate agent, mother of two, divorced, just found out she has cancer. Simultaneously, there is the historical story of these soap making brothers who create a chemical conglomerate. The historical story is like a train from the past rushing towards the future, each chapter brings the giant closer to Laura's story until they collide disastrously. You switch back and forth between Laura (now) and the brothers (from the past)" In truth, the historical side is more complicated, scientifically written; the voice more impersonal & dry. It should be because it's recounting the rise of a company from its roots including the advances in science and the strategies of marketing, whereas Laura's part of the story is more intimate, emotional, warm and telling.
    • 4/5
      Powers' novel switches back and forth between two stories: that of the rise of the soap company Clare from a family-run business to a multinational corporation, and that of Laura Bodey, the woman living in a Clare factory town who discovers she has ovarian cancer. As the stories progress, that of the corporation becomes more and more familiar as an American success story, and that of Laura becomes more and more strange, with the detailing of her chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and her ultimate decision to stop treatment. Powers is painstakingly detailed in his descriptions of the "lives" of both corporation and woman, paying as much attention to Clare's changes in research and marketing as he does to the effects of Laura's cancer therapy. Laura's own story takes on the greatest urgency, and as I read, I found that the story of Clare was overwhelming in its mundanity (for someone who has heard much about corporate takeovers). But my response to this mundanity was affecting for me, as I thought about the fact that it is a lack of attention and monitoring of industry that has, in part, allowed corporations the incredible freedoms they have to do anything in the name of profit. A moving and sometimes overwhelming novel.