In
Gain, Powers continues to explore the nature and significance of story that he focuses on very pointedly in
Galatea 2.2-- though one can, of course, make the case that it is a recurring preoccupation in most, if not all, of his novels. In
Galatea 2.2, the focus is on literary stories, and specifically fictions. In
Gain, it is on history. Indeed, for this novel Powers received the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Outstanding Historical Fiction from the Society of American Historians. Because that award has seldom been given to the sort of complexly conceived, postmodernist novels that Powers writes, its having been awarded to him does suggest that, in some ways,
Gainis one of his most straightforward and accessible works.
The novel chronicles the rise of Clare International, a chemical
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Citation: Kich, Martin. "Gain". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 April 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=21621, accessed 21 November 2024.]
