Operation Wandering Soul Summary
Richard Powers

Everything you need to understand or teach Operation Wandering Soul by Richard Powers.

  • Operation Wandering Soul Summary & Study Guide
  • 4 Literature Criticisms
  • ...and more

Operation Wandering Soul Summary

A major thrust of this novel is that even in the face of incredible adversity, humans work together to make what they can of their situations, however impossible those situations may seem.

By focusing on the children's ward in a hospital that continually confronts most of the social predicaments and upheavals that afflict contemporary society, Powers reveals in vivid, realistic terms an ugly underbelly of modern civilization whose existence most people would prefer to overlook.

Powers helps readers understand this seeming unconcern by demonstrating that, ironically, it is Richard Kraft's sensitivity that fuels his seeming insensitivity: Richard Kraft is afraid to expose himself emotionally to a situation that, as both a human and a physician, he deplores yet can usually deal with only palliatively. He wants to cure his patients, to send them home whole, but he can not. A theme of powerlessness pervades the novel but this...

(read more from the Short Guide)

Study Pack

The Operation Wandering Soul Study Pack contains:

Operation Wandering Soul Short Guide

You might also be interested in: