It is, in part, a novel about the anxiety of family life on a damaged planet, and for that, I'm indebted to writers as varied as Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, Evan Dara, Don Delillo, and Lauren Groff.

"[5] Dwight Garner of The New York Times characterized it as a book about "ecological salvation" with a "nubbly sentimentality" but said it "is so meek, saccharine and overweening in its piety about nature that even a teaspoon of it numbs the mind.

"[8] Publishers Weekly compared the novel to Flowers for Algernon and wrote, "The planetary descriptions grow a bit repetitive and don't gain narrative traction, but in the end, Powers transforms the wrenching story into something sublime.

But if Theo's other relationships remain one-dimensional, the connection between father and son has greater density and texture, as does Robin's urgent and unbridled passion for the natural world.

[14] In January 2021, Variety reported that Black Bear Pictures and Plan B Entertainment acquired the feature film rights to Bewilderment after a competitive bidding process.