The Decade's Best Dedication
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The dedication of Richard Powers' "The Gold Bug Variations" may very well fulfill the same function that most book dedications do — thanking a loved one, an agent, a teacher or a person who served as an inspiration for the book. But no one knows. The dedication is in a code, which, according to Powers, remains unsolved but can be broken using a codex found in the final third of the book.
Maybe. Many readers have tried. Surely the person it is intended for understands its meaning, and appreciates it. As for all the readers who have been caught up in trying to break it, Powers gave them another reason to be drawn into the novel, an incentive to read the book closely and appreciate its details. And isn't that what good fiction is all about — creating a world enticing enough to amuse, engage and possibly enlighten?
— Jessica Chapel (jnc at flakmag dot com)
