The Gold Bug Variations

The Gold Bug Variations (1991), a contemporary novel by Richard Powers, follows three people over the span of nearly 30 years, and the trials they face in their quest to find love and to crack the genetic code. It received a nomination for the 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award for how it tackles love, music, science, and art. It was also a Times Magazine Book of the Year and a New York Times notable book. An international bestselling author, Powers is best known for writing deep, unusual, and memorable novels that explore the effects of modern science.

The main characters are Jan O’Deigh and Dr. Stuart Ressler. Jan is a research librarian working in Brooklyn. Stuart is a well-known geneticist. Though they love each other, things didn’t work out between them. The book’s narrative jumps between three major periods—1957, 1983, and 1985—to show what happened between them.

The book begins in 1985. Jan’s ex-boyfriend, Frank Todd, sends her a postcard telling her that their mutual friend, Stuart, is dead. Jan is devastated; she loved Stuart. He had a brilliant mind and offered so much to the field of genetics. His death is a heavy loss to the scientific community.



Jan can’t concentrate at work; she decides to quit to pursue genetics. She hopes that if she learns enough about genetics, she can continue Stuart’s work for him. At the very least, studying genetics is a way to feel closer to Stuart. Frank thinks it is a stupid idea to give up her stable career, but there is no talking to her.

The narrative then jumps back to 1983. Frank works nights at a computing company. One day, Stuart gets a job there. Stuart is smart and brilliant, and Frank can’t understand why he is happy working on a boring computer database project. He approaches Jan, asking her to find out everything she can about Stuart. What she discovers surprises them both.

Once, Stuart studied at the University of Illinois. He was one of the young scientists who almost cracked the genetic code and the way in which DNA encodes genetic information. As Frank and Jan obsess over Stuart’s past, they fall in love, and they are soon sleeping together. Jan leaves her steady boyfriend and moves in with Frank.



Everything goes well for a while, and they almost forget about Stuart. However, Frank is flighty and unreliable. He moves from one obsession to another all the time. His newest fascination is a virtually unknown 16th-century Flemish artist. Frank sees one painting and decides that he must know everything there is to know about this man. He abandons Jan and they don’t speak until he sends her the postcard in 1985.

The narrative then jumps back to the 1950s, when Stuart is a student at the University of Illinois. There on a research fellowship, he is part of a small, eclectic team working on the genetic code. Stuart cannot believe how fortunate he is to be there. If he can help crack the code, he will secure his place in the history books.

They are all excellent scientists from various backgrounds: Toveh, a war refugee; Karl, the introverted man who unofficially leads the team; Stuart’s neighbor, Tooney, a fun and sociable guy, hopes to bring Stuart out of his shell; Joe, a gifted computer programmer; Dan, who spends more time watching the news than studying; and Jeannette, who lives with a food engineer.



Jeannette and Stuart hit it off right away. Although Stuart is determined to crack the genetic code, he can’t stop thinking about Jeannette and he’s desperate to sleep with her. They have an affair, and they do everything they can to stop the team from finding out. Once they crack the code, Jeannette will leave her husband and they can be together.

Things don’t turn out the way Stuart expects. Although he has some ideas for cracking the code, Karl doesn’t like any of them. He tells Stuart to stop wasting time on silly ideas and focus on proper research. Before long, the team falls apart. Stuart, Toveh, and Jeannette work on one project, and the others work on their own ideas. When Karl and his sub-team hit a dead end, they realize that Stuart is on the right track. However, it is too late for the team, and the research project falls apart.

Once the project ends, Stuart continues to work on his own theories. Jeannette stays with her husband, leaving Stuart heartbroken. When Jan later meets Stuart at the library, she falls in love with him, but it doesn’t go anywhere. The novel ends with Jan reflecting on what truly matters in life, and how just one event can change the course of everything—which is rather like how DNA works.