At the most basic level, Convergence is a cautionary tale about four young researchers pursuing a career in the field of Neuroscience. Against the backdrop of scientific endeavor, the novel highlights some of the barriers that can exist in the transition period between graduate school and long-term academic success.
Although scientific method and discovery play an essential role in each story, greater emphasis is placed on the interactions between the personalities involved. Indeed, Convergence is more about how four personal journeys are bound together by common experiences and reoccurring themes.
The four main characters are located in culturally and geographically different regions of the US, allowing for a diversity of backdrops as their stories unfold, with Angela Sun (of Asian origin) located in New York, Callie Piaz (of Central American origin) located in Corpus Christi, Bridget Desai (of Indian descent) located in San Diego, and Tamaria Keswick (a Caucasian American) located in San Francisco. They all come from impoverished backgrounds and have had to battle hard just to gain access to higher education, let alone pursue advanced degrees and develop their careers thereafter.
The four protagonists are strong-willed but battle-weary. They are very creative but their search for success through honest endeavor is constantly undermined as they encounter unimaginable set-backs and fall foul to unscrupulous colleagues.
Although the hidden agendas of their adversaries are eventually exposed, the progress of their respective careers remains in doubt right up to the end. To undo the injustices they believe each of them has suffered, they are forced to take a huge risk that could easily be the ruin of them all.
Binding these stories together is The Narrator, a man with a dubious background, who comes to the attention of a journalist, The Reporter. Although literary purists will likely frown at this plot device, as the novel evolves the reason not to give these characters names becomes obvious, when readers realize they represent the internal dialog of the author, thus revealing a hidden depth to Convergence. The Reporter starts out investigating him but finds he has quite a different story to tell, four in fact, each one about a woman seemingly unrelated to the other three. As he retraces the career paths of the four women, she begins to sense that the empathy he displays for their plight might not be mere coincidence.
Just what connects the Narrator to the four young scientists is never clear but the Reporter doggedly stays with each story right to the end, only to discover something altogether more damning and unsettling. If she can answer the questions raised by this new development it may lead to the ultimate truth, which is exactly the direction Convergence takes each reader, right up to the very last sentence.
The novel is part cautionary tale, part perilous journey, part treachery and subterfuge, part overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds, and is told essentially as a trilogy. There are rich details that fill out the four main characters, giving each story a unique quality. However, there are overlapping issues that bind the four women and the Narrator together, giving the novel a very consistent theme that threads its way through the book.
The book can easily be enjoyed at the literal level but there may be some who wish to embrace the more allegorical nature of the novel, which the author hopes will be the case. Whatever reason you chose to read this book, the author challenges the reader to take the same journey as each of the four women.
Convergence
Synopsis
Convergence combines career advice with commercial fiction in a novel about 4 young scientists striving for academic success. Each journey takes many twists and turns as these researchers make significant discoveries, under impossible conditions, while dealing with unscrupulous colleagues. To keep their careers alive, however, they are in the end forced to consider something that would normally be unthinkable. What directions each of them end up taking may not only define their character but ultimately determine their destiny.
