He may be a novelist for the people (more in the Lewis/Dreiser sense, which he specifically referenced in "Gain"), but one of the reasons critics ignore this is that, well, they all love Powers, but why draw attention to the fact that he writes subpar dialogue (without contractions!)? Though major props to him for confronting this problem directly with his last two books. I think he'll lick this problem in the next two books. And then he'll be unstoppable.