This was a slower read, one to savour, but I thought it was excellent. I appreciated the vivid descriptions of life beneath the surface of the ocean. It was well-crafted and powerful. I'm glad I read it!

A literary love triangle that tackles environmental change, the beauty of the ocean and more in this new compelling literary fiction story from the best-selling author of The overstory. While this didn't make it to the top of my favorite reads by this author, it was still enjoyable and thought-provoking. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

A fascinating book, linking four different characters in the setting of the Polynesian island of Makatea, with the island's residents decision making in regard to a technology new to them. Well worth the read.

I’m absolutely stunned. The storytelling in this novel is nothing short of remarkable. The author seamlessly weaves science, technology and emotion into a mesmerizing narrative. It’s a thought-provoking exploration of the intersection between childhood wonder, environmental responsibility, and the rise of artificial intelligence.

A playground is defined as a place where people gather to enjoy themselves. Through the lives of Ina, Rafi, Evelyne and Todd, the author paints a sobering picture of how humanity has turned the earth, the oceans, and even technology into playgrounds, often to our own detriment. What is particularly interesting about this story is how timely it is.

The narrative is very fragmented, but it all comes together in a stunning conclusion. The vividness of the prose, the satire and the marvel of the ocean are all hallmarks of the novel, yet so is subtlety. That’s a difficult combination to get right.

Set mostly around the ocean and a small Pacific atoll called Makatea, the story centres around a computer program that seems to be an amalgam of several popular social media apps and how it unnecessarily complicates the lives of humans while making its creator very wealthy. When you contrast this with the simplicity of the lives of the people living on the atoll, the difference is staggering.

This book is both a celebration of imagination and a warning against environmental destruction. I think this is a must read and will leave you reflecting for long after you have finished. This is one of those stories that stays with you.

I haven’t read any of Powers’ other books to compare and I know there is a lot of frustration that this book was not released at the time the Booker long list was announced and still wasn’t released at the time of the short list announcement, but let me just say, it’s worth the wait. Also, I love that there is a Canadian character.


Thank you so much to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for the ARC.

Like the Overstory, Playground held me in its thrall from beginning to end with its finely rendered characters, thought-provoking ideas, and awe-inspiring descriptions. I devoured it and plan to buy a hard copy to reread (likely more than once), pencil in hand.

I will be urging anyone who's in the mood for a complex, far-reaching story to pick this one up.

Thanks very much to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read a digital ARC of Playground in advance of publication.

A sweeping saga about friendship, technology, futurities and the ocean. I really enjoyed a lot about this book - I've not read Richard Powers before, but I'd heard great things about his nature writing and was not disappointed. This may or may not have sparked in me a latent desire to become a marin biologist... I've been perfectly happy to just read an entire book about Evelyn. The Todd/Rafi/Ina felt very Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, except that I felt like I was missing key information the entire time. Maybe because it took me a month to read and I'd simply forgotten, or perhaps the holes left to build intrigue and suspense were too large.

All four stories began wearing together in earnest, at about the 70% mark, and then the twist ending? Resulted in more confusion than surprise.

I don't know who missed the point here, me or Powers. Very possibly me, but then, my lasting thought while turning the final page was 'yeah, this book was definitely written by a white man.'

Grateful to have recieved an e-arc to read and review, and to have a new hyperfixation on deep-ocean creatures to lean in to.

BOOKER PRIZE LONGLIST 2024

PLAYGROUND by Richard Powers

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I have thoroughly enjoyed the three Powers novels I have read up until this point (THE ECHO MAKER, THE OVERSTORY and BEWILDERMENT) although the last of these felt a bit twee in hindsight). Aside from being a masterful storyteller, whose prose (especially of natural subjects) is absolutely entrancing, I find Powers engagement with his subject matters admirable. His novels (including those I haven’t read) are deep dives into big issues, whether technology, artificial intelligence or the environmental impact of capitalism. And while current literary fashion tends to eschew the polemical and overtly political novel, Powers is a bit of a relic, very much using his work as tools of persuasion. He wants his readers to feel the consequences of environmental degradation, even if maybe it can feel nihilistic at times.

Powers also has become a prize magnet. Granted a MacArthur fellowship quite young, his books have been listed for all the big English language prizes, winning the National Book Award for THE ECHO MAKER and winning the Pulitzer Prize for THE OVERSTORY. The Booker Prize has also embraced Powers, longlisting him for ORFEO and shortlisting him twice for THE OVERSTORY and BEWILDERMENT. So not especially shocking that he once again appears on this year’s longlist.

Like his tree book, PLAYGROUND follows several storylines. The most prominent are those of Evelyn, a deep-sea diver, and Todd, a tech billionaire whose days are numbered. Evelyn’s recounts a life of shattered obstacles to become the predominant documenter of oceanic life, an accomplishment that comes at a great cost to her family and her self. Todd, who despite great professional and financial success, recounts his regret to an AI machine of his own creation, telling of his friendship with Rafi, a Black classmate, who bonds with Todd over games of Chess and Go. Todd cannot escape the lingering pain of the dramatic end to their decade-long friendship, after Ina, a woman Rafi has fallen in love with, tests the deeply personal confidences that Todd knows about his pal. Decades later, on the remote Polynesian island of Makatea, a long abandoned French colony, the eighty-two remaining residents (who include Rafi, Ina and Evelyn), must decide whether to trust another development plan that could rescue the island from a slow decay, a plan of Todd’s devising.

Powers does not shy away from ambition and audaciousness in his work. He shows off his writing and he uses his skill to deal with pressing questions that are facing us. In PLAYGROUND, he tackles zeitgeisty issues of artificial intelligence and the destruction of our oceans and does so in an utterly engrossing and captivating way. PLAYGROUND is not a treatise, but it is a powerful evocation of the natural beauty of our world, especially its oceanic mass that covers most of the planet and whose mysteries and magic lie well beyond most human’s observations. The sentences Powers construct, especially for Evelyn’s sections, are luminous, with one scene involving a cuttlefish that is mind-blowing in its vividness and colour. That beauty has already suffered at the hands of development and industry, but Powers offers not pat answers on how we protect it from further harm, especially in the economic systems that dominate the planet.

Powers doesn’t necessarily do everything to this level of excellence. His discussions of race and gender are not necessarily clumsy but they may lack some nuance.

That said, PLAYGROUND is an absolute tour de force, a gorgeously written novel that tackles huge questions and that was a pleasure to read. I can’t imagine it not making the shortlist and potentially winning.

Thank you to @netgalley and @penguinrandomca for an advanced copy of this novel, which comes out later this month.

#bookerprize #bookstagramreadsthebooker #bookerprizelonglist #americanliterature #bookprizes #fiction #literaryfiction #books

Playground goes to unpredictable places. Powers introduces a number of characters and part of the joy is finding how they meet and what happens afterwards. A couple remain 'disjointed' only in that they might come in the same orbit as others, but not interact in a way that seems conclusive. But Playground, like life, doesn't necessarily make things neat.
The introduction of the idea of AI feels added on near the end of the book. And yet, inevitable.

In the end, this was an enjoyable read. Tighter than The Overstory. It left me feeling very much the same as when I finished Galatea 2.2. Not just in ideas, but in tone and movement.

I always appreciate Richard Powers’ nature writing, his descriptive prose, and his awe of the natural world. There were many beautiful passages in this novel that showed the peak of his skill. Unfortunately, much of what I’ve disliked about his writing in the past was also here. It’s maybe less artlessly didactic than The Overstory and Bewilderment, but there are still, say, passages of a character’s book about the ocean dropped in to teach us about cool sea creatures. I found a lot of this novel unconvincing, particularly the characters. I’m not sure I understand people in the same way that Powers does, because I found their relationships, motivations, and ways of speaking difficult to buy into. (Yes, the dialogue is pretty bad.) This is set in the year future - I think 2027, if my math is right - and Powers seems to be really overestimating the capabilities of AI. The website that Todd creates - a robust, advanced social networking site launched in the early 90s - stretches belief and feels ahistorical. Finally, the treatment of race - and, to a lesser extent, gender - does feel a bit retrograde. I appreciate Powers’ worldview and perspective, but when it comes down the details it doesn’t add up for me.

Delighted to include this title in the September edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national lifestyle and culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)