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)