Playground
Richard Powers

I am near the conclusion of my summer reading of the 2024 Booker long list, and was thrilled to receive this audiobook for review. Many thanks to Spotify (edition not among the dropdown choices) and NetGalley.

Playground is Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Powers’ tour de force. A sprawling epic telling the stories of four main characters: French Canadian diver, oceanographer and conservationist Evie Beaulieu, French Polynesian Ina Aroita, and two life-long Chicagoan friends, writer Rafi Young and oceanographer turned tech guru Todd Keane, all coming together in the island of Makatea in the South Pacific.

It is a story of friendship, love, and life itself. The beauty of the ocean, as well as its corruption. The author delves into racism and sexism in the latter 20th century, as well as Western colonialism and exploitation of the Pacific Islands.

The story is complex, told in multiple POV’s across multiple timelines, and tackles broad, complicated subjects, all masterfully woven together in a brilliant, heartfelt tale. Definitely of my favorites for this year’s Booker prize.

The cast narration by Edoardo Ballerini (one of my favorites) et al on this Spotify audiobook was just excellent, an extra treat.

In Playground, Richard Powers explores themes that will not surprise anyone who has read some of his previous books: artificial intelligence,, climate change, the societal impacts of selfish development projects financed by wealthy investors, and the environment, among others. In this book, his focus is on the ocean, filled with incredibly beautiful and miraculous creatures but also increasingly with plastic detritus. Told through several characters and stories, it is not until the end of the book that they come together powerfully and somewhat unexpectedly. I both read and listened to this book and very much appreciate the narrators of the audio version, whose work greatly enhanced my experience. There is no question that Powers is one of our masters of literature and it is the force and beauty of his writing that elevates the book. He and I interacted occasionally when we both worked at the University of Illinois and it was fun to see some of the book set there, especially in the Main Library. But it is the ocean that is the star of Playground, with artificial intelligence cast in a major role. Playground has earned its place on the current Booker Prize long list.

Powers once again writes such a fun and expansive novel. The exploration of the sea, life and technology all woven together makes for a fun ride. At points you feel confused and not sure where the story is going but it all keeps on flowing. The ocean is at the center at the story of this story and present a very fun and thought invoking novel. Overall well written and the audiobook was a fantastic listen with the cast!

I received a free advanced copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Magnificent.

Truly.

Richard Powers can write, and in Playground the writing was not just powerful, but important. Not just a story for a reader, but a story for a human. Relevant. Thought provoking. Interesting. Get out a thesaurus and find every provocative word for a book - he hits them all.

Since this isn't a book report from middle school, I won't bother with a summary - but from the publisher:

"Four lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic new novel from Richard Powers, showcasing the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up in naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.

They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away."

As humans from the earliest of times, exploration is our drive. We want more. We want to know more. We want to do more. Richard Powers writes for the reader who in an age when so much is done for us, instead of by us, he takes us to the bottom of the ocean and we see a new world and new possibilities. And we feel. So much.

Seriously, please pay attention to the message of the material.

I was privileged to receive an audio arc of Playground from Netgalley and here is my true confession - I've been listening to audio since the 1980s and frequently the book plays while I'm living - doing my things, folding the laundry, walking the treadmill, taking out the trash. It's in my head, but not completely occupying my brain.

I know the power of a Powers novel (see what I did there???), and I deliberately started this audio in the evening, alone, sitting on the bed with no distractions. And, bam, I was submersed (ok, enough with the puns). The team who put together the audio book all deserve raises. Often it's a single narrator attempting to convey everything themselves - a hard task. This story got what it deserved - a full cast of talented voices who were spot on in their delivery. Kudos to Edoardo Ballerini, Robin Siegerman, Eunice Wong, Pun Bandhu, Krys Janae, and Kevin R. Free.

I plan to read this again when it's printed, but I really encourage you to also listen to the story on audio. It was stupendous.

I loved the last two books from Powers and thus was excited for this one, but it was a bit of a mixed bag for me. It largely follows two separate storylines, one of Evelyn and the other of Rafi/Todd. I liked both storylines but not necessarily together (and they do come together), as I found it a little jarring to go back and forth between them. I adored Evelyn and her storyline and the rhapsodic love of the ocean we see in her. And I loved the story of Rafi and Todd’s friendship, but missed those glorious passages about the ocean and its creatures while reading them. I also have questions about the ending. A couple things are revealed that make me think what we’re seeing is not what we thought, but I’m not sure if I missed something there. Definitely worth reading, but not my favorite from Powers.

I came into this with high expectations because I loved Overstory. Usually, that means the stage is set for disappointment. In this case, I was just completely charmed. It was everything I loved about Overstory.

Review copy provided by publisher.

The Overstory is one of my favorite novels of all time, and the perfectly-named Bewilderment was such an incredible disappointment that I was nervous about checking this one out. Luckily it seems like the course has been corrected. This is an amazing companion to The Overstory, focusing on the world's oceans rather than trees. While it's not quite as epic or far-reaching, it absolutely serves as a worthy successor. This time I felt like there was a bit too much jumping around from one POV to the other (especially at the beginning with extremely short chapters going from one place to another before you could get your footing) but definitely worth picking up.