Playground: A Novel
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 on 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 to 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.
Set in the world's largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.
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Community Reviews
What’s it about?
Todd Keane and Rafi Young meet at St. Ignacius High School in Chicago. They are an unlikely pair that bond over games. They become roommates at the University of Illinois where they each pursue their separate passions. Rafi loves literature and poetry while Todd pursues a life in the emerging computer field. Their stories are intertwined with several other storylines to create this novel.
What did it make me think about?
Hope.
Should I read it?
The myriad of ideas in this story! Ideas about human nature, love, friendship, tech, the earth, the ocean, our relationship to the environment, the importance of play, games, God… so many ideas to explore in this novel. Book clubs will have a heyday with this novel. I loved The Overstory so the bar was set high for this book- and I was not disappointed. The fact that Richard Powers situates part of the novel at my alma mater, the University of Illinois, added to my enjoyment. Something about being able to picture the buildings and places he writes about gave this story an extra layer for me. Richard Powers weaves disparate stories together and makes magic again. Many will categorize this book as thought-provoking but I also found it an enjoyable read. This novel will for sure be one of my favorite books of 2024! Oskee-wow-wow Illinois!
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“How so many users found our site so fast still mystifies me. But why they stayed was obvious. We humans are built to compete, built to spout opinions, built to seek prestige and shiny, built to watch our accounts and ratings grow, built to impress our friends and vanquish our enemies. Or maybe we’re just built to play.”
“Years of study had convinced Evelyne that mantas were far smarter than the world suspected. She had spent too many decades of close observation to be cowed any longer by the prohibition against anthropomorphism. What began, centuries ago, as a healthy safeguard against projection had become an insidious contributor to human exceptionalism, the belief that nothing else on Earth was like us in any way. At her age, Evelyne Beaulieu had no more time for demure self-censorship. A good empiricist, she felt no qualms about giving the behavior in front of her a name. The way the Loner toyed with her air bubbles was clear enough. Call it what the evidence suggested. Call it what it looked like: the giant bird-fish was playing.”
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