
Playground
A Novel
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By:
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Richard Powers
A magisterial new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory and Bewilderment.
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.
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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I didn’t care for the readers of the book. For some, the inflections seemed off and almost comical. I found that very distracting. In the beginning, it almost made me stop reading the book. I persevered simply because of the topic, and I’m so glad that I did.
What a tremendous story
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An outstanding ending
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Loved
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A masterful tapestry!
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Apart, they each achieve success in their respective fields, but it’s clear their former friendship and its dissolution haunts Todd, whose POV leads the story…sort of. Todd is a tech billionaire and leader in AI who struggles to build and maintain human connections after a sad and emotionally stunted childhood. As he faces a terminal prognosis, Todd tells his life story. Rafi was his friend in high school and college, struggling to build his own identity against the high expectations of a mother who doesn’t understand him and a father who sees his son as a means to right racial wrongs. Ina is the young woman who enters their lives as a love interest for Rafi and friend/competitor/potential love for Todd. Meanwhile, in another place and time, Evie the French Canadian diver, author and ocean scientist builds a life that will influence millions to think about the ocean and all of its fascinating inhabitants.
And here is where the story gets more complicated. Three timelines unfold, and it can be challenging to see how all the storylines will eventually link together. You start to wonder if all of these stories are real. You start to wonder how Todd’s research in deep generative AI may be influencing this story. It bends your brain a little. More questions abound — can anything be owned — AI, the ocean, people’s loyalty? What is the distinction between art and science? How can smart people make choices that alienate them while they yearn for connection? What is real, and what is the story we are telling ourselves? How do we accept the vulnerability that is needed to really be known by others? Why do we compete with the ones we love? Who determines our fate?
Playground opens with a creation story. Playground ends with a burial at sea, among a land of living and ghosts. The beginning and the end. While so much of the ending twists and — who’s dead, who’s alive, are we even in French Polynesia, is the 3rd timeline real, etc. — are still a little unresolved to me, I loved this book. And while it feels like a warning about AI and climate change, what I really loved about this novel were the deeply held and very human relationships at the core of the stories. Evie and Bart, but especially Rafi and Todd. This story kept me thinking and questioning and going online to get perspectives about what really (or didn’t really) happen.
Note on audio vs physical book: I listened to the audio book and while I loved the narrators, I do think reading the book to see what was italicized and what was not would have helped me see the upcoming plot twist about POV and the creation of the story earlier perhaps.
Such an interesting and thought-provoking story
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Brilliant
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Better to Read Than Listen
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Brilliant Novel- Horrible Production
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Put your thinking cap on!
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Just stunning and thought provoking
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