PLAYGROUND by Richard Powers

5 stars!

An astounding and astonishing new book by Powers, where he moves from the interconnected forest theme of The Overstory to the vast connectiveness and fragility of the ocean.

First: the backstories of the four main characters which get shared in highly disjointed narrative sprints. Two social awkward teens, Rafi and Todd, bond in high school first in playing Chess and then becoming obsessed with the ancient game of Go. Their competitive play bonds them, though Rafi is an abused kid from inner city Chicago and Todd from a wealthy if dysfunctional family.

They continue their friendship in college, with Rafi obsessed with literature and Todd with computer programming and nascent AI. At college, Rafi falls in love with Aroita, a Hawaiian college student who grew up in the South Pacific as her mother comes from Tahiti and who struggles to relate to Chicago culture.

They boys ultimately have a falling out over their own cultural divide and after Rafi lends some brilliant gamification ideas to Todd about a computer platform he’s designing called The Playground. A big part of the narrative is told by Todd, writing to an unknown “you,” decades post college after he’s become a billionaire off The Playground as well as after he’s been diagnosed with a rare form of dementia. The level of unreliability in the tale he shares is unclear.

Separately, Evelyne a young Canadian woman passionate about research diving expeditions has to fight her way into the boy’s club of ocean diving and academia. She writes a book full of stories of wonder of what she has seen while diving that inspires a generation of adolescents to fall in love with oceanography. She’s now in her 80’s and still lives to dive in the ocean.

All four characters converge on a remote French Polynesian island, Makatea, which has been scarred by intense phosphate mining decades earlier and only has 82 current residents. They all face a contentious vote on whether to allow an ocean seeding project of sea-worthy autonomous pod cities to be constructed and launched from their island.

Woven throughout their stories are a look at evolutions: from pristine oceans to plastic garbage and chemicals that are threatening and being to kill all the biodiversity; from the earliest computers to advanced AI and what role technology will play in the future of both humanity and the world; from independent South Pacific islanders to pawns in global politics. What will it take to save the environment, ocean, humanity and ultimately the Earth? Powers implores us with poetic reverences to turn the tides.

Thanks to W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.