Playground by Richard Powers

I had already committed to review Playground by Richard Powers for The Miramichi Reader when it was announced that Playground was long-listed for the 2024 Booker Prize. I’ve been reading the entire Booker longlist for a few years now, and was not only pleased to have read others on the list already – Held by Anne Michaels, which I reviewed for TMR in the fall, was also long-listed! — but to have one of the longlist titles that hadn’t been published yet already on my desk? Exciting! And also made me a little smug because I felt like I had good selection skills (this was not a stab in the dark, Powers has been nominated for the Booker twice before).

All of this is to say that I read Playground with an eye for how it was worthy to be on the Booker longlist. This is a far more critical lens than I normally use for most books I read. I expect books nominated for the Booker, one of the most prestigious literary prizes, to be doing something unique and ground-breaking in fiction. Even if a book falls short of this, it doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. It simply means it did not meet this other, very high standard.

As Powers is a multi-nominee for the Booker, I expect a lot. I didn’t think Bewilderment, his previous novel and shortlisted for the Booker, was particularly worthy of that honour (and in fact, I had some major issues with it). Playground, on the other hand, is a far more interesting novel, with a more compelling story, a much cleverer format, and was generally a better book.

Tech mogul Todd has been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, and has begun to sort his affairs, while he still remembers. And in sorting his affairs, he begins to reflect on his life, as the son of a wealthy man, an empire builder in his own right, his childhood dream of working with the ocean — and of the most influential relationship of his life, that of his friend Rafi, who he hasn’t seen in decades after a betrayal and falling out. Across the world, Rafi is living on the island of Makatea, part of French Polynesia, with his wife Ina — the girl both he and Todd had once fallen in love with, and their friendship had managed to weather even that — and their two children.

The narrative is told in three parts: Todd recording his memories, Rafi living his life, and the story of diver and marine biologist Evie Beaulieu, whose life not only inspired Todd but will come to intersect with both his and Rafi’s in an unexpected way. This is a well-balanced book, despite the oddity of Evie’s story interspersed among Todd’s and Rafi’s. The best books make you want to know, and I had to know where this was going: what was the betrayal, what did Todd need to do before he dies. Powers borrows considerably from current headlines — you will easily recognize parts of the story drawing inspiration from our current world. This tiptoes on the edge of being too topical, but never quite jumps over the line; Powers manages to redirect the story back to what he wants to do, rather than distracting with the obvious inspirations.

With all that said, is Playground Booker-worthy? I think it could be on the cusp of the shortlist for a few reasons: it’s timely and topical, and unlike my preferred Booker nominees in the past, is heavier on plot, and that may move it forward. I haven’t finished reading the whole longlist, so I’ll reserve my final judgement for later. I have regularly differed from the judges on Powers’ work! Though this time, I was swept into the excellent execution of this novel on friendship and betrayal, colonialism and climate change. One of my criticisms of Bewilderment was how heavy-handed it was, and Playground does have more nuance in its storytelling. We’ll see if it moves forward in the Booker process.

Richard Powers is the bestselling author of Bewilderment, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; The Overstory, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the William Dean Howells Medal, and a finalist for the Booker Prize; and The Echo Maker, winner of the National Book Award for Fiction. Powers is also the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the Pushcart Prize, among other accolades.

Publisher: Penguin Random House (September 24, 2024)
Hardcover 9″ x 6″ | 400 pages
ISBN: 9781039011557

Alison Manley

Website

Alison Manley has ricocheted between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for most of her life. Now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Saint Mary's University. Her past life includes a long stint as a hospital librarian on the banks of the mighty Miramichi River. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. While she's adamant that her love of reading has nothing to do with her work, her ability to consume large amounts of information very quickly sure is helpful. She is often identified by her very red lipstick, and lives with her partner Brett and cat, Toasted Marshmallow.