what we read: Richard Powers Messes with Our Heads. Plus SPOILERS.

Title: Playground

Author: Richard Powers

First things first. If you have not yet read this book or are in the middle of it, stop reading this post right now as it's filled with spoilers.

Now, on to the book. Here's what the publisher has to say about Playground:

"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."

Insights and Opinions

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you wake up mad at your mate because of something they didn’t do in real life? Or, maybe you had a testy conversation with someone you thought might be a little crazy but then you went home and thought maybe you were the crazy one? If yes, put yourself back in that state for the moment and you’ll experience what this month’s book club session was like.

For the first time in the 15 years we’ve been meeting, we found a book for which we could absolutely NOT agree at all on what takes place within its pages.

We'll start with those things on which we did agree.

Epic in what it attempts to cover, Playground weaves together the profound mysteries of life underwater, the climate crisis, the promise and threat of generative AI, the pain of Polynesian history, and the human themes of loss and regeneration. There is perhaps more here than one book can hold, but that doesn’t keep Powers from trying.

As he did so successfully in his masterwork The Overstory, Powers spends the first two-thirds of the book providing back story on each of his main characters. As readers, we know he’ll tie together all of these threads eventually, but impatience starts to set in about page 150. Not to worry. His loose threads form a complete, wondrous tapestry in the final pages, but you really do have to wait until the last 15 pages to get there.

Powers' prose is both clean and magical at the same time. He'll give us the simple:

"The island rose like a hatbox floating on the waves."

And then the sublime, as Evie watches a cuttlefish dance:

"She thought of a violinist she had seen once, decades ago, on a summer's day in the open plaza in front of Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, wrestling with Bach's massive Chaconne the way Jacob wrestled with the angel, as if the fate of the world depended on it. The cuttlefish concert unfolded in the same profound way. Sequences shifted in both series and parallel. Melodies built up in virtuosic counterpoint. Chords of color shot forth in profound progressions -- stabs of sharp yellow, a suite of brownish purples fading toward a deep and muted blue."

The dude knows his way around a metaphor.

Another example is the story of the symbiotic relationship between the shrimp and the goby. The goby sits at the entrance of the shrimp's burrow, maintaining a constant vigil against predators while the shrimp clears gravel from the burrow. Powers uses this as a delightful metaphor for the relationship between Evie and her husband, the rare man who is able to make a meaningful life for himself and the children while his wife pursues her important work someplace else in the world.

His powers as a writer are formidable. Although this work is clearly built upon a massive amount of research, the research never intrudes. He puts the reader squarely on the mine-scarred island catching crabs, under the sea exploring the reefs threatened by rising sea temperatures, into the "infinite game" of the social world of Playground, and deep into the complex relationship between childhood friends Todd and Rafi. He describes the indescribable.

Todd's realization in the final pages is one we should all pay attention to. Standing on a high ridge on the island of Makatea and looking out over the endless sea, even within his dementia ravaged mind, he sees it for what it really is. "It's a great discovery, one that eluded him until this moment. The people here do not live on a tiny, isolated island. They live on a road-crossed, crop-filled ocean bigger than all the continents combined."

Now we get to the sticky part, the place where it all fell apart. (Important side note: the file containing my session notes is corrupt so I have to do this from memory). We did not agree at all about what actually happened in this book.

Jocey: What does everybody think about the ending? Who was Todd talking to?

Liz: He was talking to the fourth generation AI.

Steve: I feel like Powers was playing a trick on the reader. That most of this story was told by the AI.

Margy: Was he able to realize Rafi's dream that we would be able to bring people back from the dead?

Lois: Or has he conquered death by having AI finish the story?

Blanche: There's no way Todd could have reached the island on his own.

Several people: Rafi died in Urbana, Evie died in a freak diving accident, AI brought them all back to life as a story.

Liz: No. Rafi is alive and is on the island with Ina and the kids. Evie faked her own death and is alive on the island. Todd dies on the island after arriving on a self-piloting yacht. Todd is writing to the grandson AI of his original invention. All the main characters are alive to participate in Todd's funeral.

Then, everyone got all confused and the discussion went bananas.

Both Linda and Steve referenced reviews they'd read in which the reviewers had drawn their own mixed-up conclusions.

Bottom Line

This is clearly a book that deserves to be read twice. Read it the first time for the prose and the wonder and the surprises. Read it again to find the clues that are all there and then decide for yourself what really happened.

What We'll Read Next Time

For next month, we have both a reading selection and an assignment.

We will read The Puppets of Spelhorst and The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo. These are both books for young readers and are quick reads.

In addition, please come prepared with a list of your three most favorite books of all time. If we have time, we will share our lists with each other. There will be no fighting.