Playground by Richard Powers

Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024--San Antonio

Playground by Richard Powers was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and was longlisted for the Booker Prize.  It is a story spanning many years.  Two of the main characters meet and become best friends in an elite high school for gifted students--a Black young man from a separated family of limited means and a white young man whose family is wealthy.  They remain close friends as they continue their education at university where a third character is introduced--a young woman with Pacific Island heritage who both young men love.  In a second character stream is the story of a young woman whose father helped developed the aqualung--the first device to allow deep exploration of the oceans.  She fell in love with the ocean while young and started taking notes of what she observed.  Eventually, she majored in oceanography, although it wasn't easy for her to get admitted into the program.  And finally, she becomes famous from her films and books communicating what she has learned about the variety of life in the sea.  Over time, the two best friends have a falling out.  Both have shared a love of complex games such as chess and Go.  But during university, they both are attracted to the Pacific Islander which starts the conflict.  But the wealthy one also wants to become famous and make a fortune creating gaming programs while the other is more altruistic--concerned about the environment and global warming.  It's a bitter separation once it happens, and they do not communicate for decades.  In the meantime, the altruistic young man and the Pacific Islander have married and adopted two children and are living a quiet, peaceful life on a small island in the Southern Pacific.  It's an island that has been damaged in the past by colonial powers mining phosphate and leaving a long scar along most of the upper altitudes of the island.  Also living there is the famous oceanographer who is now retired along with about 80 other people.  Suddenly, a corporation is interested in investing in a project on the island--the highest in the Pacific and, therefore, the least likely to become completely submerged as water levels rise from global warming.  The citizens are told by the government that they have a right to decide whether the development will be allowed or not.  The plan is for a corporation to build modules to piece together to make floating islands for wealthy people wanting to escape both high taxes they pay by living where they currently do by living offshore and to escape the problems caused on land by rising seas.  For the island, it will mean the population growing back into a few thousand people as it was in the mining days and people on the island having good jobs.  But it will also mean that the simple, slow lifestyle they have enjoyed since the mines closed will come to an end.  Who is behind this venture?  How will the people living on the island vote?  What lies ahead for everyone either way?  It's a thoroughly enjoyable book although I became a bit confused toward the end.  Maybe reading that portion again would have made things more clear, but I didn't make the effort.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.