Playground (2024) by Richard Powers

 Book Review

Playground (2024)

by Richard Powers

   I like Richard Powers but I don't love him.  In many ways he's one of the last old white men if American fiction- he's managed to avoid irrelevance by winning major literary prizes and writing fiction that is broadly appealing to the biggest possible audience for literary fiction while changing things up enough to avoid charges that he is repeating himself or running out of new ideas.  One hallmark of Powers' fiction is his repeated ability to introduce non-fiction subjects into his prose:  Ecology, AI or, in Playground, the wonders of the oceans.  The weaving together of science and literary fiction is the essence of Powers and his appeal.  For me, his books are hit and miss.  Yes, I enjoyed The Overstory, but only read it after it won the Pulitzer Prize because "Richard Powers writes about trees" didn't sound interesting.  Afterward, I didn't regret reading it but I never think about it, talk about it or recommend it to anyone.

  Similarly,  I wasn't annoyed or uncomfortable reading Playground but nor was I ever compelled or emotionally triggered by the characters or the story.  Playground isn't a book I'll revisit and I really do doubt it's going to win a major literary award.  It got weeded out at the shortlist stage by the Booker Prize this year, which makes sense to me.