2024 Booker Longlist - Playground

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Playground by Richard Powers (Hutchinson Heinemann)

[Anna]

I really enjoyed the book, but found it a little too polished in places - as if the characters were a little too pure for reality. I was really hoping it would be on the longlist, especially as I think the discussion of the ending could be illuminating. But with the late publication date, I guess it is more of an outlier? Or are the judges so removed from general debate that it does not matter?

[Cindy]

This is just a hunch, but I would not be surprised if the pub date on this one was moved up.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

It already was to make it eligible.

[Cindy]

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "It already was to make it eligible."

Good point. But maybe a bit more?

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Yes could be. Feels very late.

[Cindy]

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "Yes could be. Feels very late."

Yes it does.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Respectfully not saying much in this although my review has been up since April (the first review anywhere I think which is always a little daunting the moments before you post it).

But I will link it back to an interview on the Booker website at the time has last novel was shortlisted which both identifies the seeds of the novel and one of the many links to its title.

Asked the classic “What are you working on next” question, Powers pushed back on the verb answering

“Another good commodity-culture question! Happily, I’ve reached the age where ‘work’ is once again the pure play that it was when I first started out on the path of writing novels. It’s the luckiest imaginable life, and right now that involves exploring what social media, deep learning, hidden algorithms, and surprisingly intelligent marine creatures have to do with one another”.

[Garrett]

Pleased to say that my Norton rep is going to send me a finished copy as soon as they're available- they're in the awkward stage where they're out of physical galleys but don't have finished copies yet. I really thought I would have been locked out of this one till after the shortlist (I REALLY can't do ebooks or digital RC's because my eyes would DIE), but pleased to say I think I'll be able to read everything before SL!

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Great.

[Ben]

I’m reading this at the moment… I won’t say much until I’ve finished, but I am quite surprised to see it so high in the ranking thread. 3 of the 4 people who have read it put it at number one. It also has a very high Goodreads score.

I’m a Richard Powers fan, but I’m not quite having that experience so far.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I find he’s a divisive author - even with the same reader (ie me).

Reading him as requires a complete suspension of cynicism which I sometimes manage and sometimes don’t.

Also his approach is different to many/most literary authors these days - he really does not believe in the “own story” idea but more in story telling with no issues with voicing characters very (VERY) different from him. Again in the right mood I find this refreshing (or all we can ever have is auto fiction) and sometimes close to offensive.

Overstory I really did not like, some of the details were about things I know about and were nonsense - and had possibly the most disappointing author signing conversation I have ever had with him at the shortlist event. The only signing book plate thing wound me up as well.

But with Bewilderment it worked for me. Later I was also asked by BBC Radio if they knew a Powers fan to interview him on Front Row and I put forward Neil from this group and Neil said he was such a generous person on and off air.

This one first time I was keen and loved the way the three books form an exploration trilogy. I will see on a second read.

[Cindy]

I just finished reading Playground and am still gathering my thoughts. I share GY's feelings about both Overstory and Bewilderment (did not like the former and loved the latter). I think Playground is going to fall somewhere in between those two for me but should wind up in my personal top six from the longlist. It's beautifully and movingly written but felt about 50 pages too long for me and a bit uneven. The story is incredibly heartfelt and compelling, but I don't think it achieves the same powerful result that Bewilderment did, and there were parts that did not quite hold my attention in the same way. Still, another important novel from Powers.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I think Powers novels are inevitably always going to be too long (even ones I love) - he has simply too many ideas, too strong views on the importance and D.C. interplay of them and I think has also moved beyond the point in his career where he would respond to editing.

[Cindy]

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "I think Powers novels are inevitably always going to be too long (even ones I love) - he has simply too many ideas, too strong views on the importance and D.C. interplay of them and I think has als..."

That may well be, but I don't remember feeling that way about Bewilderment. I was completely absorbed in every aspect of the story. Here, that was not the case, especially in Todd, Rafi and Ina's backstory.

[Bella (Kiki)]

This book really stood out for me, and it's one I would consider buying rather than just borrowing. (I should add that I reviewed a copy for Net Galley, and I'm really glad I got an ARC of this one or I'd be on pins and needles waiting for it to come out.) For me, Playground is head and shoulders above the other books, except Held, and I don't think Held will win the prize, though I do think it might make the shortlist. I will be shocked if Playground doesn't make the shortlist. I loved everything about it.

[Ben]

I came around to it in the end. Coming to it right after The Safekeep, I think I struggled with the earnestness of the prose at first.

Thankfully the more I read, the more I warmed to it, and some of the toe-curling dialogue dropped off. I also liked how the ending played out.

Maybe the biggest criticism I could level at it is that more than one of the characters felt like a bit of a retread from The Overstory (awkward woman so passionate she’s prepared to die for the thing she loves, solo genius tech man battling a health issue).

I adored Bewilderment and loved The Overstory, but this didn’t quite reach those heights for me.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

Just re-read this and I loved it.

And the ending …..

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

If you are still waiting to read this article gives a great intro to its setting

https://hakaimagazine.com/features/ma...

[Bella (Kiki)]

Very interesting, GY. Thank you for posting this.

[David]

Ben wrote: "I came around to it in the end. Coming to it right after The Safekeep, I think I struggled with the earnestness of the prose at first..."

I was coming here to say almost the same thing. There's something about Powers's prose that is off-putting to me but I struggle to articulate why that is. It's not just Playground, although it's particularly present here.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

His style is so earnest and didactic and without artifice (and from the little I had seen that reflects him as a character) that it can either be transporting it completely off putting.

I have had both experiences with him but this is top of my list having re-read now 8 of the longlist and I can only see Creation Lake having a chance to top it (as it’s the only of my top 4 ranked books first time I still have to read).

[Bella (Kiki)]

I've not found Powers off-putting, and Playground is at the top of my list, too. As an amateur poet and professional novelist, my favorite book was Held, despite the fact that it becomes chaotic during the last third or fourth. I found Playground more even, and I love it. (I loved Overstory, too.) I still feel Playground is going to win the prize.

[Paul]

That's where I struggled badly with both The Overstory and Bewilderment - earnest and didactic puts in perfectly (in Bewilderment's case I'd add cloying).

Is this a welcome departure or more of the same?

Of the authors on this list I've read before - Everett, Kushner, Powers, Michaels, Orange, Messud and Perry, it's only really Everett I've appreciated. Which, alongside the books omitted, makes me suspect these judges and I don't share literary taste.

[Joy D]

I am excited to read this book before the shortlist is announced since I just got approved for an arc!

[Bella (Kiki)]

Joy D wrote: "I am excited to read this book before the shortlist is announced since I just got approved for an arc!"

Happy for you! Enjoy!

[Ian]

By way of distraction: for some time I have had the reaction to the name Richard Powers as “artist” instead of “novelist.” I finally consulted Wikipedia: I had in the back of my mind Richard (M.) Powers, an important science fiction artist in the 1960s.

(I must have seen the name on a hundred or two hundred credit lines, at least. See Wikipedia for his overall career. He was best known for abstracts, but I remember now that he did or designed more realistic cover art for Ballantine Books editions of Tarzan: Life magazine described his version as “sleek and cerebral,” as compared to the rival Ace editions version, from Roy G. Krenkel, called “mesomorphic.”)

Okay. Now I have things straight. Time to try the novelist.

[Joy D]

Finished it and loved it. It's definitely on my personal short list. This is a book that I can see winning the prize.

[Cindy]

There is a long profile of Richard Powers and Playground in the September 16th issue of The New Yorker. I hope it's not paywalled (if it is and you are interested, send me a message and I'll get it to you):

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

[Bella (Kiki)]

Thank you Cindy and GY. I enjoyed these articles, but they made me even more puzzled as to why Playground did not make the shortlist.

[Henk]

Really enjoyed Playground, which surprised me since I actively disliked Bewilderment. The twist near the ending is so well done in my view, it really elevated the whole book from competent to supremely thought provoking in my view. Really surprised it didn't make the shortlist!

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer]

I think most of us are.

[Kathleen]

I finally have a copy and loved every bit of it, except, well, I need to reread the ending. He’s almost a neighbor, as he lives about 40 miles from me. It’s a lovely day and I’d like to sit out on his porch and chat with him.

I think he is a genius, and it shows. Creation Lake feels stiff and forced in comparison. I love how the words and ideas seem to just naturally flow in his writing. Surprisingly, on podcasts he responds a bit slow as he seems to weigh each word.

Like several of the commenters above, I’m disappointed that Playground did not make the shortlist. It is my second favorite of the longlist; I expected it to be my favorite, but that is still My Friends.

[Kathleen]

Local public radio interview with Powers:

https://www.wuot.org/arts/2024-09-23/...

[Hugh, Active moderator]

Just finished this and I'm in two minds. The ending is very clever, but as with The Overstory I felt the scientific detail was the main point, and there was just too much of it, lots of things briefly mentioned without development. Maybe having read all of his books, this is more a mild criticism of his entire oeuvre than just this book.

[Sam]

I finished this up today also and had a better time with it than Hugh. I felt it was a five star read for me and I probably would have ranked it second on the longlist preference if I had read it in time. So this was a good list for five star books by my ranking. I have read all of Powers from association with this group and one of my criticisms of him earler in his career was that he often chose the more obscure word when unnecessary, causing the reader to have to stop and start again from having to look something up.

I think he got completely past that with this book by writing prose the more ambitious young adult could handle despite retaining complexity in structure and content. Tis a pity there are so many good books and so few awards to acknowledge them.

[Hugh, Active moderator]

I'll still probably rate it 4 stars, it is just that I am getting so used to his style that the authorial puppet strings are showing more and certain elements niggle a little.