Playground [en]

Richard Powers’ book Playground was quite long and very complex, and it addressed many, many different themes. The main theme, although you don’t realize that until the end of the book, is artificial intelligence, and then you have friendship, racism, family, money, ecology, feminism, dementia, economic development…

There were parts that I absolutely loved, there were chapters that made me truly reflect on today’s world, there were beautiful moments, and then there were a few times when I was confused or bored. I also thought that the underwater descriptions were absolutely gorgeous but a bit too long.

This is basically the story of a friendship between two boys, at first, and then the two young men and a girl. It’s also the story of a young woman who tries to be an oceanographer in a world were science was done by men only, and the story of the island of Makatea (a French Polynesian atoll) that was ravaged by the savage mining of phosphate by the French for years. That last story was the most fascinating one for me.