Playground by Richard Powers

 

It starts with a friendship.  Rafi is a young black boy, scarred by a family tragedy and growing up in poverty.  Todd is a white rich kid with parents who ignore him.  They meet at an exclusive academy, Todd through wealth and Rafi on a scholarship Todd's father created.  The two boys find common ground in their love of games and the fact that they are the two brightest students at the academy.  Soon they are best friends and tell each other the things they shared with no one else.

Their friendship continues into college where a third person is added to their friendship.  Ina grew up in the Polynesian islands, moving from naval base to naval base with her family.  Both young men fall in love with her but she chooses Rafi.  The friendship starts to diverge.  Ina is an artist who makes huge sculptures.  Rafi falls into literature trying to figure out the truths of the world.  Todd takes another way, becoming engrossed in the rising computer industry and the birth of the Internet.  After a huge fight in their senior year, the three fall apart.

Meanwhile, Evie who is older than the three by a generation, lives for diving and exploring the sea.  She was one of the earliest people to dive as her father created one of the first underwater breathing apparatuses.  When grown, Evie marries and has children but the ocean is always her first love and fascination.  She spends most of her time away from her family on diving trips to research the ocean, leaving the family responsibilities to her husband.

Makatea is a small island in French Polynesia.  Rai, Ina and Evie all end up there.  The island had been gutted by phosphate farming years ago and is only now recovering.  Now another American organization wants to develop Makatea and create self-contained floating cities that would be launched into the ocean.   The island inhabitants will decide if this will happen.  When Rafi discovers that Todd, who is now an Internet billionaire, is behind the plan, he leads the opposition.  What will happen?

Richard Powers is an American treasure.  His interests lie in environmentalism and in technology.  He uses this novel to bring the two together and question if technology could be the mechanism that can solve some of the environmental problems the world is facing.  He has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for fiction and been longlisted four times for the Booker Prize.  In this book, the reader learns about the wonder of the oceans and the creatures who inhabit it while also learning about the history of the small islands in Polynesia.  The main characters are both hard to warm up to although Ina is a delight as is the Queen of the island who keeps the traditional songs and stories of the island alive.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers as well as those worried about the environment and those who love the oceans.