Richard Powers writes in rapt wonder, and grave concern, about our Earth, honoring trees in The Overstory (https://www.margueritereads.com/home/the-overstory-by-richard-powers?rq=richard%20powers) and the stars, and Earth’s environmental degradation in Bewilderment. Now he turns his focus, concern, and awe to the oceans in Playground. The story centers on the relationship between two baby boomers, like two sons of different mothers, two boys becoming men who could not be more different, yet so closely bonded. Rafi Young, a black young man from the South Side of Chicago, from a dysfunctional home with everything working against him succeeding; and Todd Keane, a white young man from the North Side, also from a dysfunctional family, but very wealthy, given every advantage possible, but little love. Neither person has firm relationships, either family or friends, until they meet at St. Ignatius School, a high school for intellectual elites in Chicago. The two have no idea how to form friendships, until they sit down to a chess board. It is through this game, and later the Chinese game Go, that their friendship solidifies. Their interests diverge wildly in every other respect: Rafi becomes a voracious reader, first of every philosophical book he can find, then of American poetry, which he ultimately writes himself; Todd becomes hooked on computers, leading him into coding, and ultimately creating his own platform, a sort of Reddit/Twitter/Facebook mashup called Playground. All through high school and into college, the two are tightly bonded, yet with little emotional intelligence or interpersonal skills, their emotional fragility will lead to an ultimate blowup that neither completely understands.

That blowup is in part precipitated by the arrival of Ina Aroita, a Pacific Islander artist with whom Rafi falls deeply in love. She respects the men’s relationship, but the reader knows at some point, something in the fragile bond will break between the men. Each moves on in life broken, yet functional, choosing their own paths forward: Rafi and Ina will adopt two children and make their home on the Pacific island of Makatea, part of French Polynesia; while Todd will drive the success of Playground to California, home of tech bros.

Another thread of this story is Evie Beaulieu, a Montreal girl whose father, an engineer named Emile, is working with a team developing the first successful aqualung, or scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) gear. After forcing his timid daughter to try it out in an indoor water tank, she finds her life’s calling. Evie goes on to study ocean biology, becoming one of the most accomplished divers in her lifetime. At college she meets her future husband, with whom she has twin son and daughter, although her primary life focus will always be studying undersea life. She solidifies her reputation by authoring the book, Clearly It Is Ocean, a culmination of her work, a call for young people to learn about the undersea world, and its threatened existence. In fact, a young Todd loves the book, an escape lifeline for him when home life was difficult to endure. Evie will be a woman in her nineties, diving and working on a second book in Maketea years later, when all four characters come together for the story’s final twist of fate.

I will resist sharing more of the plot. It is a book with more emotional depth than Powers’ two prior books. You will become deeply immersed in appreciation of ocean life, from the tidal pool to the greatest depths. Each of these four characters is obsessed with their life’s work, yet each stumble about with under-developed relationship skills. It is their passion for what captures them, where they can express their humanity and love for the Earth generally, although their love for particular people remains enfeebled. This might be a good book discussion selection, both on the level of climate change novels, interest in the oceans, and human relationships generally.