I don’t know. Richard Power’s Playground is a book I *should like. It’s an interweaving of different characters that all converge at the end. It has (some) good writing (a lot of it, though, is over written and exhausting). There’s interesting (?) questions about the nature of humanity – how we might or might not be distinct from animals or machines. Certainly compelling questions about friendship and how our friends can define our lives.
But ultimately I’m here to report it’s pretty boring. End of the day, bottom line, if I had to read another description of a coral reef or game of Go I think I’d have hurled the book across the room.
Do we care that there’s an AI character? And that I am someone who is (ostensibly) interested in AI? Not really.
What about an intrepid woman scientist who explores the oceans trailblazing for other women (while suppressing her sexuality – there can only be So Much Trailblazing)? I guess that’s interesting enough, but somehow it reads as.. not very.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s my mood – it’s hot and I wish the air conditioning was on. Perhaps if you were to read this book in the winter it might be a different experience.
You tell me – have any of you enjoyed this one? What am I missing.
Literary Vice 