Again an ode to the natural world, but now about oceans. Richard's eloquent wonder is woven through a touching stories of friendship and love (for humans and nature).
I went looking for this book in the bookstores in Amsterdam a few days after its release, but the Waterstones didn't carry it yet, and I only found it when I got to the American Book Center. The book came along on my trip to a conference near San Diego. And so I started reading, on the roof of a small house overlooking the sea and her surfers. A few days later, I spent the whole afternoon reading on the beach near La Jolla Cove, precisely when the story in the book coincidentally also found its way to that exact beach, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography not too far from there. I loved it. Reading a book in the place where the story happens is another level of immersion.
Richard knows what he is writing about when he writes about technology and artificial intelligence. I think I remember reading that he used to work in Silicon Valley before he moved to the redwoods. But Richard is also very skilled in building up human connection. The story between Rafi Young and Todd Keane felt very real; it had the layers of complexity to justify the emotions the book wanted me to experience.
When I read The Overstory, I wrote that its natural ending was around two-thirds of the book. But with Playground, the story is more confident about itself. It still weaves many, only slightly related, plots together. But it does it more eloquently.