Book: Playground by Richard Powers

I’ve often read fiction as mental floss. It cleans my brain out. If you’re a software person, I view it as garbage collection for my brain. Now that I’m writing fiction, I’m reading even more fiction. I’m also exploring different writing styles and letting each book roll around in my brain’s background processes, where I hope it’s working to improve my writing skills. Around one in the morning New Zealand time, I finished Richard Powers’ Playground. Powers is a fantastic writer. His character development, using both inside and outside voices, is incredible. He builds each character through multiple approaches: what they say and do, how they interact with other characters, and what’s going on in their heads. While they are interlinked, he gives each of them their own space to develop and evolve. Playground follows four people whose lives end up connected to Makatea, a tiny island in French Polynesia: Todd Keane, a tech billionaire who built a social network called Playground; Rafi…

Commenting on Bubbles has been removed. Why? If you want to talk about this post, write to the author, use the comments on their blog if it has them, or reply with a "RE:" post on your own blog. Suggestions? feedback@bubbles.town