The team at Manchester Literature Festival does a heck of a good job. The cynical might think it’s about shifting a load of hardback books, but MLF puts a great deal of thought into its authors and event hosts. Tonight was no exception.
We were at Manchester’s glorious Central Library to welcome American novelist Richard Powers on stage with broadcaster and journalist Alex Clark (note to MLF: the library closes at 5pm on a Friday meaning that many of us hung around outside waiting to be let in where normally we’d have been killing time wandering through the stacks).
Here to discuss Powers’ latest novel Playground, this was the week that Trump won a second term. Visibly emotional about the US election results, Powers has the art of distilling his huge personal knowledge bank into easily digestible arguments. It reminded me of the gulf between the educated liberal thinkers in the USA and a large portion of the voting population who haven’t benefited from good education or a good health system.
It is clear from Powers’ work that he really does care. He is a remarkable author and Playground is a remarkable novel. It made the longlist of the 2024 Booker Prize, which is no surprise. In the book, there are three main story strands, all deftly interwoven: the friendship of two boys from different socio-economic areas of Chicago who meet at an elite school and bond over playing board games; the remarkable Evelyne Beaulieu whose father, to rid her of her shyness, introduces her to deep sea diving when she is a child; and the story of the French Polynesian island of Makatea whose tiny population is offered a referendum on whether to continue with the independent life they’ve wrestled from their French colonisers or accept a proposal from big tech neo-colonisers.
Clark is an engaging interviewer, so much so that we felt like we were eavesdropping on a private conversation. Powers is a thoughtful, articulate and generous talker. Everything he says is backed up with references to other books. I’m now eager to read Manta: Secret Life of Devil Rays by Guy Stevens and Thomas P. Peschak as well as Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans by Syliva Earle (on whom Powers modelled his character Evelyne Beaulieu).
The event was co-curated with the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing, and the front row at Central Library was populated with its students. When the library’s curfew meant that the evening had to end, Powers said, “I could do this all night”. I really think he meant it.
Words and photos by Susan Ferguson
Richard Powers was interviewed by Alex Clark about his book Playground. The event was co-hosted at Manchester Central Library by Manchester Literature Festival and the University of Manchester Centre for New Writing.
