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Fiction. Literature. HTML: A monumental novel about reimagining our place in the living world, by one of our most "prodigiously talented" novelists (New York Times Book Review). The Overstory unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fable that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. An air force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing-and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. These and five other strangers, each summoned in different ways by trees, are brought together in a last and violent stand to save the continent's few remaining acres of virgin forest. There is a world alongside ours�vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe..… (more)
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The profuse blurbs in my copy of this Pulitzer-winning novel include one from Nathaniel Rich at The Atlantic, highlighting author Richard Powers' anomalous work in a
Certainly the "cli-fi" element will put many readers in mind of the work of Kim Stanley Robinson, who has treated this large theme in many capable novels. I also observed a kinship to Ian McDonald's River of Gods, where the forest in Powers' book takes on the organizing and animating function of the river in McDonald's. Both of these novels also have a regard for artificial intelligence that de-centers it from the human perspective. Yet another book brought to mind is The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, a work of science fiction published as literary fiction. Mitchell's "atemporals" have some of their role taken up by the trees in The Overstory, but more importantly his social and philosophical concerns and the way he illustrated them through personal situations seemed quite similar to what I found in this book.
In addition to beautiful prose and profound reflection, there's a considerable amount of failure and death--both arboreal and human--in this novel. It is a sweeping tragedy that brought me to tears a few times. The final summation was a bit less intellectually honest than what I took away from Scranton's Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, but I guess I would still call The Overstory good medicine for those willing to take it.
"And what do all good stories do? ... They kill you a little. They turn you into something you weren't." (412)
What is the common theme connecting each of these stories? Trees, of course! But then saying that Richard Power’s earnest and impassioned novel The Overstory is about trees is like saying that Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is about deep sea fishing: it is a true statement that misses the real point. Indeed, far more than being a simple descriptive exercise about how trees function, this book is nothing short of a deeply felt plea to save one of the world’s oldest and most vital natural resources from the man-made threats they face. To be sure, this is story-telling; each of the preceding narrative threads coalesce in various ways through another involving a college girl who is electrocuted but called back to life by “beings of light” to save the ancient forests from being destroyed in the name of economic expedience. However, it is also fiction that has been written with such an overt environmental agenda that it creates a somewhat confusing sense of purpose for the reader.
Powers is a writer that I really admire, having read all of his previous novels over the years. And while I did enjoy reading The Overstory as well, I did not find it to be nearly as compelling as the best of his previous work (e.g., The Goldbug Variations, The Time of Our Singing). Without question, this book has all of his usual flourishes: intricate and intellectually engaging storylines, sympathetic and fully imagined characters who fight the good fight, brilliant use of language. This time, though, the underlying “man vs. nature” message was delivered in such a heavy-handed manner that it overwhelmed any other nuances that the multiple woven tales might have offered. Dialogues between characters, usually so realistic in the author’s work, here often seemed contrived, as if entire conversations were really just setups to deliver a memorable punch line about the power and majesty of trees. Also, I found the eco-terrorism plot that drives much of the narrative to be over-the-top and unrealistic; it may just have been the most convenient way to promote the book’s true cause. So, while I definitely learned a lot from this novel, it did not affect me quite as deeply as the author probably hoped.
The book begins with short-story length chapters each introducing one of the nine main characters. They are diverse and very real, but we are left to wonder how Powers is going to bring them all together. As the authorial voice states of the characters, "These people are nothing to Patty {one of the characters}. And yet their lives have long been connected, deep underground. Their kinship will work like an unfolding book. The past always becomes clearer in the future."
In the body of the novel, in chapters titled Trunk, Crown and Seeds, the characters converge, mostly around environmental activism, then separate and their lives go on. So yes, it's all connected with trees and forests, and it is told in magnificent prose. There's a lot of science here, but it never intrudes in the novel, and the focus is on the characters and their growth.
Powers is one of my favorite authors, although I haven't felt that his several most recent books are as good as some of his earlier books. He is a MacArthur genius, has won numerous literary prizes, always has something important to say, and always says it in a unique way. After reading this book, all I can say is:
I will never look at a tree in the same way again. Everyone should read this book.
5 stars
As a novel, The Overstory is most impressive at the beginning. It is then when the stories are disparate, and yes, this means it feels more like a collection of short stories, but they were really good short stories. When I think back on this 500-page behemoth, it is these stories that I easily recall. These stories show a pivotal moment in each character's life, many at a young age, a moment that is genuine and often heart-wrenching. It is within these first hundred pages that I see Richard Powers' strengths as a writer. Here is where the seeds of a good story are planted. However, the story grows, and once the various threads begin to interact with one another, not only does the plot become tiresome, but the heavy-handedness of the theme weighs the story down. It becomes exaggeratedly sentimental. There are no strong opposing forces amongst our main characters. Everyone is willing to give their life for their friends shrouded in bark. There are no counter arguments worth any weight whatsoever. And that's called propaganda. The intentions are good, but the orchestration reeks of a not-so-hidden agenda.
It's all just a bit too much. No, it's more than a bit. It's overwrought. If The Overstory had ended as a collection of interconnected short stories, it would've been more delightful, conveyed its message more clearly, and saved a whole lot of trees in the process.
The humans are brought together somewhat by accident—or is it through the subtle manipulations by surrounding trees that the humans unconsciously perceive but cannot quite articulate? In any event, the humans become ultimately unsuccessful protectors of the forest. They employ several tactics to hinder the lumber jacks. Two of them actually live for several months in a primitive shelter erected 200 feet above ground in the branches of one magnificent redwood to prevent its harvesting by an evil, greedy lumber company. Later six of them become literal “tree huggers”—they band together by handcuffing themselves around that same redwood. Their efforts go for naught when the lumber company, aided by the local police, forcefully drive them away.
Frustrated in their attempt to save one tree, they adopt new tactics to battle the march of “progress.” They attempt to set fire or blow up a ritzy ski resort under construction. Although they succeed in doing a great deal of property damage, disaster befalls them when one of their own is killed when the explosives are triggered prematurely. From that point on, they are fugitives, wanted not only for trespass and malicious destruction of property, but also murder.
Since the authorities do not know who they are, they are able to disperse and go into hiding. The law catches up with some of them, but only after two decades during which they have assumed new identities and some have achieved a degree of prominence.
Throughout his telling of the adventures of the humans, Powers intersperses observations on the characteristics of various species of trees, always emphasizing their importance to many other species of plants, animals, and humans. We learn the sad history of the American chestnut tree, a stately species that was once the dominant variety of hardwood in eastern America, but was virtually wiped out by a blight fungus. We learn the amazing properties of the banyan tree, which can live hundreds of years and grow to enormous size. We also learn that trees produce many medicines not otherwise available. But most of all we are reminded of the vital role trees play in removing carbon dioxide from the air and producing oxygen through photosynthesis.
Evaluation: Powers is an excellent writer whose prose sparkles throughout the book. His message about the importance of taking a long view in terms of climate and habitat is unfortunately not one that will appeal to many readers devoted to short term pleasures, short-sited self-interest and low taxes.
(JAB)
I cannot speak on the science. Is this book accurate? I have no idea. It is a wonderful story, that makes me, as a reader, stop and take notice of the Flora around me. It just makes me want to know more. Enjoy!
This is a big book, both in scope and in size. The environmental issues Powers addresses are urgent and important. And a theme of this novel is how the only thing that can change minds is a good story. This is pointed out more than once, in increasingly ham-fisted ways. Unfortunately, this is not that story.
This story is bloated and overwrought. There isn't a nuance or a speck of humor to be found. And we'll leave Powers's skill at portraying women alone except to say that one woman is described using the words of a One Direction song.
I regret the hours spent reading this novel.
This is a philosophical question up there with "why is there air?" and I, like
When he looks up, it’s into the branches of the sentinel tree, lone, huge, fractal, and bare against the drifts, lifting its lower limbs and shrugging its ample globe. All its profligate twigs click in the breeze as if this moment, too, so insignificant, so transitory, will be written into its rings and prayed over by branches that wave their semaphore against the bluest of midwestern winter skies.
Oh dear god. But wait! There's MORE:
You and the tree in your back yard came from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways. But even now, after an immense journey in separate directions that tree and you share a quarter of your genes.
Patricia, an ex-forest ranger, writes this in a book about how close to Gawd she gets whenever she's around trees.
I'm sorry, y'all who liked it, but my tree-pollen allergy blew up wicked bad and I had streaming eyes and a clogged nose by midway through. I tried not to let my inner Nelson Muntz get loose but, as you see, I failed. Pullet Surprise winner or no, this was something I found sophomoric and facile and plain old clumsy.
I'll go now.
It's about the ecological catastrophe that we are all racing into. Really it is just about trees, about the destruction of forests. Just one facet of the catastrophe, though certainly an important one. I think though that the trees
This book poses the question - how might we respond to this catastrophe? Yeah, we could try to avoid it, to steer around it or hit the brakes before going completely off the cliff. Ha!
No, this is something that we - humans and the rest of life on the planet - will go through. Somehow this experience will be reflected in the evolutionary record, and be one of the layers that will make us whatever we will become. What will that be?
OK, I must say, I didn't get how the Ray and Dorothy story fit in. Could they be somehow some sort of Olympian Gods whose behavior is a microcosm that reflects the great story happening with the macrocosm?
Then there is like an artificial intelligence angle, practically a Ray Kurzweil vision. Well. Is the mind in the brain? The truth is that the mind runs on connection, on networking. The network that supports the mind doesn't really have any boundaries. It is probing the world, interacting with the world, enmeshed with the world. So maybe the Neelay story is exactly a criticism of the Kurzweil vision. Is our evolution beyond the catastrophe likely to include microelectronics? I can't quite see that.
Yeah I can't see how the bits and pieces really fit together. But this really is a profound symphony. The psychologist here, Adam, says that to change people's minds it doesn't work to use logic, you need to use a story. Here's a story that presents our situation at the enormous scale that really fits it.
I expect that many readers will see this story very differently than I do. It could be a story about a crime and how justice catches up to people. Could a more direct telling carry whatever message more reliably? I think the richness here will give me space to reflect for many months, mulling over the facets of the story. Maybe that is just the way depth is, it has many layers, so different readers will hear different ranges of layers.
The ambitious cast of characters and stories seem unwieldy at times. Moreover, Powers seems bent on stuffing in as many scientific facts about trees as possible often to the detriment of the narrative. A bit more focus may have improved this read.
Nine individuals whose lives have been impacted by trees in one way or another, somehow find a connection through those very trees and they make the decision to come to the aid of the virgin forests that are still in existence before it’s too late. They all act in different ways yet with the same objective. But the real protagonist is that virgin forest and each individual tree that adds something to our lives each day.
Make no mistake, this is a magisterial novel written with nuance and intelligence that makes you think. Powers is able to write with such urgency and style that he can’t help but convince readers that trees are able to communicate in many ways. (Scientific evidence proves this.) I felt such a connection with these characters and also with these trees. I would’ve never thought.
Very highly recommended.
“The world had six trillion trees, when people showed up. Half remain. Half again
“When you feel good after a walk in the woods, it may be that certain species are bribing you. So many wonder drugs have come from trees, and we haven't yet scratched the surface of the offerings. Trees have long been trying to reach us. But they speak on frequencies too low for people to hear.”
This novel blew me away! I am not going to describe much of the twisty plot, but I will say, that it begins slowly, as we are introduced to a number of diverse characters, and how most of them are touched, in some way by trees. The middle of the novel, brings these characters together, as they team together to fight an environmental cause. The last third, shows how these events, have effected each of these people, in the years to come. The writing here is smart and powerful. The author has done impeccable research and his passion for his subject matter, is apparent on every page. It only flags a bit, in the final 100 pages, but not enough for me to change my 5 star rating.
A series of backstories about trees, and the people who care about them and are affected by them, that gradually get larger and then come together like roots into a trunk. The characters are drawn together to save some trees marked for destruction, take shocking
The first chapter of this book is absolutely spectacular. The imagery of the giant American chestnut trees all up and down the east coast and then watching their devastating demise is something I still think of frequently. The characters are very interesting at the start, I loved all of their backstories, particularly the single-minded tree botanist, based on real-life Dr. Suzanne Simard. However, once the stories start to merge together, they get more tropey and it seems the author doesn’t know what to do with them. There’s a bit of ableism and more than a bit of I-dont-know-how-to-write-women. The eventual climax of individuals-vs-evil-corporation is so very 90s - there’s little mention in the book of any role government could play in protecting trees or preventing environmental destruction. The language is very philosophical but lack of connection to the narrative makes it forgettable. Seems the book was too ambitious. But then, I still think about the chestnut trees.
It seemed like a natural follow up to At The Edge of the Orchard so I dove in and it was, as I suspected, devastating for the trees and for the activists who try to save them from humanity while trying to save humanity from themselves. It does not, as you might expect, go well for the trees or the people. Law enforcement was often brutal to the protesters when they refused to yield in ways I won't describe here. Oregon Public Broadcasting has a radio series called Timber Wars produced in 2020 that lays out what they call the biggest environmental fight in the US.
The book is the story of ordinary human beings who encounter trees in ways that change their perspectives on the world. Powers masterfully tells their stories from their childhood through adulthood through the perspective of their journey both to and then with trees at the center. Along the way, we learn the stories of trees in America including references the Johnny Appleseed, chestnut blight and seed saving. It did make a nice companion to At the Edge of the Orchard although trees did not form the centerpiece of Chevalier's novel with its focus on family and relationships. But she describes the huge stump where the westerners held dances and it is surprising to think any giants were left for Powers' characters to save.
There may have been an undercurrent of hope in the book that ultimately the trees had a longer timeline than human beings but it couldn't cut through the sense of grief that permeated the book. I don't want to discourage you from reading it as I think it was the best book I've read this year. I'm following it up with a nonfiction, The Forest Unseen, in which David George Haskell spends a year reporting from a one-meter square patch of the Tennessee mountains.
“Two weeks in a house
I have gone over every inch of this paragraph, gingerly unearthing it's most charitable implications like a freaking archaeologist. I have absolutely wracked my brain trying to think of a way this isn't deeply vile.
Are we supposed to see as laudable that the man didn't touch her? Should we like him for this immense show of restraint, given how much snow there is outside? What exactly does the season have to do with it? We got quite a few words about how the woman is sure she won't be touched, but conveniently skipped any of her actual feelings. Does Powers know it is possible to write human female characters that can welcome advances from someone they're interested in and even initiate 'touch' on their own? Who is delusional here?
My brain got stuck here, and all of the other ways this book wasn't working for me became less forgivable. I stopped reading because of the generally creepy way he was writing this woman, but also (surprise!) the lazy characterization of a disabled autistic Indian-American computer programmer. I am interested in the way Powers was playing with narrative structure, but not enough to keep reading this.