The Overstory

This book is divided into four parts. The first part has the structure of an anthology, telling several different stories of unrelated characters, whose stories are all thematically intertwined in the way by which their relationship with the natural world typified by the presence, use, and destruction specifically of trees, affects their lives. The subsequent two parts of the novel weave all of these disparate characters together, and creates a unitary narrative in which they become eco-terrorists, which is totally awesome. The final section has them again coming apart, with a healthy dose of commentary on the disparity in their lives and the outcomes of their actions bases on their past and status. When reading the first section, it wasn’t clear to me what structure the book would settle on. I thought it would continue to be structured like an anthology, which to me, assuaged the risks of setting the book down for a long period to focus on other tasks. A fatal error. When I returned to the book, and it expected me suddenly to remember all the characters I had supposedly just read about, I was in a deplorable stupor. This might explain why I loved the first 1/4th of this book, but struggled through the following 3/4ths. Allow this quote to serve as a thesis statement:

“Stand your ground. The Castle Doctrine. Self-Help.

If you could save yourself, your wife, your child, or even a stranger by burning something down, the law allows you. If someone breaks into your home and starts destroying it, you may stop them however you need to….

He has no other way to say what so badly needs saying. Our home has been broken into. Our lives are being endangered. The Law allows for all necessary force against unlawful and imminent harm...

In mounting excitement, he sees how he must win the case. Life will cook the seas will rise. The plants lungs will be ripped out. And the law will let this happen, because harm was never imminent enough. Imminent, at the speed of people, is too late. The law must judge Imminent at the speed of trees.”

When this argument is proffered, near the end of the novel, the concept of “the speed of trees” has been being slowly constructed under your nose. The speed of trees spans generations of families and society, tying them together in surprising ways, tearing them apart in others. It recalls the Overview effect, a shift in worldview reported by some astronauts after viewing the blue marble of the Earth from a figuratively bird’s-eye view. That we are temporary members of nature contextually embedded in an ecosystem, for which we are responsible, is well-known and uncontroversial. The Overstory effectively imbues that somber reflective overview with charged human emotion, tying our whole society as intimately as it ties our individual life with the natural world. The Overstory is far from a perfect book. The irritants in its lofty writing style are munificent. It’s not even really a vital or pivotal book: Only the most benighted among us need any convincing at this point that the environment is like, good, dude, and only the most fervently mawkish among us need a narrative involving specific characters to come to that realization emotionally. It would be like someone suddenly thinking that the Vietnam War is bad because they just watched Star Wars. Still, the book is filled with passions and paeans that are likely to speak to you if you, like me, quake in the night with apprehensive vexation for the fate of the Earth.

Loved the scope of this and its overall kind of aura. But, man, the back third really dragged ass. Satisfying conclusion and it's the kind of book that has forever changed my brain in good ways. Really wish I could read The Secret Forest— but maybe The Hidden Life of Trees will suffice.

It could be the eternal project of mankind, to learn what forests have figured out.

I found the whole thing to at times ever too much into “college stoner” territory, and it could have been more succinct in general. But the language is certainly beautiful, as is the message.

I thought that writing from the perspective of trees offers a great captivating potential, unfortunately, the book is unnecessarily dry and still focuses in a human-centric way

The first few chapters were so ambitious, Powers describes this thing this half an idea that's ethereal and also very concrete. You want to keep reading just to keep feeling close to that idea. By the end though I had lost what was so inspiring about it and the writing felt overwrought and corny.

A friend asked what the book was about and I, only having made it through the first couple of pages, said “Oh it's a family saga told from the point of view of a tree.” I couldn't have been more wrong.

This book is more than anything about time, and how things work at different speeds. The human characters in the book occupy the understory in which a majority of the book is set, but they've discovered that the world is meant to work in hundreds and thousands of years instead. It's a sobering read, but a worthwhile one.

I am at heart an environmentalist. I enjoy books about the environment, especially well written ones. This is one of the well written ones, a few rough spots here and there, but definitely not anything that detracts from the story.

The most irritating book I've ever read. Irritating in that uniquely American way, with all the usual faux pas related to identity. It's schmaltzy, overwrought, and littered with sentences that pained me to read.

“It's what his muscles know, especially that largest muscle in his inventory - his soul.” 

🤮🤮

I loved the initial short story-like introductions to each character in the first half of the book. I also enjoyed when their stories began to intersect at some point in the middle. But then it became a bit of a slog focusing on eco-terrorism. I admit to skimming the final third, which is too bad because it means I probably missed some really great individual sentences.

This won the Pulitzer and I can see why. Vast in scope, sprawling even, it's a deep-think that tugs at what it means to be a human in this world and our self-destructive, collateral-damaging place in it. It's also a story of seemingly futile, but important, efforts to right wrongs ... no matter what, by folks who simply care. Folks who noticed.

With my editor hat on, I think this book should have been trimmed down 100 pages, but what an ambitious work. It deserves its kudos and will not be the last book I read from this author.

“Makes you think different about things, don't it?”

Yes. Yes, it does.

there is so much that is beautiful and undeniably important about this book, but it was rough getting through it

TThe first half of the book is very good as they bounce through the stories. The second half is just two huge chapters and they are very dense. 

This is a book that introduces a cast of very interesting characters, all of which I'm curious to see how they will interact with trees (this book's main focus is trees) and how they will interact with each other. 
It loses me a bit after the halfway point, mainly because I found things were getting a little convoluted, and it was somewhat hard to keep up. The latter third of the book is terribly bleak in ways I didn't quite feel prepared for, and in very humane ways that I felt had been distanced for so long in this book that it almost felt out of place.
That being said, I did find myself intrigued and interested in the characters and what they were doing and trying to accomplish, which is why I overall found myself enjoying this.

Not for me. I'm on Team Tree but this book is too bloated and overwrought. I rolled my eyes too many times to count.

The Overstory is really a lengthy love letter to trees more than it is a novel. Almost everything in the book is tied to trees in one way or another. The characters and plot all seem secondary to this tree theme. At the same time, though, the book follows nine different characters. It can be hard to keep them all straight and stay invested in all of them. Really my biggest complaint is that the book is probably twice as long as it needs to be to tell the same story. You'll find yourself reading a loving and vivid description of a tree or a laundry list of tree facts about every 10 pages. However beautifully written, these tree digressions wear thin after some time. The book is spread so thin across its many characters that many of them felt flat to me.

Despite all my complaints, the beginning of the book works pretty well as a collection of short stories. I think you also get the overall message that we should respect trees more from just those first 150 or so pages.

Made me cry and gave me a new found appreciation for trees.

The prose is astonishing. The author has a remarkable ability to weave many stories together to make a point about what we are doing to nature and how we are overlooking what nature can give us and how it can save us from a climate catastrophe. As a lover of nature and someone very concerned about our climate emergency, I found this story spoke to all of my concerns. It portrayed various individuals who independently found some solace in nature and acted out of that love. It's a book I hope to get a chance to re-read.

Paradigm shifting - you'll never look at eco-warrior hippies the same again, it's hard to when you completely agree with them.

I'm also committing to this right now in this review to no one, I'm going to learn the names of all the trees.

There's the masterful story telling and there's the message. It's going to take a while to process them both.

Recommend.

I cried and cried.

Generational achievement

I liked the message, but is boring and long as Hell

A huge book about a group of humans trying to save the living sentinel of our earth - trees. Richard Powers's writing is beautiful and lyrical, bringing trees to life in a way no encyclopaedia nor textbook ever could.

The human characters are nowhere near the number of trees that populate this book, but for a novel, there are many: 9. We meet them individually then together: the descendant of a farming family, a second generation Chinese American, a bright but odd kid, a lawyer and the woman he can't live without, a young, scarred soldier, a crippled tech genius, an academic, and a beautiful uni drop out.
Many of them meet within the second half of the book and become members of a radical green movement to save the earth from human plunder.

I normally shy away from books with a strong message but the writing is so evocative, the information on trees so fascinating, and the author's presentation of the human experience so unique that the 500 plus pages didn't feel heavy.

This was not an easy book to read, but it is one that will make you look at trees and plants with a lot more respect and wonder, and it could be the one to make you realise the real cost of our neglect of the environment.

First half would be a pretty solid 5/5, then it just kept dropping as I kept reading after that...