The Overstory – A Novel

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My other major concern with this book was the understandable but ultimately unhelpful craze to anthropomorphise scientific research. Wohlleben's book has garnered much attention but it is far from accepted doctrine to talk of complex tree networks as if they have intention and consciousness. Powers leans heavily upon this, trees "bleed" sap, they have plans to travel north, they communicate intention with each other, they would talk to us if only we were listening. Certainly there is scientific evidence to support communication and symbiotic relationships and much else interesting besides. But it seems to me a fallacy to try to view these findings through a lens of human behaviour. Is that not an egregious form of egotism on our part? Over the years, I have kept a small three ring binder filled with quotes from the various books I have read. I have the following from THE OVERSTORY: A masterpiece of operatic proportions … What Powers means to explore is a sense of how we become who we are, individually and collectively, and our responsibility to the planet and to ourselves … A magnificent achievement: a novel that is, by turns, both optimistic and fatalistic, idealistic without being naïve. Kirkus Jordison, Sam (December 18, 2018). "How could The Overstory be considered a book of the year?". The Guardian . Retrieved August 17, 2020.

Powers’s dominant mode of narrative is synopsis, a necessary crutch given the novel’s mob of characters and epochal chronological scale. The opening section proceeds through five generations of Hoels; three generations of another family, the Mas; and the entire youth of most of the other main characters. Five of them later converge in a series of tree-saving “actions” that imitate the tactics of Earth First (a group itself inspired by a novel, Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang) and the more radical Earth Liberation Front: human barricades, tree-sitting, sabotage, arson. I am aware Powers has a degree in Physics as well as literature and that becomes obvious in sentences like these :Nicolas Turcev (November 12, 2018). "Richard Powers lauréat du Grand prix de littérature américaine 2018". Libres Hebdo (in French) . Retrieved November 12, 2018. What do stories do?" This is what one character asks at a crossroads. "They kill us a bit and make us change."

I think the book alternates between being clear and easy to follow and then lapsing into ambiguity and it can make it hard to tell what is happening at times. I think the descriptive language just makes it even harder sometimes to follow along. I think it also covers a lot of themes that made it feel like the book itself was all over the place. I felt like we could have done without Neelay's storyline for sure at the very least even if I understand what Power's was trying to do with it. The four main sections of the book are ROOTS, in which we are introduced to the nine main characters. The first family’s history begins in the late 1800s, while others begin in the late 20th century. These are completely separate, enjoyable stories, long enough to get a good look at the people and remember who they are. Their stories are interesting and very individual, including one which later becomes a mystical Joan-of-Arc tale. This is the story of a group of strangers, each summoned in different ways by the natural world, brought together to save it from catastrophe. A rare specimen: a Great American Eco-Novel... It will change the way you look at trees Financial Times A lot of the tree information I am already familiar with, as are many prospective readers, but there’s always more to learn.

While we don’t have an official number, we do know that the source material is only one novel. The Overstory could have only one season, maybe two or even three, but likely no more than that. Similarly, Starz’s American Gods is based on one novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman and they produced three seasons based on it. Content notes: some, very limited adult content (language, violence, sexual situations). This isn’t a book for younger readers in any case. A magnificent saga of lives aligned with the marvels of trees, the intricacy and bounty of forests, and their catastrophic destruction under the onslaught of humanity’s ever-increasing population … A virtuoso at parallel narratives ... gripping… Powers’ sylvan tour de force is alive with gorgeous descriptions; continually surprising, often heartbreaking characters; complex suspense; unflinching scrutiny of pain; celebration of creativity and connection; and informed and expressive awe over the planet’s life force and its countless and miraculous manifestations … [A] profound and symphonic novel. Booklist (starred review)

Shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2018, The Overstory is a brilliant and passionate book about humans and their relationship to trees and the natural environment. This walk through the woods via words is a passionate paean to the natural world that prompts us to appreciate afresh our place on the planet. i news Neelay Mehta – “the child of Indian immigrants, Neelay spends his life building computers and creating computer programs in Northern California. Despite being paralyzed when he falls out of a tree as a child, he goes on to become a computer programming marvel, eventually creating a series of video games called Mastery inspired by trees, deforestation, and colonization.” Finnell, Joshua. "The Overstory [review]." Library Journal 143, no. 2 (February 2018): 96. Education Research Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed August 21, 2018). After enduring the Stanford prison experiment, Douglas Pavlicek enlists in the U.S. Air Force. Doug's plane is shot down, and he falls out into a banyan tree. He is discharged and becomes a caretaker on a horse ranch. While driving through Oregon, he is disturbed by the sight of clear-cut hillsides. He takes a job planting thousands of Douglas fir seedlings.Richard Powers’ structural approach to The Overstory breaks with traditional plotting. The result is two books in one, each designed to appeal to a different type of reader. The flaw in this approach is that the book either reads like a literary triumph that starts slow then builds to something satiating, or it reads like a bait-and-switch with a breathtaking start followed by a wearisome and long-winded trek to the conclusion. when you cut down a tree, what you make from it should be at least as miraculous as what you cut down. I did really enjoy the writing and the structure of the story. I thought it was really cool how things unfolded and came together. It felt very in line with the idea of branching that was brought up again and again through out the book. Sometimes the book felt really obvious though and I feel like it could have been stronger if it alluded to things sometimes instead of spelling it out every time. I think it might also be a little hard to read passage upon passage describing trees endlessly. But there is a cost to all this plurality and intellectual energy. Most of the stories are driven by ideas, which means that most of the characters are driven by ideas, too. Patricia gives up her life for the study of trees, Olivia dedicates herself to the eco-cause, Neelay to his virtual game, and so the ordinary diversity that tends to shape plot on a human scale doesn’t get much of a look-in: marriages, kids, jobs, moving house, fighting with friends. These feature but only abruptly, like the rapid shifts in a time-lapse photograph of plant growth. All the big things happen suddenly. Characters die, from gas poisoning or suicide or strokes; marriages collapse; people get arrested. In a book about the wisdom of trees, the stories that shape human life tend, by way of contrast perhaps, to be overdramatic.

I couldn't help seeing this book as something of a companion piece to Annie Proulx's Barkskins. Both centre on humanity's voracious and wanton destruction of aboriginal forest land, both are epic novels and both are mostly set in the United States. They diverge there - Powers is fascinated by the details of tree science and the importance of forests to the world's ecosystem and biodiversity, Proulx is more interested in the older history and the effect of deforestation on native Americans. For me, Barkskins was the more complete book. Nicholas Hoel – an artist of Norwegian and Irish descent who comes from a long line of farmers and whose great-great-great grandfather planted a chestnut tree that survived blight for decades and enthralled the Hoel family for generations. a b Jordan, Justine (July 23, 2018). "New voices, but less global: the Man Booker longlist overturns expectations". TheGuardian.com . Retrieved August 9, 2018. Patricia Westerford grows up as a deaf child obsessed with plants. She is extremely close with her father Bill, who takes her along on his work trips visiting farms in Ohio. He teaches her all about trees. When Patricia is fourteen, Bill dies in a car crash. Patricia studies botany in college, and then goes to forestry school. While working on her research there, she discovers that trees can communicate with each other through the gases they release. She publishes an article about this that at first becomes popular, but then is brutally condemned by a few prominent scientists. Patricia loses her job and becomes depressed, almost committing suicide by eating poisoned mushrooms. From the beginning, this is lovely, even though there were minor parts of this story I didn’t enjoy quite as much as others. There were times when I felt a point was being driven home again and again, which took away some of what I loved about this story, and occasionally it felt heavy and dense, for me, especially later in the book, but ultimately, this is one I won’t forget.

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Absorbing, thought-provoking and more than enough incentive to embrace your inner tree-hugger Culture Whisper The Overstory has the mix of science and fiction that I so love; it widens my understanding and respect for the creatures who share this planet KAREN JOY FOWLER Trees are silent sentinels witnessing the passing of generations, as human families are characterised in tree years through parts of the story. In this the pervading power of the natural world is contrasted against the fragile nature of human existence. Our environment has evolved drastically, but we haven’t. We still have many innate animal behaviours that are completely unsuited to the modern world. We are ill adapted to our concrete environments. There’s a reason why we feel a sense of peace and tranquillity when we visit a forest or an open landscape. It’s where we belong. NATHANIEL, RICH (May 11, 2018). "The Novel That Asks, 'What Went Wrong With Mankind?' ". The Atlantic . Retrieved August 9, 2018.