Call number
FIC POW
Collection
Genres
Publication
W. W. Norton & Company (2018), 512 pages
Description
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)
Media reviews
“Literary fiction has largely become co-opted by that belief that meaning is an entirely personal thing,” Powers says. “It’s embraced the idea that life is primarily a struggle of the individual psyche to come to terms with itself. Consequently, it’s become a commodity like a wood
Show More
chipper, or any other thing that can be rated in terms of utility.” [...]
“I want literature to be something other than it is today,” Powers says. “There was a time when our myths and legends and stories were about something greater than individual well-being. " Show Less
Acquiring tree consciousness, a precondition for learning how to live here on Earth, means learning what things grow and thrive here, independently of us.
We are phenomenally bad at experiencing, estimating, and conceiving of time. Our brains are shaped to pay attention to rapid movements against
Show More
stable backgrounds, and we’re almost blind to the slower, broader background drift. The technologies that we have built to defeat time—writing and recording and photographing and filming—can impair our memory (as Socrates feared) and collapse us even more densely into what psychologists call the “specious present,” which seems to get shorter all the time. Plants’ memory and sense of time is utterly alien to us. It’s almost impossible for a person to wrap her head around the idea that there are bristlecone pines in the White Mountains of California that have been slowly dying since before humans invented writing. Show Less
Library's review
"Oh, that's that book about trees, right?" Ah, yes, but so much more. This is one of those "Great American Novels" that captures a wide swath and part of the essence of this country (with some notable parts missing, but we'll give that an understanding pass for now--one novel can only do so much).
Show More
The trees, as sentient beings, form the core structure, with nine main characters whose generational stories weave with each other and their own unique relationships with trees, and provide a retelling of the U.S. environmental movement in the late 20th Century (following through with their lives up to present time). As the stories unfold and create a profound sense of interconnection (with each other and with the trees), there is a mixed feeling of doom and hope. May we all listen just a bit more closely. (Brian) Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
"To be human is to confuse a satisfying story with a meaningful one, and to mistake life for something huge with two legs." (383)
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)
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
Show More
field where "literary convention favors novelists who write narrowly about personal experience," and Powers himself has been quoted as complaining that “Literary fiction has largely become co-opted by that belief that meaning is an entirely personal thing.” None of which is to say that this book lacks vividly-realized characters with complex interiority. But it may perhaps account for why the comparanda that occurred to me when reading it were more science-fictional than "literary." 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)
Show Less
LibraryThing member EBT1002
This is a brilliant novel. Set over time and following several families with some connection to trees, it explores the intersectionality of all life and lives: trees, humans, the earth. Some of the final (or almost final) members of the families come together but not all; part of Powers' brilliance
Show More
is his success at creating connection even where one does not overtly exist. He clearly did a tremendous amount of research and I learned about biology and ecology even while engrossed in the characters' stories. His descriptions of the deep forests of the Pacific Northwest were perfectly evocative; I know those forests well and he captured their beauty and charm. The stories are compelling and the writing beautiful, the emotional impact is lasting. I finished it almost a week ago and I still feel like I am viewing the world differently. I've long believed in climate change but Powers weaves the fact of climate change into and through his characters' lives and established an essentialism that is, for me, profound. It's not just that climate change is happening; it's that, well, climate change is happening. Powers' novel is the first I've read that so effectively layers the story over that inevitability. Show Less
LibraryThing member Schmerguls
5640 The Overstory A Novel by Richard Powers (read 21 Jul 2019) (Pulitzer fiction prize in 2019) With my reading of this book I can again say I have read every book which has won the Pulitzer prize for fiction--by my count 93 books. Included in that group are many great books, such as the winner
Show More
for 1947, All the King's Men, which I read on 21 Sep 1958, and the winner for 1961, To Kill a Mockingbird, which I read on 8 May 1961, and the winner for 1975, The Killer Angels, which I read on 11 May 1981. And many others. But lately I find such winners disappointments. This year The Overstory won so I have now read it. I found it really a chore to read. It tells of people who seek to prevent the cutting down of trees, which I can see as an aim which might be sought. But the book is loaded with extravagant and hyperbolic language which I found extremely off=putting. I could not admire people sitting 200 feet in the air atop a tree as anything a sensible person would do. I thought there surely were better things to do to try to save trees and thought action in court would be interesting but the court action is passed over with little explanation . So I read the over 500 pages in the book and was surely glad to reach the last page. As I read I thought how great it would be to be reading something more sensible and meaningful. I hope next year the Pulitzer prize for fiction will be given to fiction more grounded in reality. Show Less
LibraryThing member browner56
Three generations of an Iowa family has been taking monthly pictures of a chestnut tree in their yard for almost a century, although they can no longer remember why. The daughter of a Chinese immigrant must carry on after her father commits suicide under the crumbling mulberry in the family’s
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.
Show More
yard. A socially awkward Illinois boy grows up with the maple tree planted to commemorate his birth as his only constant companion. A Minnesota couple on their first date audition for an amateur production of Macbeth and fall in love while the oaks of Birnam Wood march to Dunsinane. Near the end of the Vietnam war, a serviceman ejects from his burning plane only to have his plunge broken—and his life saved—by the branches of a banyan tree. In California, a paraplegic computer programmer finds inspiration for his next project while staring at the exotic grove on the campus where he works. A botanist finds her way back from professional disgrace in the Oregon woods amongst the Douglas firs she loves so much.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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
In an interview, Richard Powers stated about The Overstory, "The whole book is a simple question: What would it take to make you give the unquestioning sacredness that you give to humanity to other things." Like many of his books, The Overstory contains a healthy dose of science, in this case
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
Show More
ecology and the destruction of the planet by humans, but don't let that turn you off--there are unique and relatable characters, a compelling, page-turning plot, and it all fits together like a jigsaw puzzle.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
Show Less
LibraryThing member chrisblocker
What is propaganda? I'd define propaganda as the dispersal of information that lacks objectivity in order to push an agenda. Modern society adds a negative connotation to the word: propaganda is the work of a sinister force—but this isn't the case. One can place the propaganda label on something
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.
Show More
they themselves support. The Overstory is propaganda, and though I love trees and agree with many of the sentiments expressed in this novel, such blatant eco-grandstanding has no place in my fiction.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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member nbmars
This book is all about Interconnectivity, not just between and among individuals, but between people and nature. Powers weaves a rich tale of how the lives of nine unrelated people come together and cross paths in an eerie way somehow connected to and influenced by trees. The understory of The
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)
Show More
Overstory consists of the machinations of the human characters, but the uniting theme of the entire book (the overstory) is that humans are mindlessly destroying the earth’s forests even though they (the humans) actually need those forests for their own continued survival. 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)
Show Less
LibraryThing member wvlibrarydude
Like my friend Linda, this book is difficult for me to review. I want to warn readers that this is not a page turning, heavily plot driven book. There is purposeful structure here, and I see from other reviews that people were confused about the beginning the middle and the end. The chapters pretty
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!
Show More
much explain it. The Roots are a collection of stories focused on the main characters throughout the novel. The trunk is all of their stories coming together towards the crown, which spreads out and blooms, while the finale is the Hope for the future with seeds. This is heavily focused on characters, their interactions with each other, and their growing understanding of the plant world around them. I was also struck by the poetic language at times. Richard powers is a formidable author, to tackle such a large monumental topic, with search skillful writing.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!
Show Less
LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
Richard Powers's latest novel begins with several chapters that read like short stories in which a person's connection to a specific kind of tree is explored. This part of the novel is excellent. From there, Powers widens the story and the various characters interact in different ways as each one
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.
Show More
reaches the conclusion that saving the trees is important. But the action they end up taking has deadly results. 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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member brianinbuffalo
Four stars for ambition. Four stars for writing. One star for overall execution/editing/enjoyment. Having been bedazzled by Powers’ “Bewilderment”, I was eager to read his Pulitzer Prize-winning book. I had mild reservations when I saw the work’s girth, but I reminded myself that Powers had
Show More
penned one of my favorite books over the past couple years. Surprisingly, I was so bored by “The Overstory” that I almost stopped reading it three times. I finally called it quits two-thirds of the way through this agonizingly slow-moving book. Perhaps if Powers had focused on a few key characters and turned in a tome half the length, this ode to trees may have been more effective. With apologies to the Pulitzer judges, “The Overstory” is grossly overrated. Show Less
LibraryThing member richardderus
The sections of the book are Roots, Trunk, Crown, and Seeds. There are nine characters and an indeterminate (meaning I couldn't keep track, they all sounded the same to me) number of trees. What does it mean to be a tree?
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.
This is a philosophical question up there with "why is there air?" and I, like
Show More
Bill Cosby fifty-plus years ago, answer, "I dunno, to fill up basketballs?" My eyes rolled so far back that I saw my brain when I read, "We all travel the Milky Way together, trees and men," and lemme tell ya was I tempted to slip this back into the return slot at the library right there and then. I persevered, however. Then an awful thing happens to Nick, whereupon he observes: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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member labdaddy4
There were times the writing brought me to tears, there were times I felt lost, and there were times I was educated. This is a masterful work - a meaningful work. I normally don’t enjoy being lectured but this was different, this was a rare literary experience - one that had a real impact. I wish
Show More
the tone had been more optimistic but I understand why it couldn’t be - it told the truth and the truth is so very ugly and sad. At times this book felt like a scream and a plea and a prayer all rolled up together. Show Less
LibraryThing member debbie13410
I didn't finish it because my library loan ended. I really liked the short stories. I hear it gets weirder after that so I guess I didnt miss anything.
LibraryThing member nmele
There were times when I wondered how Powers would draw all his many plot threads and characters together, but I shouldn't have doubted. This is a sprawling novel which spans generations and genres, tied together by trees: their overstory, their abuse by humans, and their value. It is also fun to
Show More
read. Show Less
LibraryThing member kukulaj
The book really gripped me. I read it in three days. Very moving.
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.
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
Show More
just work here as a symbol of the broader biosphere. 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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member booklove2
A 500 page novel about trees? Yes, please! But what is lovely here is that Powers has a fantastic ability to split the stage between both the trees, and also a vast cast of human characters. I was enthralled with most of the characters' life story in only twenty or so pages. An excellent
Show More
introduction to the characters that was neither too much or too little. That might be Powers best trick here, and also my favorite part of the book. The chapters in the beginning that each character has on their own, but also shows the impact trees had on their life. But the overall layout of the book is genius: with sections of the book called 'roots', 'trunk', 'crown', and 'seeds', the characters beginnings start in the 'roots' section, the characters start to come together in the 'trunk', mainly to fight for the trees. The characters separate again in 'crown' like the branches of a tree, and what will come next, for the characters and humans in general in 'seeds'. Absolutely brilliant. With the setup chapters in the beginning, I was completely enthralled, especially with the amazing job of making me cry about some of these characters within twenty pages. Some characters might fall into a tree and be saved in Vietnam, others might fall out of a tree and be permanently damaged. But the larger chunk of the book seemed to take too much space for what plot there was. And the end definitely could have been bigger with what comes later. The book hints at something after humans, and I would have liked to see that explored more. So much could be done there! However, the always surprising notes about trees are there on every page, worth reading the book alone, and Powers probably could have filled another book with these tree facts. I think part of what Powers wanted to do was show each reader how little they actually know about trees, especially to get them to care more about trees than they probably already do. I have always thought trees are amazing and essential. They create oxygen, if there needs to be any other reason! This is the first book I've read by Powers and I can't help but think that this one is different from the others. Maybe more of an urgent message than the others? But it certainly won't stop me from being eager to read more from him. Show Less
LibraryThing member ozzer
Powers has built a career on telling stories at the interface between literature and science. THE OVERSTORY is no exception. This novel tells the stories of a group of people who come to see environmental degradation as catastrophic for trees. It is overly ambitious in many ways. The themes are big
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.
Show More
and include man’s connectedness to nature, the struggle between profit and conservation, and the tension between complacency and activism in the face of catastrophe. The settings range all over the country and the century, but come to focus in the Pacific Northwest during the 90’s when activists confronted the timber industry. All of the characters are plainly idealists. There is a scientist whose research focuses on how trees communicate; an Indian-American software engineer who comes to see the relationship between botanical genetics and computer games after becoming disabled as a child by falling out of a tree; a bored college student who escapes death and strangely becomes compelled to activism for trees; a psych grad student who aimlessly wanders into a dissertation topic on the personalities of those who become environmental activists; an artist whose family annually documents the minute changes in a chestnut tree on their Iowa farm; a Vietnam vet saved by a fig tree when he was shot down; an Asian-American woman whose family escaped China and was invested in mulberry trees; and a disabled patent attorney who becomes a compulsive reader. Whew! Each plotline develops independently, but they merge as the novel develops much like Powers’ structure reflecting the anatomy of trees: Roots, Trunk, Crown and Seeds.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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member JFBallenger
This new novel by Richard Powers is absolutely great. Nothing I say could do it justice, but if you're struggling to imagine a future for us in the face the increasingly ominous news of climate catastrophe this may be the book you need.
LibraryThing member msf59
“The Northwest has more miles of logging road than public highway. More miles of logging road than streams. The country has enough to circle the Earth a dozen times. The cost of cutting them is tax-deductible...”
“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.
“The world had six trillion trees, when people showed up. Half remain. Half again
Show More
more will disappear, in a hundred years.”“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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member JosephKing6602
Another masterpiece! Very engaging content; mix of science and story-telling and character development. This book was more accessible than some of his other books. He remains one of my favorite authors; andi always anticipate reading his books, this one did NOT disappoint.
LibraryThing member brenzi
As I read this book I kept thinking this has got to be Powers’ masterpiece, the best thing he’s ever done, his major life achievement, something he’s been working on for most of his life. It’s hard to think anything different now that I’ve finished the book. The detailed research is
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.
Show More
rendered on each and every page: trees, all kinds of trees, linden, oak, maple mulberry, banyan, douglas fir, fig, beech aspen, ash, and the mighty American chestnut to name a few, are all brought to life on these pages. To say I knew nothing about trees would be the understatement of all time. But I do now and I found this book compelling on so many levels.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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member norabelle414
(Audiobook narrated by Suzanne Toren)
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.
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
Show More
action, and then go their separate ways.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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member witchyrichy
I am a tree hugger at heart and had sort of avoided The Overstory even though I bought a used copy thinking I would read it for the American Author Challenge. I knew it would be a challenge to read about the deceit and devastation practiced in the name of progress that tried hard to wipe out the
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.
Show More
Native Americans, the buffalo and the ancient trees, just to name a few. As you can see from the pictures I've posted, I live amongst trees here at the farm, and my husband and I own ten acres of wooded land along a creek where we once considered building a house but may now just preserve it from development as long as we can.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.
Show Less
LibraryThing member bell7
"To be human is to confuse a satisfying story with a meaningful one, and to mistake life for something huge with two legs. No: life is mobilized on a vastly larger scale, and the world is failing precisely because no novel can make the contest for the world seem as compelling as the struggles
This is a story about trees. There's really no other way to describe it. Yes, there are "lost people" we meet along the way, but the real story is the way in which humans have become divided from the natural world, and whether or not they can - or care enough to - reverse the damage. Covering generations (only a brief moment to a tree), this sweeping story begins with a chestnut in the Midwest, tells the story of clearcutting the redwood forests and the environmentalists who opposed it in the 90s, right up to the present day. The characters, only some of whom ever meet in person, nonetheless connect to each other much like an old forest with intersecting roots.
Reading the book was a unique experience. I enjoyed reading the first half of the book immensely, enjoying the beautiful sentences and descriptions, and the slow unfolding of each character's story. But it is long and meandering, and my interest flagged at times. There was a streak of reading towards the end that was immensely difficult, because you wonder if anything the characters have done meant anything, have accomplished anything. The story was successful in giving me a lot of information about trees, much of which I did not know, and making me think about why I prefer to take walks outside. It made me want to read up on trees and learn more about them. It left me continuing to ponder the story long after I'd turned the last page, and paying attention to my outdoor surroundings more. At the same time, the actual experience of reading it was excruciating at times. Would I recommend it? Only to certain readers willing to wrestle an ambitiously thought-provoking, ponderous tome.
Show More
between a few lost people."This is a story about trees. There's really no other way to describe it. Yes, there are "lost people" we meet along the way, but the real story is the way in which humans have become divided from the natural world, and whether or not they can - or care enough to - reverse the damage. Covering generations (only a brief moment to a tree), this sweeping story begins with a chestnut in the Midwest, tells the story of clearcutting the redwood forests and the environmentalists who opposed it in the 90s, right up to the present day. The characters, only some of whom ever meet in person, nonetheless connect to each other much like an old forest with intersecting roots.
Reading the book was a unique experience. I enjoyed reading the first half of the book immensely, enjoying the beautiful sentences and descriptions, and the slow unfolding of each character's story. But it is long and meandering, and my interest flagged at times. There was a streak of reading towards the end that was immensely difficult, because you wonder if anything the characters have done meant anything, have accomplished anything. The story was successful in giving me a lot of information about trees, much of which I did not know, and making me think about why I prefer to take walks outside. It made me want to read up on trees and learn more about them. It left me continuing to ponder the story long after I'd turned the last page, and paying attention to my outdoor surroundings more. At the same time, the actual experience of reading it was excruciating at times. Would I recommend it? Only to certain readers willing to wrestle an ambitiously thought-provoking, ponderous tome.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kaydern
Sometimes I read a paragraph that causes the last fuck I have for a book to physically leave my body. That happened while I was reading “The Overstory” by Richard Powers. Just. Just read the quote and if you still want to read the book afterwards, I won't stop you.
“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.
“Two weeks in a house
Show More
together in a midwestern midwinter, and he doesn't even try to touch her. That's the only delusional part. And she knows he won't. Her body, around him, is untainted by anything so crude as nervousness. She's no warier of him than a lake's surface is wary of the wind.”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.
Show Less
Awards
Booker Prize (Longlist — 2018)
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2020)
Pulitzer Prize (Winner — Fiction — 2019)
The Morning News Tournament of Books (Quarterfinalist — 2019)
Indies Choice Book Award (Honor Book — Adult Fiction — 2019)
Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Runner-Up — Fiction — 2019)
PEN/Faulkner Award (Finalist — 2019)
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Longlist — Fiction — 2019)
Chautauqua Prize (Shortlist — 2019)
BookTube Prize (Octofinalist — Fiction — 2019)
PEN/Jean Stein Book Award (Finalist — 2019)
William Dean Howells Medal (2020)
Wissensbuch des Jahres (2019)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Fiction — 2018)
NPR: Books We Love (2018)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction — 2018)
Notable Books List (Fiction — 2019)
New York Public Library Best Books: For Adults (Fiction — 2018)
Pages
512
ISBN
039363552X / 9780393635522