The Overstory
Review of the novel by Richard Powers
Almost great. The overarching idea is compelling, but the characters are not as fully drawn and alive as they need to be.
Our planet is on the brink of disaster. The environment is collapsing from human greed and ignorance, deriving from our short-term frame of reference.
In contrast to that is the perspective of trees that can live for hundreds, even thousands of years, and that in their own way and in their own time-scale, communicate and cooperate with one another.
The problem/the challenge is presented vividly. But the solution/the ending falls flat — like the whimper of our discontent…
The story begins in the 19th century on an Iowan farm — echoes of Willa Cather and Jane Smiley. Then it morphs into an appreciation of nature, with revelatory insights into the variety and complexity of trees, sometimes in the mode of Thoreau and Muir, and sometimes like an engaging and prophetic tutorial, like an extended Ted Talk. And at times it briefly, but convincingly shows mankind and the ensemble of characters from the unusual and enlightening perspective of the trees.
But the separate, sometimes overlapping tales of the half dozen main characters don’t come together in a satisfying way. Like in Game of Thrones, the narrative switches frequently from one story line to another, breaking away before the reader can emotionally bond and identify.
This is a story I’ll never forget, and I’ll always wish it went further, maybe twice as long, whatever it would take to bring the threads together, even venturing into magic, bringing characters back to life and making the impossible seem possible, just as I hope for the miracle that will save the world.
