Richard Powers
The Overstory by Richard Powers is an ambitious, complex novel in four parts consisting of roots, trunk, crown, and seeds.
Roots consists of a series of extended, unrelated short stories in which each of the characters, unconnected to one another, is somehow linked to trees. In the remaining three sections, the characters’ lives intertwine as they become environmental advocates with an unflinching determination to save trees. They are convinced that the rapacious appetite for trees is hurling the planet toward self-destruction. They sabotage a lumber company’s machinery; block access to the forests; live on a platform high up in a tree to thwart attempts to cut it down.
The characters are an eclectic mix. Among them are a college student who becomes a staunch environmentalist after a near-death experience; a Silicon Valley engineer who makes millions designing computer games inspired by the Stanford arboretum trees; a scientist who discovers trees communicate with one another and who travels the planet collecting their seeds for preservation; a couple whose floundering marriage is saved by learning to identify the trees in their back yard. The different threads parallel one another, shift from one to the other in a dizzying pace, and eventually get tangled up together.
The narrative is replete with voluminous descriptions of trees in both poetic and scientific terms. Powers waxes eloquent about the majesty of trees and their invaluable contribution to the environment. His diction is Whitmanesque with its bubbling enthusiasm. His trees are so vibrant and alive that it is almost as if one can hear them chastising human beings for their self-destructive and short-sighted behaviors. His ability to personify succeeds to such a degree that we mourn with the characters when yet another giant redwood is felled.
Roots, with its strong character portrayals and interesting developments, is the strongest and most accessible section. The dizzying shifts in narrative threads in the remaining three sections can get confusing. The voluminous description of trees, while poetic and illuminating, leans towards heavy-handedness and tedium. And, finally, the brilliantly portrayed characters of the Roots section are regrettably replaced by pontificating mouthpieces in the remaining sections.
A disappointing second-half of the novel to what was a brilliant first half. Perhaps the book just wasn’t for me.