"The Overstory" by Richard Powers
A bittersweet foray into the lost connection between man and nature, The Overstory tells the tale of nine people whose lives are affected by trees in some way. If you lament the burning of rain forests by the hundreds of acres, cry in anguish over the mistreatment of our planet's water supply, or even just frown in discontent at the guy in the lane next to you on the freeway tossing his cigarette butt out the window (a crime that should be punishable by 40 years hard labor), you will easily be able to conjure the empathy necessary to enjoy this Pulitzer Prize winner.
Beginning by introducing each of our protagonists through short story-esque chapters, Powers paints a vivid picture of each of their lives, the lives of their ancestors, and how they came to be who they are. Their childhoods are awash with both happiness and troubles, which grow thriving or stunted into teen hood, then solidify into adulthood. The bitter trials and tribulations that make up real life are not excluded. You will not be led by the hand into a fairy garden of realized dreams, of sugar-spun lies, of ignorant bliss. You will be down on the hard cement sponging away bits of brain matter from a gunshot suicide. You will be shaking in terror as your helicopter spins in flames into the forests of Southeast Asia during the most pointless ground conflict we've ever engaged in. You will spend the rest of your life wasting away, paralyzed from the waist down, in a wheelchair. You will grow attached to the lives of each of these nine people as you watch them grow, enjoy, suffer, breathe, love, and all the other verbs we humans use to describe the actions of life.
Before long, the characters stories begin to intertwine. Almost without realizing it, the chapter of one person will become the chapter of two, of three, of four, of the world. Like the roots of a tree, they grow together; they become a solid foundation that allows growth and survival. Their adventures in the world of environmental activism and research span decades.
Throughout the book you will learn the names of more trees than you thought possible. If you've read or watched American Psycho, prepare for the long ramblings of Bret Easton Ellis all over again. However, instead of hearing how Genesis really came into their own after the departure of Peter Gabriel (despite their brilliant progressive sound with him; though his solo work is phenomenal and you should be playing it from a boombox outside the window of your high school sweetheart), embracing the pop rock sounds of Phil Collins as the lead, particularly through the superb 1981 album, Abacab (though the previous year's Duke is also quite enjoyable), then of course the masterpiece live album, Three Sides Live (an album my father claims is among the best live performances and certainly the best Genesis album). Where the hell was I before I began this rambling? Right. Instead of hearing about Whitney Houston's angelic voice and Huey Lewis and the News' lyrical satires, you will spend pages after endless page of descriptions of mighty evergreen conifers like the douglas fir, or ancient mythological Asian ginkgos. Instead of inspiring awe at the sheer number of tree species, these Buzzfeed-like lists of trees and their idiosyncrasies mostly serves to inspire skipping paragraphs.
The second half of The Overstory is slightly lacking, relative to the first half. It certainly does not carry the same momentum. Nonetheless, Powers displays true compassion in his writing. His pain, the pain expertly displayed through the book's characters, is palpable. The felling of a tree feels like the death of a friend. Looking outside at the trees around you (if you are fortunate enough to live somewhere with the luxury of seeing trees) will fire up a sense of empathetic melancholy. Sitting beside the men and women you've become intimately acquainted with, you will experience the same disappointment in our species as you watch the endless destruction of millennia-old behemoth redwoods and their vast span of cousins, all in the name of profit and corporate expansion.
The previous sneerings at Greenpeace volunteers accosting you on the street for donations will become far more tolerable. Instead of silently brushing past the starry-eyed, green vested environmental science sophomore holding a clipboard of signatures, you might pause for a moment before your usual selfishness kicks back in. But maybe, just maybe, you'll stop and hear them out. Ultimately, the future is what we make of it. Should we come together as species and dedicate serious resources to preserving the life of those beings who provide us with oxygen (something we all kind of need...), we may very well find ourselves thriving alongside them. But should we look at the message with disdain, should we ignore Powers' message outright, our planet may soon be much quieter.
Beginning by introducing each of our protagonists through short story-esque chapters, Powers paints a vivid picture of each of their lives, the lives of their ancestors, and how they came to be who they are. Their childhoods are awash with both happiness and troubles, which grow thriving or stunted into teen hood, then solidify into adulthood. The bitter trials and tribulations that make up real life are not excluded. You will not be led by the hand into a fairy garden of realized dreams, of sugar-spun lies, of ignorant bliss. You will be down on the hard cement sponging away bits of brain matter from a gunshot suicide. You will be shaking in terror as your helicopter spins in flames into the forests of Southeast Asia during the most pointless ground conflict we've ever engaged in. You will spend the rest of your life wasting away, paralyzed from the waist down, in a wheelchair. You will grow attached to the lives of each of these nine people as you watch them grow, enjoy, suffer, breathe, love, and all the other verbs we humans use to describe the actions of life.
Before long, the characters stories begin to intertwine. Almost without realizing it, the chapter of one person will become the chapter of two, of three, of four, of the world. Like the roots of a tree, they grow together; they become a solid foundation that allows growth and survival. Their adventures in the world of environmental activism and research span decades.
Throughout the book you will learn the names of more trees than you thought possible. If you've read or watched American Psycho, prepare for the long ramblings of Bret Easton Ellis all over again. However, instead of hearing how Genesis really came into their own after the departure of Peter Gabriel (despite their brilliant progressive sound with him; though his solo work is phenomenal and you should be playing it from a boombox outside the window of your high school sweetheart), embracing the pop rock sounds of Phil Collins as the lead, particularly through the superb 1981 album, Abacab (though the previous year's Duke is also quite enjoyable), then of course the masterpiece live album, Three Sides Live (an album my father claims is among the best live performances and certainly the best Genesis album). Where the hell was I before I began this rambling? Right. Instead of hearing about Whitney Houston's angelic voice and Huey Lewis and the News' lyrical satires, you will spend pages after endless page of descriptions of mighty evergreen conifers like the douglas fir, or ancient mythological Asian ginkgos. Instead of inspiring awe at the sheer number of tree species, these Buzzfeed-like lists of trees and their idiosyncrasies mostly serves to inspire skipping paragraphs.
The second half of The Overstory is slightly lacking, relative to the first half. It certainly does not carry the same momentum. Nonetheless, Powers displays true compassion in his writing. His pain, the pain expertly displayed through the book's characters, is palpable. The felling of a tree feels like the death of a friend. Looking outside at the trees around you (if you are fortunate enough to live somewhere with the luxury of seeing trees) will fire up a sense of empathetic melancholy. Sitting beside the men and women you've become intimately acquainted with, you will experience the same disappointment in our species as you watch the endless destruction of millennia-old behemoth redwoods and their vast span of cousins, all in the name of profit and corporate expansion.
The previous sneerings at Greenpeace volunteers accosting you on the street for donations will become far more tolerable. Instead of silently brushing past the starry-eyed, green vested environmental science sophomore holding a clipboard of signatures, you might pause for a moment before your usual selfishness kicks back in. But maybe, just maybe, you'll stop and hear them out. Ultimately, the future is what we make of it. Should we come together as species and dedicate serious resources to preserving the life of those beings who provide us with oxygen (something we all kind of need...), we may very well find ourselves thriving alongside them. But should we look at the message with disdain, should we ignore Powers' message outright, our planet may soon be much quieter.
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