The Overstory: A Novel
The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of―and paean to―the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. 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.
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Community Reviews
Breathtaking. So many plots converging to create just a beautiful read. It’s not for everyone. But my god I loved this book.
In a New York Times review, Barbara Kingsolver notes:
"Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim. People will only read stories about people, as this author knows perfectly well."
Problem is? These people are insufferable. More trees please.
Now why did I so fully embrace Barkskins (Proulx) and yet found this so tiresome?
Perhaps the hubristic Dickensian characters of Barkskins are at a remove that makes them more palatable to my imagination.
"Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim. People will only read stories about people, as this author knows perfectly well."
Problem is? These people are insufferable. More trees please.
Now why did I so fully embrace Barkskins (Proulx) and yet found this so tiresome?
Perhaps the hubristic Dickensian characters of Barkskins are at a remove that makes them more palatable to my imagination.
There's too much going on in this book to summarize. Ask me about it over 3 beers. Each beer will represent one theme, plot, and narrative. We will drink all 3 beers separately, then at the same time, then we will mix them all together and pour them on each others' heads in one glorious unifying testament to the wet and written word.
Wow. This was a rollercoaster. A fable, structured in a way no book I've ever read was structured, focusing on principles of Gaia. First off, the structure - Root, Trunk, Crown, Seeds. It was the perfect device for this story of the Earth - as told to 8 humans through trees. The individuals (one couple) all are present with strong connections to forests or trees in the roots. Then in the Trunk, a subset of them come together literally and figuratively to enact their mission. Those not in that subset connect in later to bring meaning to the mission. Canopy and Seeds complete the metaphor and provide hope for the rest of us that our Earth will survive. This was a pleasure to read and left me wanting to know more about the characters, although at the end much is implied.
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