overstory: trees and stories
This is my first book review and I lost my bookmarks and notes because my ereader decided to reset itself, so we will have to rely on my vague memory for this one.
tldr
Overstory uses an unconventional structure. Unlike a lot of fiction centered around people, Richard Powers has made trees the protagonist and uses a large cast of characters that rely on, and later fight for, trees. The book is long, the start and end are strong. Since Powers wanted to run so many wildly different plot lines and played around with time, he seems to unexpectedly hop around plot lines and the development gets boring during the middle chapters. In the final chapters, plot lines start to merge and characters meet which might be a bit hard to follow along but is worth it. Lengthy book, unique structure, beautiful prose to personify trees. Makes you appreciate them. 6/10
Why did I read this?
It had been a long time since I finished a book, so I decided to find something that I was certain I would be able to finish off. My metric of deciding the best book to read was to use the Pulitzer Prize Winner's list (not the very best metric, admittedly). There, I found Overstory to be quite unique, with a very different perspective of how fiction could be written.
About the Author
Richard Powers spent his early school years in Thailand after his father accepted a position as a principal. He says that early dislocation was eye opening and opened him up to creative activities, learning instruments. He spent a lot of time in the landscape, on the beaches, snorkelling. These experiences definitely contributed to come up with the most unique style I have seen in a while.
What's so special?
Overstory stands out from the sea of all other fiction books because this book doesn't revolve around people. Fiction typically has a plot with some person being the center of the storyline but Powers did something different: make trees the center of the plot and people as the side characters. How can you make something that doesn't talk or walk a protagonist of a 500-page novel? Powers has pulled off a wonderful job giving trees what feels like a voice. I can see why it won the Pulitzer.
The Plot
Powers uses a lot of characters to run the show. An artist from the Hoel family that inherits the only chestnut in Iowa. A paralyzed prodigy, who spent his days programming and going on to run a multi-million dollar game franchise. A soldier (once also a subject for the Stanford Prison experiment) who jumps from a plane and lands in a tree. A first-generation Chinese American girl who goes on to become a talented ceramic engineer. A lawyer marries a stenographer, who suffer childlessness and ups and downs in their relationship. A kid who develops interests in ant colonies and goes on to study psychology. Patricia, a dendrologist who spends her life surviving in the academia to prove that trees can communicate which gets discredited for a long time. An undergrad student that spends her college life partying until she gets electrocuted and gets a revelation to do something big.
Throughout the novel, Powers is trying to run all the stories in parallel. He keeps hopping around, giving turns to place every character in the spotlight for a limited time frame. Every time a plot line reaches climax, he switches it, trying to keep the reader hooked. I honestly felt frustrated getting the same treatment over and over again, feeling like I was forced to read something else while I wanted to continue with the previous plot line. Again, this is an unconventional piece of literature, so this was expected. A lot of storylines had some sort of gut-wrenching twists which really surprised me but as I progressed through the novel, I got good at anticipating the plot-twists.
A lot of the characters go on to realize, one way or another, that trees play a huge role in their lives and they must be saved. They had these revelations that they must dedicate the rest of their lives to eco-terrorism. The dendrologist, however, was an exception to this as she had one of the most progressive plot developments out of all characters that felt realistic and relatable. Her struggles in working in academia were something I personally experienced, perhaps that's why I liked her the most. Another thing I found interesting was Power's emphasis on the characters' upbringing and how a lot of them were prodigies in their said interests. I feel like this is something Powers definitely went through himself and laid a good emphasis on how children usually have a burning passion for something and go on to work in it (Unlike Adam Appich, who lost his charm in later years but redeveloped a passion for something else).
As the plot lines gained momentum, powers started to merge them together. Another powerful addition was using time as a dimension which really added a layer to the reading experience. I feel this approach gets a lot of praise these days, specifically Christopher Nolan for his Interstellar and Interstellar. Playing with time can be hard to master but if executed properly, storytelling gets to a whole different level. Everyone had wildly different lives and in order to bring them on to the same page, the plot lines had a very boring development during the middle chapters. I really had to push myself through them. As he started to merge the plot lines, it really got hard to track down who met whom and how are they developing in the bigger image. This might not be the same for everyone, because I am not the best reader out there and haven't read such literature previously.
I read someone's review claiming that Powers had thought out the plot before writing it and couldn't leave out anything, which I agree to some extent. There is definitely some poetic stuff going on with how trees play a role in so many different lives and the metaphors he uses which might be enjoyable but I couldn't piece a lot of it together because he would switch storylines too abruptly. Maybe, I might reread to get a second look at this.
One of the best parts about the entire story are Powers attempts to bring life to the trees. Every page, he does this CPR using beautiful prose to bring trees back to life. These will probably be my favorite parts of the novel. If somebody wants to learn how to describe the grandeur of trees, this is probably the best book for it. He has absolutely done justice to one of the coolest things in mother nature. Worth reading for the plot? Maybe. Worth the Pulitzer Prize? Absolutely