The Overstory

THE OVERSTORY

by Richard Powers

 

Awards: Pulitzer Winner 2019

 

Nominations: Booker Finalist 2018, Carnegie Longlist 2019, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2019, Dublin Longlist 2020, PEN/Faulkner Finalist 2019, PEN/Jean Stein Finalist 2019

 

Date Read: June 30, 2023

 

The Overstory is almost a series of short stories that interweave, all outlining the relationship these characters have with nature, specifically trees. At first glance, a reader might think: what kind of profound relationship with trees could occupy over 500 pages of text? The answer is simple. Richard Powers. His “powers,” if you will, should never be underestimated.

 

Nicholas Hoel is an artist descended from a long line of Iowan farmers. Their property includes one remaining chestnut that has been photographed every month for about 20 years. Nicholas has inherited these photographs and his art is inspired by them. When he connects with Olivia, he has been living in near hibernation after losing his entire family to carbon monoxide poisoning.

 

Mimi Ma is an engineering consultant who travels the world. When a patch of trees outside her office window are one day completely cleared, she loses her mind and plunges into the world of eco-activism. She will never be able to forget finding her pieces of her father’s brains on the mulberry tree in the backyard, a tree he planted right after he was married.

 

Adam Appich is a nerd with 5 siblings, one of whom disappears forever. Each sibling has a tree planted at their birth and they all argue whose tree is the best. Adam is an enterprising, incredibly smart ne’er-do-well who reads an author’s book and it changes his life. After pestering the author to teach him, he is accepted for graduate work at UC Santa Cruz. Adam is exposed to the world of eco-activism because he is studying activist psychology and when he spends time with two activists occupying a tree, their arguments enthrall him in a way his graduate work has failed to do.

 

Ray Brinkman & Dorothy Cazaly eventually become husband and wife after a great deal of uncertainty on her part. He’s a lawyer and she’s a stenographer. They go on wild dates, like auditioning for community theater (and landing the parts), going skydiving, singing in competitions. As the years slide by, Dorothy becomes bored and embarks on an affair with one foot out the door when Ray has a massive stroke. He is no longer able to walk, talk or care for himself. Through trees, Ray and Dorothy find their way back to each other and begin looking at the world through a different lens.

 

Douglas Pavlicek is a fly-by-night kind of guy, going wherever the wind blows. He volunteers to participate in the famous prison experiment for $15/day then enlists in Vietnam, serving in Thailand. On a restocking flight, his plane is shot down and is saved by an ancient banyan. When he discovers how forests are being clear-cut just about everywhere, he becomes a seedling planter but is outraged when he finds out his efforts only allow the logging companies to increase their yield.

 

Neelay Mehta is from Indian immigrant parents and his father works in the very origins of Silicon Valley. Father and son build a computer from a kit and Neelay is instantly hooked. He accidentally (or maybe not) slips from an oak and becomes a paraplegic. Nevertheless, he’s accepted at Stanford’s computer science program and is one day inspired by the diverse trees in Stanford’s gardens. He becomes determined to build the first multiplayer game and he succeeds beyond anyone’s imagination. As the game evolves, he realizes the simulated world is no different than real life, with players trying to amass as much wealth and resources as they would in real life.

 

Patricia Westerford was born deaf and possibly autistic but her father shows her an entire world in the trees of the forest, a language only she can understand. She excels at botany, doing graduate work and getting her doctorate. She discovers that trees can communicate when under attack, signaling one another and releasing phyto-protectants. She further discovers that trees connect with one another in their underground root systems. Her research is mocked and discredited as absurd. After many years as a ranger, others prove her work is valid and she is recruited to work on new research. Patricia spends her life trying to understand these complex ecosystems, to extend their life and to protect what little forests remain on earth.

 

Olivia Vandergriff is in her senior year in college, studying to be an actuary for disaster. Having just divorced her husband of two years, a guy she married her sophomore year of college on a whim, she celebrates with some strong hash and a shower. Still wet and looking to rub one out, she reaches to turn off her lamp and is electrocuted. Olivia actually dies for several minutes and comes back to life. When she does, she realizes the world is trying to communicate with her, telling her to protect the natural earth. She joins up with Nick and they join an eco-activist group.

 

While many of these characters are compeled to join activist groups, they become frustrated and disillusioned by the priority of profit rather than almost certain death if trees are not preserved. They determine the only way to get their message across is to descend into eco-terrorism, setting fires, vandalizing tree markings, sabotaging logging equipment. The last fire they set kills Olivia. They five who participated in that act know their lives are on the line now and they all disperse to avoid prosecution.

 

Over the years, some views shift, lives become more responsible, the world doesn’t change. Perhaps they, as do we all, get better at shutting out the noise of our collective doom. Some are eventually caught and prosecuted but all live with the actions of their past and try to weigh the seriousness of their crimes with the seriousness of what they were trying to accomplish. There is no easy equation to make this measure.

 

Powers is a freaking genius, I swear. Every novel I have read from him is so well researched, plotted out and stimulates both mind and heart. He is one of my top 5 favorite writers right now and it was a true pleasure reading this novel. I will never look at trees the same way and have a newfound love for these leafy beings that have been everywhere from the start.