Reviews

L'arbre-Monde by Richard Powers

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momoclouds's review against another edition

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challenging inspiring tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

reydeam's review against another edition

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4.0

“Trees fall with spectacular crashes. But planting is silent and growth is invisible.”

The Overstory was cleverly written in such a way that I couldn’t help but find myself ever increasingly interested in the beauty of trees and forestry alongside the lives of 10 people who were vastly different yet connected by their interactions with trees. The human aspects - the overstory - had storyline threads that told of human errors, decisions, consequences, and interpersonal relationships while beautifully showing how our interactions are intertwined with that of nature. I was enthralled by the storyline especially that of the trees and forestry.

BUT, there were some downsides: the very beginning was slow and difficult to get into (I almost put it down); it was environmentally preachy at times; the activists where shown as extreme, but their extremes were believable; I wasn’t all that much interested in the lives of the characters except for 3 (maybe 4) which made this difficult for a character driven reader such as myself; the length of the book took almost 23 hrs of listening time (I think it could’ve been shorter).

Besides the downsides, I am glad I read this book via audio. I liked the narration, and while I found myself lacking interest in many of the characters, the main character (being the trees) greatly enthralled me. I have already been incredibly fascinated with trees —so many stories they contain, and so magnificent especially as they change through the seasons —but now, I also find myself thinking about and/or pausing to conserve the resources of trees. I came away from this book with even greater appreciation for trees than I already had. The book did a superb job in that regard.

This is one story that I will not easily forget.

//⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ .5 //

jfos's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

eleonora_s's review against another edition

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4.0

I loved the first part of this book -- the roots, how everyone has, in their own way, a connection to trees. I planted a tree as part of my wedding ceremony and I already came in with a deep deep appreciation for trees. The first part of this book made my life feel small compared to that of trees in the best possible way.

The middle part of this book... is a bit weird. It felt very cliche. There is this radical group of "tree huggers" and one leader calls for non-violence while the other calls for "violence" (i.e., property destruction) and they don't get along. It felt very Hollywood and not realistic?

What really didn't sit right with me is that the author equated property destruction with violence and once the characters began engaging in property destruction ~~ that's when everything went wrong ~~~.

Spoiler

And then after their "phase" of radicalism they all went back to their "normal" lives for like 20 years.

IDK I guess I didn't like the way it portrayed activism as a phase and not as a lifelong process.
Overall, I am not sure what Powers is intending the message to be... Yeah trees are cool, and yeah we are fucking up, yeah some people are trying to change things and they also fuck up, but what's next? That's it?

But I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed following each character's story. I just wish there were more positive examples of what true life-long environmental activism can look like.

lazwright's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

jerry_beansman's review against another edition

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3.0

Absolutely hate that I didn’t end up hating this by the end. Gobs of deeply sexist and ableist stuff in here, not to mention all the white people saying they need to become indigenous and then some v thin indigenous characters only showing up in the last 10 pages to help a white guy. Generally dismal, cynical view of people as opposition to nature that only kinda changed by the end. Richard Powers we’re BEGGING you to read Braiding Sweetgrass.