A review by seamoonstone
The Overstory by Richard Powers

emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I am an anxious person. I fear many forms of loss, loss of the people and things I love, in ways I can imagine for as long as I allow myself to. I’m certainly not alone in this experience, though it can be quite isolating, and I can understand how this fear could manifest as anger, which is a lot easier to share than fear, it seems. I see a lot of anger around me these days, and I’m working on seeing that anger as another manifestation of fear, rather than a new threat to me. We are all in need of some help, but it can be hard to admit that when the offer of help isn’t visible or immediate.

I think the essence of this book is that the only way to save ourselves is to begin to understand each other. Maybe it’s egotistical to interpret the one in need of help as us (humans), but I think that’s what each hero learns in The Overstory. Trees save them, in a way, by giving each of them a purpose in a world that often offers only empty pleasures and superficial rewards (not to say that financial security is superficial in a capitalist society) that leave one feeling bankrupt, so to speak, and they are often criticized and criminalized for choosing to follow this path. But only when the connections are made, often through means other than our limited capacity for speech and language, when one character reaches out to another and offers a hand or a meal or prolonged eye contact, is progress made in our recovery. These connections are also made through art—the stories of a family oak tree, of an ancient scroll, of a woman formed out of bark and roots, provocative graffiti—because these stories in the form of art offer an understanding of our history, draw us in, and bridge the gap between isolation and connection. 
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