My Amazon and Goodreads review of The Overstory (Rating 4) – The Disappearing Story in Overstory. We read in The Overstory by Richard Powers that “The best argument in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.” So does this novel succeed as a story, or is it a polemic about saving the environment leafed out as fiction? Powers intertwines his story of the life of trees with that of nine individuals whose parallel journeys intersect. Both plants and people possess the traits we see outside (aboveground) and complex networks hidden within (belowground). Unfortunately, what begins as a very good story indeed gets overwhelmed by Powers’ urge to tell us everything he knows about trees. The story alas submerged, does the book succeed as an environmental tract? Do we learn what we can do to halt or even reverse the destruction? The disheartening conclusion I drew from The Overstory is that humans should do nothing other than observe and listen (gather data), leaving it to the trees themselves to speak and act. Some may find this solution satisfying, even uplifting. But, while I will never again regard trees without reverence, I ultimately found the book disappointing — neither a good story nor a good path through the world’s forests and jungles.
