THE OVERSTORY by Richard Powers

THE OVERSTORY

by

Richard Powers

            The Overstory, an opus about trees by Richard Powers, is the winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. And, it is an incredible reading experience.

            Powers’s twelfth novel is divided into four sections: Roots, Trunk, Crown, and Seeds. In Roots, we are introduced to nine disparate individuals whose commonality is that each has experiences, albeit unique, with trees. Although we all know trees, these individuals Know trees. As we progress through Trunk, Crown, and Seeds, we learn about their knowledge and follow them as their lives overlap in their pursuits to save the trees.

            When I began The Overstory, working my way through Roots, I did not particularly care for this book. I felt like I was reading a series of short stories where the only uniting factor was some experience or other involving a tree. I am not a lover of short story, and I feared the entire 500 plus pages was such a compilation. Happily, I was wrong. That initial learning of the disparate backstories of these individuals is crucial to the remainder of the book. As soon as I realized this – as soon as the pieces began to fit together – I started to fall in love with this book. And, that love deepened with the turning of each page.

By the time I completed The Overstory, I was dumbstruck and awestruck. Powers has done a wonderful job weaving together this masterful work about trees.

            The Overstory is more than just a Pulitzer-quality book; it is an unmatched reading experience that I highly recommend.