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sarakomo 's review for:
The Overstory
by Richard Powers
2022: A love letter to trees. If you like trees, at all, definitely read this book!
This book gives off big [a:Barbara Kingsolver|3541|Barbara Kingsolver|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1350499031p2/3541.jpg] and [b:Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants|17465709|Braiding Sweetgrass Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants|Robin Wall Kimmerer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1366775928l/17465709._SY75_.jpg|24362458] vibes, so if you liked either of them, you'll probably like this book. I spent a good chuck of this novel thinking about my own relationship to trees. I loved the concept of slowing down to work on "trees' time", and I loved the variety of relationships that were explored with the characters. Neelay's computer programming story was my favorite of the first half.
As mentioned in many other reviews, the second half of the book is not as strong as the first. It felt like Powers went to his editor with eight amazing short stories (the first half of the book) and then his editor said, "Now make them all overlap and intersect with each other!" I did not have any trouble following any of the characters and really enjoyed the slimmer glimpses into their worlds. The second half started to border on Love Actually vibes once their stories all started to overlap.
Also, there were several abrupt deaths in this novel, so many so that at the last one I literally said, "For crying out loud, another one?!" Just an observation! Definitely not a ton of happy endings for these characters.
This book gives off big [a:Barbara Kingsolver|3541|Barbara Kingsolver|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1350499031p2/3541.jpg] and [b:Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants|17465709|Braiding Sweetgrass Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants|Robin Wall Kimmerer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1366775928l/17465709._SY75_.jpg|24362458] vibes, so if you liked either of them, you'll probably like this book. I spent a good chuck of this novel thinking about my own relationship to trees. I loved the concept of slowing down to work on "trees' time", and I loved the variety of relationships that were explored with the characters. Neelay's computer programming story was my favorite of the first half.
As mentioned in many other reviews, the second half of the book is not as strong as the first. It felt like Powers went to his editor with eight amazing short stories (the first half of the book) and then his editor said, "Now make them all overlap and intersect with each other!" I did not have any trouble following any of the characters and really enjoyed the slimmer glimpses into their worlds. The second half started to border on Love Actually vibes once their stories all started to overlap.
Also, there were several abrupt deaths in this novel, so many so that at the last one I literally said, "For crying out loud, another one?!" Just an observation! Definitely not a ton of happy endings for these characters.