The Voices of Trees

This is a Leonberger Dog Blog but sometimes I post about other things such as this review and promotion of the Overstory by Richard Powers. This is a great Pulitzer Prize winning novel about Trees by Richard Powers.

Below is an overview of the four formats of The Overstory

  • Hardcover – Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company (April 3, 2018), ASIN : ‎ 039363552X, ISBN-13 :  978-0393635522, 512 pages, Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.85 pounds, Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches, it cost $13.61 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Paperback –  Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company (April 2, 2019), ASIN : ‎ 039335668X, ISBN-13 :  978-0393356687, 512 pages, Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.24 pounds, Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.2 x 8.3 inches, it cost $16.89 on US Amazon. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Kindle – Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company (April 3, 2018), ASIN : B073VX7HT4, ISBN-13 :  978-0393635539, 513 pages. It is currently $2.99 on Amazon.com. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
  • Audio Edition –  Publisher : Recorded Books (April 03, 2018), ASIN : B078PJ4Q9D, Listening Length : 22 hours and 58 minutes, it cost $0,99 with membership. Click here to order it from Amazon.com.
The cover features a brown circle and a background of the woods. There is also the title, author name, and a medal stating Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
Front cover of The Overstory by Richard Powers. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the paperback version of the book.

Amazon’s Description of The Overstory

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction

Winner of the William Dean Howells Medal

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize

Over One Year on the New York Times Bestseller List

Named One of the Best Books of the 21st Century by the New York Times Book Review

A New York Times Notable Book and a Washington Post, Time, Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year

“The best novel ever written about trees, and really just one of the best novels, period.” ―Ann Patchett

The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of―and paean to―the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours―vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

This is my five star amazon review of The Overstory

This Novel will Change how you view Trees and Life

The main characters in this epic story Nicholas Hoel (Watchman), Olivia Vandergriff (Maidenhair), Mimi Ma (Mulberry), Douglas Pavlicek (Doug-fir), Adam Appich (Maple), Dr. Patricia Westerford, Neelay Mehta, Dorothy Cazaly Brinkman, and Ray Brinkman, all have interesting and sometimes tragic life stories that somehow connects them to trees. Their life stories are told in a captivating but fast paced manner that sometimes seemed compressed but for a good reason.

The book did not just tell us about the current personalities of the characters without giving the history. Our personalities are partially formed by our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, cultures far away from where we live, by nature and by trees. In some cases, the history of several generations was covered in a couple of pages. I am a curious person, and I found this kind of novel character development powerful and very entertaining.

In a fashion that reminded me of Stephen King’s the stand, the life events of the characters and their family history bring them together in the defense of old growth redwood forest in Oregon. There are also hints of paranormal phenomena. In Oregon, things get very wild and even violent and it became difficult for me to put the book down. It felt very real and very tense and mistakes were made, bad mistakes. The book is certainly a page turner.

The Overstory asks whether humans are the only ones that matter by challenging human-centered perspectives and exploring the lives, consciousness, and value of trees. The book shows that other beings have their own valuable and interesting experiences, and presents scientific ideas that trees have a form of communication and intelligence. I learned that trees communicate with each other through a network of fungi in the soil. By looking up the facts about this I found out that this was not fiction made up by the author. There is an entire new science on this topic called mycorrhizal ecology or biocommunication, sometimes referred to as the “Wood Wide Web”. Dr. Patricia Westerford is based on a real person, Dr. Suzanne Simard of the University of British Columbia. The book also points out that we humans do not understand the amount of destruction that we are causing to the world’s forests. This is a book that speaks for the trees, but in addition, the trees speak for us.

This is one of the most fascinating novels that I’ve read. It has an important message that some of us will understand but that some of us may not grasp. In any case, I can certainly understand the books popularity. I highly recommend it.

The black and brown back cover features praise of the book provided by various prominent people.
Back cover of The Overstory by Richard Powers. Click on the image to go to the Amazon page for the Kindle version of the book.

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

44 thoughts on “The Voices of Trees”

    1. It is an interesting book with many captivating life stories. The trees are around for so long. The big old chestnut tree on Hoel’s farm stood through the depression that cost the Hoel’s 200 acres and sent half the family to Chicago. The radio shows that ruin Frank Jr.’s son’s for farming. The Hoel death in the south pacific and two Hoel guilty survivals. The Deeres and Caterpillars parading through the tractor shed. The barn that burns to the ground one night to the screams of helpless animals. The dozens of joyous weddings, christenings, and graduations. The lawsuit between cousins. The half a dozen adulteries. The two divorces sad enough to silence songbirds. One son’s unsuccessful campaign for state legilsature. The three surprise pregnancies….etc… and during all that time the old chestnut tree was photographed 600 times.

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  4. Yes when one learns about the trees in which the fungi mycelium network communicate and work beneath the grown and go from tree to tree among the forests…

    Sounds a book I know I would enjoy.. Thank you for sharing Thomas xx

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    1. Yes I have a feeling you would like. It feature so many stories about trees and the lives of people. Life of all kind is amazingly rich. Like I mentioned to Barbara above …..
      The trees are around for so long. The big old chestnut tree on Hoel’s farm stood through the depression that cost the Hoel’s 200 acres and sent half the family to Chicago. The radio shows that ruin Frank Jr.’s son’s for farming. The Hoel death in the south pacific and two Hoel guilty survivals. The Deeres and Caterpillars parading through the tractor shed. The barn that burns to the ground one night to the screams of helpless animals. The dozens of joyous weddings, christenings, and graduations. The lawsuit between cousins. The half a dozen adulteries. The two divorces sad enough to silence songbirds. One son’s unsuccessful campaign for state legilsature. The three surprise pregnancies….etc… and during all that time the old chestnut tree was photographed 600 times.

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    1. Maybe, but the book has many good captivating stories about the lives of people, like your books, and at the end there is stark warning about allowing your activism to lead you to destroy property and commit illegal acts. The ending was very sad. I did not mention that it my review because it would be a bad spoiler but since you probably won’t read the book I thought I’d mention that.

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  9. Thank you for this great post, Thomas. I’m going to check out Powers’s book. I can’t help but wonder what he would say about the destruction of 100,000 Amazon trees for a climate conference. Some things are beyond my comprehension.

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  11. Thank you for this insightful review of one of my favorite novels. I read The Overstory a few years ago and remember being powerfully moved by it. It was good to be reminded. I did not recall it being like The Stand, another of my favorites, but can see that now. Both books have an underlying sense of spirituality, warnings for humanity, and deep, compassionate character development. I appreciate that you understand the importance of what we’re learning about trees that is not fiction but IS based in science. I would like to reblog this review if that’s okay.

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    1. Yes I agree, it is strange how common the only-humans-matter thinking is. It is to the point where a lot of people mock those who care about something other than humans. About trees, they really do communicate via fungi. Thank you so much Robbie.

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  14. This review was a delight to read, thank you. It beckons the question. “Are trees older than humans?” and the answer is probably yes! I especially like the ‘Wood Wide Web’ I have always believed that tree communicate with each other which was reinforced when I saw ‘The Lord of the Rings’ movies. There are more truths in the natural world that we know. Thank you for liking my posts. Greetings from the UK.

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words wiseforward. As the book points out many trees are hundreds and even thousands of years old. Trees appeared on earth 400 million years ago and homo sapiens first appeared about 300,000 years ago. The global human life expectancy is 73 years but trees can live from a number of decades (short lived ones) to 5,000 years (long lived ones). Trees are definitely older than humans.

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