The Overstory is, quite frankly, a very long book. Both in page length, and otherwise, it takes a long time to get through. It is also a heavy book, one that in the context of current day deforestation left me with a pit in my stomach. It’s also a book worth reading, no matter how long or how desolate it left me.
The book starts off with little vignettes of all the characters, providing a backstory for each of them. Having not read the synopsis, I was a little confused at first whether this was a collection of short stories or a single story. Nonetheless, the snapshots were easy to follow, and captured my attention enough to keep going, even as someone who hates the rapid change of short stories.
Eventually, all these characters meet up and we see them interact with and become part of the fight against deforestation. I will say that as someone who is relatively good at remembering characters, I was a little confused. I found myself flipping back to the start to figure out who was who a few times, but it became more manageable with time. Each of the characters was unique and motivated in clearly distinct ways, and in general one of the best parts of the book.
My favorite part of The Overstory, though, was the description of trees. Powers clearly has a love of the natural world, and it shines through brilliantly. It helped me rediscover a wonder for just looking out the window and staring at the trees. The book was full of interesting facts and tidbits about trees, and they were interspersed naturally. For every moment that left me sad about the destruction of the natural world, there were just as many, if not more, moments where I fell in love it over and over.
The final thing I’ll say is that every person I’ve talked to (which is only a sample size of 3, to be fair) has put it down for a long time. I left it for about a month before picking it back up and finishing it in a day. One of the people still hasn’t finished it (after 4 months). Something about the 75% mark just takes it out of you, fair warning. The ending was fantastic (and tragic), if a little confusing.
Overall, it’s a fantastic book, and I definitely recommend you read it, even if only 75% of the way through. The wonder and tree facts were my favorite parts, and stood on their own outside of the plot.
