The Overstory

I'd heard praise of The Overstory from several different people, and Richard Powers sprawling Great American Eco-Novel did not disappoint.  While the main plot is just another dose of sober realism about humans running amuck on a planetary scale, I enjoyed the way Powers broke the overall narrative up into what is effectively a novel bookended by two collections of short stories.  The device of introducing the characters individually by capturing the entire sweep of their lives in a sort of flip-book animation was particularly effective at making them sympathetic.  Which was important for me, because I found that the book dragged a bit once the main "trunk" of the story got under way and the characters began to cross paths.  Despite writing that at some times felt too heavy and details that felt unnecessary, the narrative picked up speed as it went.  I also enjoyed the greater abstraction of the denouement chapters, particularly their sidelong brush with the 4 noble truths.  Here again though, I felt like better editing could have tightened things up and left us with a book that, while perhaps less soaringly and breathlessly epic, would have been more philosophically pointed -- the meaning of life is something we don't possess, but merely participate in.  These minor gripes aside though, The Overstory is a book that will stick with me for a long time as another prompt to stop, take a deep breath, and see what's going on.