By Kavita Mistry
by Cathryn Conroy (Dublin, Ohio): I thought this book would be a challenge to read. And it was. But not for the reasons I anticipated. I thought would be big, bulky, and dense. After all, it did with the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 2019. And it is big. And little bulky. And somewhat dense. But the challenge I encountered was closing the book so I could deal with real life.
Wow! Just that…wow! This is a book unlike any other I have read.
First, there are stories. So many stories. Gripping, compelling, and captivating stories. Stories I wanted to keep reading to find out more…find out how they continued…and eventually how they ended.
And then there are facts. So many facts. This is one of those novels that is really nonfiction at its core, but it’s disguised in the stories so you don’t realize at the time how many facts you’re learning.
Masterfully and creatively written by Richard Powers, this is the story of trees. Don’t let that dissuade you. This is one of the best books you’ll ever read. A plot description is far too difficult to write. Instead, we have characters—nine of them—and their stories that define this book. Some of their stories intertwine, as tree roots do deep within the ground, and some only glance upon each other, barely touching, as tree branches do.
The characters: • Nicholas Hoel: The descendant of men who loved chestnut trees, Nicholas is the last in the line on the family farm in Iowa. And when I say last, I mean it…the last one. He is a talented artist.
• Mimi Ma: The daughter of a Chinese immigrant, Mimi becomes an engineer, but all her genius and business acumen is for naught when a stand of pine trees she loves is destroyed and her life changes forever.
• Adam Appich: A brilliant graduate student, Adam is researching his dissertation in social psychology when his field work encounters a glitch: He crosses over the line.
• Ray Brickman and Dorothy Cazaly: He loves Dorothy. She is fiercely (fiercely!!) independent. But their lives are forever changed with a tragic development.
• Douglas Pavlicek: A Vietnam veteran whose life was quite literally saved by a tree, he becomes incensed when the city is summarily cutting down pine trees for future development.
• Neelay Mehta: This boy genius creates a video game that makes him one of the wealthiest men in the world, but a childhood accident has left him paralyzed. The trees talk to him.
• Patricia Westerford: Hard of hearing, a little odd, but brilliant, she is changing the world with her discovery that trees communicate with each other.
• Olivia Vandergriff: After a near-death experience as a senior in college, Olivia turns into a different person. She hears voices from the trees telling her what to do—and she does it.
This is a novel about trees and their interconnectedness to each other and us. It’s impossible to read this book and not look at trees differently. It’s impossible to read this multifaceted, original, and imaginative book and not want to immediately plant a tree. Trees are a miracle.