Authored by:
Rebecca Weaver Rinehart
Preaward Specialist
University of Northern Iowa
Email:rebecca.rinehart@uni.edu
This series of articles explores literary works that intersect with our professional interests in research, research administration, and university life.
The opening chapters of this novel induced such a sense of vertigo that I had to pause after each one. Appearing to be unconnected stories, the narratives swoop through time and space in a bravura display of the author’s inventiveness. Although we don’t stay anywhere long, it’s difficult not to feel attached to the finely drawn characters. It’s harder still not to feel a series of heartbreaks as, with a tossed-off phrase here and there, Powers gives dark glimpses into their futures.
The one commonality of these introductory chapters is that they all have something to do with trees. As each story develops through the rest of the book, they begin to make contact with each other, as branches of separate trees might touch as they grow. Several of the story lines are connected to the research world. One of the main characters was a prisoner in the Stanford Prison Experiment. Another is an intellectual property lawyer whose worldview is subverted by reading the book Should Trees Have Standing. Two others are academic researchers whose careers develop in unconventional ways.
Powers has a deep understanding of botany, and reveals some of the amazing ways that trees behave and communicate with one another. Even readers unwilling to suspend their disbelief for some fantastical elements of the story will be moved and challenged by the manifold ecological services provided by trees. This book asks us to think seriously about the bystander effect and its role in ecological crises. Not many novels fundamentally alter the way we think about the natural world, but this one did for me. It may change what you think and feel whenever you look at a tree.
References
Powers, Richard. The Overstory. W. W. Norton & Company, 2018.
Stone, Christopher D. Should Trees Have Standing? Law, Morality, and the Environment. Oxford University Press, 2010.
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