The Tree of Life Overstory

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal,
flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 
 through the middle of the street of the city.
On either side of the river is the tree of life^[ with its twelve kinds of fruit,
 producing its fruit each month;
and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22: 1-2

I read Richard Powers Man Booker nominated The Overstory while we were in Nova Scotia a few weeks ago and I can't stop thinking about it. It is a tour de force work which convinces me that I should never attempt writing a novel. I often mark significant passages in non-fiction books but rarely a novel. I did so repeatedly in The Overstory, as you can see. Here is the description by  Judge Leanne Shapton of the Man Booker panel:

The Overstory, a novel about trees and people who understand them, is the eco-epic of the year and perhaps the decade. Unlike the Lorax, who spoke for the trees, Richard Powers prefers to let them do their own talking. Instead of a middle distance or landscape, he offers portraits: a gallery of species — Chestnut, Mulberry, Banyan, Redwood — placing his human characters correctly in scale with that royalty. The trees tell of cellular ancestry and transmission, cycles that take place along spans of time we cannot imagine, though Powers can and does. Nine powerfully written, interlinked stories play out in the understory.

Along the way there are stirring, lyrical paragraphs on love, photography, the culture of ancient China, game code, science, and maybe most impressively, faith, rendered without sanctimony or reprimand. By the end, the book's voices, human and arboreal, echo unforgettably.

I agree heartily with all of this, including the comment about faith. Shapton may not have been referring to religious faith but there is a profound sense of the biblical Tree of Life, which is a significant symbol in the "overstory" of scripture from Genesis to Revelation.

I don't reread novels but I may be compelled to do so with this one. I hope you'll read it as well.