L'arbre-monde

I guess, since I already paid a lot of attention to trees, and already considered them more or less to be people, and was already familiar with some of the research into how trees communicate with each other, it didn't impact me as much as some other readers.

I also really disliked the fact that Powers has a large cast of characters, whose stories span a century and most of a continent, and not a single one of them was Black or Indigenous. To not mention the Indigenous peoples of the Americas in a book that's about the nature and ecology of North America seems disrespectful at the very least. Then again, if Powers were to mention Native Americans, he would have to grapple with the fact that many Native American societies were quite successful in consciously stewarding and co-evolving with trees and other species, which would then detract from his anti-human message.

Much of Powers' interesting information about tree science can be found in "The Hidden Life of Trees" by Peter Wohlleben (note, he has the same initials as the tree scientist character), so, if that's what you're after, maybe read that first.

Halfway through I thought I'd already read this story, but then I realized I was thinking of [b:The Stand|149267|The Stand|Stephen King|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1213131305l/149267.SX50.jpg|1742269], which was twice as long but with much better pacing. I also started to suspect that the characters of [b:The Overstory|40180098|The Overstory|Richard Powers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562786502l/40180098.SY75.jpg|57662223] would not be okay with the number of trees that were cut down to publish such a bloated book. While at times I was tempted to DNF, I didn't completely hate this book. It was hard for me to keep track of all the characters, even with the lengthy exposition dedicated to each at the beginning, and I failed to emotionally connect with any of them. What compelled me about this book was the perspective of the forests and trees, and the sense of scale of their footprints and timeline--I'm not sure that the stories of any of the humans in this particular book did that broader perspective enough justice. Overall I didn't particularly enjoy reading this book, but it did give me some things to think about.