“Love is a tree with branches in forever with roots in eternity and a trunk nowhere at all.”

When I was little, we had a weeping willow tree outside our house that I absolutely loved. I have so many memories of looking up into those elegantly arching branches, watching them sway in the wind. Those tiny little leaves were a real pain to rake up in the fall, always seeming to escape between the tines of the rake. When I was in high school, the tree was invaded by carpenter ants, who ate up enough of its structure that it was irreparably damaged. It eventually lost a large limb, which crashed into the house when we were out of town one weekend, and then the whole tree had to come down. But I still miss it.

I have to imagine that many of us (if we grew up in a place that had trees) have a favorite childhood tree. Richard Powers’ The Overstory begins with the stories of nine Americans and their relationships with trees: from an Iowa farm boy whose ancestors planted a chestnut tree that became a community landmark, to a veteran who crashes into a tree when fighting overseas, to a young woman, Olivia, who accidentally electrocute herself and wakes up on a mission to find a cause to fight for, leaving college to drive across the country to help save the last of the redwoods. On her way, she finds Nick (the aforementioned farm boy, whose entire family died in a carbon monoxide accident, and whose tree is dying), who joins her. The two join a group of environmentalists, and agree to spend a couple weeks sitting in a giant old tree named Mimas to prevent its felling…which turns into more than a year. A young (probably autistic) psychology grad student, Adam, briefly joins them in an attempt to talk them down, and is instead converted to their cause. The three take part in the arson of a logging facility, which has tragic results.

There are other characters who are involved in the arson: the veteran, Doug, as well as an engineer daughter of a Chinese immigrant, Mimi. And then there are a few characters who exist somewhat outside the main narrative, including Neelay Mehta, whose childhood fall from a tree leaves him wheelchair-bound, but who creates an immersive video game that captures the world’s attention, Patricia Westerford, a researcher whose book about trees becomes a touchstone for many of the characters, and an odd couple, buttoned-down Ray and free-spirited Dorothy, who grow to love trees after a terrible accident strikes one of them. Each is touched and inspired by nature in their own way, and each character’s story weaves in and out of the others, culminating in a dramatic trial.

This is a long, highly ambitious novel, the kind that just feels like a prize-winner. The first third or so is dedicated to the backstories of the characters, and it is here that Powers comes closest to realizing what he’s trying to do. They read like exquisitely crafted short stories, each one hitting the same general theme of “early connection with trees” but not at all feeling same-y. Though I am not a particular fan of short stories, these ones were so good I found myself completely immersed and hoping that the book would continue on in a “viewpoint chapter” kind of way. Sadly, for me, once the introductions are laid out, the book turns into a more conventional narrative. From that point forward, I found it very hit-and-miss.

When it hits, it’s fantastic: the section in which Nick and Olivia live in Mimas, though requiring some suspension of disbelief, has a real magic to it, as does Patricia’s entire narrative (hers was my favorite storyline). But Powers often seems to lose track of his characters: I didn’t believe for a second that Adam, as written, would play the role that he did alongside Nick and Olivia, nor does Mimi’s transformation from go-getting corporate drone to hardcore environmental radical feel realistic, and these missteps undermine the narrative. But what keeps the whole thing (mostly) hanging together is Powers’s powerful sense of urgency about the need to protect the ever-smaller number of trees that remain in the world. As the very real effects of global climate change continue to make themselves known, I expect to see more fiction along these lines. This is a book that will prove hard to live up to in some ways, but it’s too much of a mixed bag to give an unqualified recommendation to. If you have Tree Feelings, this will likely be well-worth your time, but if not it may feel like it drags.