Dilly Dalley’s Reviews > The Overstory > Status Update

The happily married couple (Linden & Oak) are fracturing under the pressure of infertility, the psychologist Adam (Maple) is going to research what personality traits people who swim against the tide have (activists) versus the prevailing wisdom that it is ok to kill trees. The tree scientist, (no single tree because she speaks for all trees) after shaming for her research, is back, wrote a book & made lots of money.

Well, we are moving west into Redwood country and some of our trees/characters (Doug/Banyan, Mimi/Mulberry, Olivia/Maidenhead-Gingko, and Nick/Chestnut) have arrived to defend the trees. Why is the whole story suffused in melancholy? Rhetorical - we know why.

I have now been introduced to all the trees, and their people, and the themes and social conditions that they represent. This part of the book is like a collection of beautifully rendered short stories. I have enjoyed it so far and am curious to see what comes next.