The Overstory

2018, a novel by Richard Powers

I don't have much time for fiction, but Powers is a very good writer. Trees and Oregon are involved. The 502 page novel intertwines many characters, some who later take pseudonyms. Very few dates. Many tree and other species. Difficult for an aging non-botanist non-novel-reader to follow, so here's names and page numbers.

SPOILERS AHEAD. You have been WARNED

005 Nicholas Hoel (Nick)

• Chestnuts and trees, Norwegian immigrant Jørgen Hoel (b1830?) near Brooklyn Navy Yards

• 006 Irish immigrant Vi Powys, marry before Christmas, US citizens by February
  • migrate to Iowa near Fort Des Moines (1843-1846?), planted six chestnuts, five sprout
• 008 many children by 1862, draft deferred. One tree survives.
• 010 Sentinel tree, area landmark

  • son John Hoel mechanizes. 1903 buys Kodak #2 Brownie camera, photographs tree every month.

• 012 1904 Asian chestnut blight kills millions of North American chestnut trees, isolated Hoel tree survives
• 013 (grandson) Frank Sr. continues photos, tells 9yo (great-grandson) Frank Jr. to continue while he fights (and dies) in France.
• 017 160 photos by John and Frank Sr., 755 by Frank Jr., gg-grandson Eric takes more
• 018 ggg-grandson Nicholas (main character), Chicago art school, 120 years after Jørgen migration
• 023 goes to Omaha art show, returns in Christmas Eve snowstorm, finds family dead from heater fumes

024 Mimi Ma

• Father Ma Sih Hsuin 1948 immigrant Chinese, becomes Winston Ma, Wheaton Il engineer, marries Charlotte from Virginia

• 033 Stranded Scholars, Displaced Persons Act, scroll and three jade rings

• 034 Luóhàn (Buddha?) - Arhat achieved Nirvana

  • many car trips west, camping, Yellowstone
• 038 Holyoke, then UC Berkeley for Ceramic Engineering, then 039 molding outfit in Portland
• 040 Salve filia Mea (Hello my daughter) Ego latinam discunt (I am learning Latin) Vita est supplicum (Life is a prayer)
• 041 In fall, father writes poem, blows brains out in back yard under failing mulberry tree
• 045 daughters divvy 3 jade rings, Mimi gets "things to come", and arhat scroll

047 Adam Appich

• 048 b 1963, 3 older siblings (trees), Leigh(elm) Jean(ash) Emmett(ironwood) Adam(maple) younger Charles(black walnut)

• 061 The Ape Inside Us

• 084 ... the greatest flaw of the species is its overwhelming tendency to mistake agreement for truth

• 089 "If you're holding a sapling in your hand when the Messiah arrives, first plant the sapling and then go out and greet the Messiah." Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai

.066 Ray Brinkman & Dorothy Cazaly

• 165 St. Paul Players Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

.073 Douglas Pavlicek .091 Neelay Mehta .112 Patricia Westerford

• 143 Research station manager Dennis Ward

.145 Olivia Vandergriff

• 171 Des Moines to Council Bluffs IA

• 179-184 Mimi Ma
• 184-186 Doug Pavlicek learns seedlings increase allowable cut
• 186-187 Mimi Ma
• 187-190 Doug Pavlicek sleeps in park, kicked out for tree-cutting

• 191-198 Neelay Mehta creates Mastery computer game

• 198-203 Nick and Olivia bury art, drive through Donner Pass to California
• 204-208 Doug marks tree rings on park stumps, meets Mimi
• 208-211 Ray and Dorothy Brinkman christmas presents, anniversary, forget to plant anything

• 211-217 Nick and Olivia reach redwoods, Defenders of the Forest, Lost Coast, meet older man named Moses

  • Mother N ... ... Humboldt Timber, Henry Hanson, the Junk Bond King ... Mill B ... LifeDefenseForce

• 216 Nick and Olivia renamed Watchman and Maidenhair

• 217-224 Patricia Westerford 219 husband Dennis 221 giving trees

• 224-230 Neelay, journalist Chris immersed in Mastery game, chronophagic

• 230-232 coffins blocking California highway 36

• 232-238 Adam at Fortuna College, Prof Rubin Rabinowski dies offstage during lecture, bystander effect. Grad school UC Santa Cruz, Dr. Mieke Van Dijk, research "Identity formation and Big Five personality factors among plants rights activists.
• 238-245 Mimi+Doug arrive at protest, arrested
• 245-253 Ray and philandering Dorothy
• 253-255 Nick+Olivia remark trees
• 256-258 Patricia, Dennis get book reviews and big check

• 258-269 Moses(?) "brief" stint on top. guide Loki, Nick+Olivia=Watchman+MaidenHair climb tree (Mimas)

• 269-275 Mimi+Douglas
• 275-279 Neelay Mehta Mastery 4 in 3-D
• 279-285 Judge reads her book, Patricia, Dennis win in court, plus judge issues injunction on western 0regon sales
• 286-296 Nick+Olivia=Watchman+Maidenhair in Mimas, storm, 3 loggers ask if OK after
• 296-303 Mimi+Douglas, police torture protesters
• 303-306 Dennis+Patricia discuss torture and end of injunction
• 306-309 Neelay virtual world with father
• 309-312 Ray+Dorothy watch protest, then Ray stroke
• 312-314 Mimi fired
• 314-316 Doug attacked in bar, in vehicle
• 316-327 Adam climbs Mimas tree to study "misguided idealism" Nick+Olivia=Watchman+Maidenhair almost a year later
  • 323 Mother N and Moses bombed in office, dead 325 helicopter attack
• 327 Patricia: Global Seedbed Germplasm Vault ("Dennis waiting with lunch") Neelay: Mastery 8
• 328 Adam+Nick+Olivia in jail 5 days, more than 72 hours without charging

• 330-333 N+O/W+M north to Oregon protest, Adam to Santa Cruz, eucalyptusseedpod drops on Adam

• 333-343 Adam north to eco-fort, meets Doug. Adam becomes Maple, joins Cascadians. eco-fort destroyed
• 343-352 Adam + Doug + N+O/W+M prepare arson attack on resort construction, premature detonation, Olivia dies

CROWN

• 357 20 years later

• 360 Adam -> Santa Cruz, Thesis, publications, early tenure, Ohio State

• 362 Doug, Mimi 369 Mimi sells scroll for $$$
• 370 Dorothy Brinkman cares for paralyzed Ray 374 puzzle word "releaf" 374 Patricia Doug Nick Adam Mimi
• 375 Neejay, Mastery has a Midas problem 377 Adam Associate Prof 379 Nick stocking online book warehouse
• 383 Brinkman backyard grows wild
• 384 Y2K, Doug in Montana BLM cabin, Winter caretaker for "Friendliest Ghost Town in the West", writes memoir
• 388 past-retirement-age Patricia lectures, travels (CO2), raises money | 393 Dennis dies in bed, next to her
• 397 Brinkmans watch 9/11 second tower collapse on TV | Mimi therapist/councilor in SF | intense staring
• 400 Scopophobia: fear of seeing and being seen
• 407 Nick digs up buried artwork from former Hoel property, caught by police for trespassing, released
• 410 Neelay to team, Midas problem, pointless pyramiding; team votes against healthier new game

• 415 Doug visited by Alena who reads his memoir, disappears, two months later arrested by "Freddies" (federal agents? websearch doesn't find)

• 421 Dot identifies wild tree in backyard asEastern white pine
• 423 Patricia in cabin, missing Dennis, boxes notebooks to mail to assistant, "she's done"

• 426 Adam in Zuccotti Park, Occupy, meets Doug

• 433 Neelay 435 Patricia | 438 FBI arrests Adam during/after class lecture
• 442 Dot and Ray, chestnut in back, planted long ago for daughter
• 445 Pat at airport, tools and broth taken by TSA

  • idea - how about a private service at airport which priority-mails items that TSA would otherwise take?

• 448 Doug "Help? That's some Judas shit, man."
• 450 Doug tells Mimi about betraying Adam/Maple

• 452 Patricia lecture, Tachigali versacolor "suicide tree"

• 456-458 Adam house arrest, ankle tracker, geofence, wife Lois son Charlie
• 460 Ray - no more mowing, leave 1.5 acres of woods for daughter
• 463-466 Mimi at lecture, Westerford drinks plant poison, toasts "to Tachigali_versicolor"
• 467 "Brinkman Woodlands Restoration Project", foot high grass, seedlings, hackleberries, neighbors/city protest
• 471 Adam sentenced 70+70 years

Seeds

• 477 Nick in tent, 478 Mimi in Mission Dolores Park "many miles south", "Judith Hanson"
• 479 Douglas in cell, audio course "Introduction to Dendrology" by Patricia
• 482 Neelay brand-new venture into cooperation 483 Mimi 485 Nick 488 Adam
• 490 Mimi realizes Adam sacrificed two lives for her
• 492 Nick with man in red coat "we've been trying to tell you that since 1492"
• 493-5 Adam to Prison
• 496 learners come alive at last, Neelay's new game

• 498 Ray Our lives are being endangered. The law allows for all necessary force against lawful and imminent harm.

  • The New Metamorphosis by Charles Gildon 1724

• 499-501 Mimi in Mission Delores Park talking to trees

• 501-2 Nick ... the learners ... "getting back now". O.K. ...