Review 148: Greenwood

Greenwood by Michael Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Somewhere in the early part of the book this book was reminiscent of a book I read last year, The Overstory by Richard Powers. Well, soon enough turned out I was mistaken, this book isn’t about trees in that way, with eco-activists and fighting for the trees, although one of the main characters does do direct actions to save trees. Powers book was also a bit more scattered with many stories within, and while this book also has many stories, it’s also more linear and cohesive.

This book is surrounded by trees, it is the subtext, the backdrop, the way all the characters survive, but each has a different approach to the trees. One rails against those cutting them down, while her father was the one doing the cutting. There’s a scientist studying the trees, and another creates thing from the wood.

And yet the book is really about family, and orphans. The opening pages have an image of a cut tree with the rings, with dates attached. This is also the framing of the book, which works great. Each year listed we visit in the book, starting with the future point at 2038, then going back to 1908, stopping along the way at specific years, then going back forward and ending with 2038. The bulk of the book rests in 1934. I like the layers and how the different time periods play upon each other, the years as rings as in a tree.

I enjoyed this book, despite all the bad decisions that the various characters seem to make. I liked the way the family is explored and revealed.