The Overstory by Richard Powers
Published 2018 · 512 pages · 150,679 words · about 11 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction
How hard is The Overstory to read?
The Overstory scores 57 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 55 out of 100
- Rich botanical and scientific vocabulary. Powers assumes readers can follow technical discussions of dendrology and ecology.
- Sentence structure: 50 out of 100
- Flowing, often lyrical prose. Long sentences but well-structured. Some experimental passages.
- Abstraction: 60 out of 100
- Weaves concrete stories with philosophical meditation on deep time, ecology, and human insignificance.
- Information density: 62 out of 100
- Packed with scientific information, multiple plotlines, and nine main characters. Demands attention.
- Narrative indirection: 50 out of 100
- Multiple storylines converge gradually. The tree perspective decenters human drama.
- Symbolic density: 65 out of 100
- Trees as characters, as symbols, as systems. The Hoel chestnut photographs. The structure as tree.
- Ironic distance: 55 out of 100
- Powers writes with passionate engagement with ecological crisis, without ironic distance from his subject. The novel is earnest about the catastrophe and about the possibility of transformation.
- Resolution withholding: 58 out of 100
- The characters reach various endings; the trees continue. Powers offers conclusions for human stories while making clear the larger story is far from over.
- Structural complexity: 60 out of 100
- Nine protagonists whose stories braid together. Four-part structure named for tree parts.
How The Overstory is regarded
The Overstory holds a literary regard score of 80 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.