Greenwood : a novel

"How intimately a book is related to the tree and its rings, she thinks. The layers of time, preserved for all to examine."

Ogres, onions, and cakes all have layers, so I hear. What you see on the outside (or on the top, I guess, in the case of cakes) isn't necessarily what you get all the way through. This book, too, is built in layers, which makes a satisfying whole when you've cut all the way through, but might leave you wondering where things are headed in the middle. I really enjoyed this book, but I can't really point to why, except that the layers were very satisfying, when taken as one big bite.

This is a story about a family, told across generations. Starting (and ending) in 2038 with Jake's experience on an island of trees, one of the very few left in existence. Tourists come to gawk at her trees from a world where dust storms choke everything and everyone. A diary is presented to her, purportedly written by her grandmother, and we're off, flying backwards through the years to 1974 and Jake's mother, back to 1934 and Jake's grandmother, and back even further to 1908 and Jake's more distant relations. A story starts unfolding here, taking us slowly back upwards through the years, nurturing this family tree from its roots all the way back to the branch where Jake herself resides. This family of problems, of dysfunction, of capitalism and activism, all comes together to tell the story of Jake, where the book finally ends.

If slow burn multigenerational epics aren't your thing, there isn't a lot here for you. While the story of a future Earth where trees are a novelty and ecotourism is all the rage is mildly interesting, it's not told well here, and I found myself getting bored with Jake's viewpoints in the beginning and at the very end where she bookends the actual story being told. While interested in the story, I also found myself wondering where things were headed in the middle as well, particularly as the story is first building steam and going backwards through the years rather than forwards. The story is a complex one, and it wasn't until the points were driven home several times that I finally understood the role a particular name or family member played in the larger whole. But the writing.... it was phenomenal. Descriptive, lyrical, and beautiful, it really made the entire book for me. Even though this wasn't a full five stars for me (mostly because of the aforementioned Jake's viewpoints), it still lands solidly on my list of favorites for this year.