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mrnicholas's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, and Abandonment
inkling's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A family mystery that stretches over generations and takes an entire 500 pages to unwind. Some parts I liked, but it was too many different perspectives for me. I also read it very slowly which meant I had almost forgotten about certain characters before we came back to their story, and tis made it hard to feel invested in their stories. The trees are a central part of all of the stories but this book is not about trees, which was a false expectation I had.
I think this would be a cosy read if you have lots of time and like slower, slice of life books.
I think this would be a cosy read if you have lots of time and like slower, slice of life books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use
Moderate: Drug abuse
Minor: Suicide
kktaylor11's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Last year I read Barkskins by Annie Proulx and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. When I first picked up Greenwood I thought it was the same book -- then realized it's a very similar idea (multi-generational epic length story tied to ecology and trees) but a different book so I thought I'd give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised.
While Christie is clearly writing in the same branch (tree humor...lol) as Proulx, he writes an entirely different story, which was refreshing. As for the story itself - I'd say 90% of it is very good...10% of it is forced and frustrating.
The story starts with Jake, living in a futuristic world where a blight (the withering) has killed off nearly all the trees in the world. Jake works in a "tree cathedral" where people come to visit the few remaining trees, and a visitor with a mystery about her past opens the door to the rest of the book. (Spoliers to follow!) The story that unfolds is fantastic. I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the "tree ring" metaphor -- structurally the story travels from Jake to her parents to her grandparents to her great grandparents and then back out again, "almost like rings on a tree!" However - it's not as clunky as at sounds. Christie is more a weaver than a woodsman, captivatingly transitioning from one time period to the previous and back again with finesse and gentle elegance. There are no hard stop chapter changes, a new character is introduced, gradually becomes central, and then slowly eases out of focus. When I first realized what was happening I was frustrated because I wanted the story that had been introduced with Jake, but by the end I was actually sorry to see the historical aspect fade away.
As for the story itself, Jake's story ended up being the biggest weakness. In the beginning I was hooked - I wanted to know how the drama of the sick trees and the question of her future would be solved. In the end, however, they weren't, and to me that was the biggest problem with this book. Christie took a cheap exit -- he left the trees sick and dying, left the money on the table, and left Jake with no future and randomly added a completely unnecessary child. It felt like he got bored and just decided to ditch things. All the items that he had carried in the book through decades -- the records, the tools, the journal - in a few pages it was just "oh well, they're all in the dump now." It felt like a heavy handed "now I'm going to end with an ecological message about how children are the future and we have to save the trees" when the book itself had so elegantly made clear the importance of trees throughout. In short - I loved everything about the book except the ending.
So what DID I love? Everett!! What a fantastic character! Christie really built him in such a three dimensional manner -- from scary, off-putting and negative to beloved. I might even have cried when Liam found Everett's coffin. OK, I might have cried a lot. Ironically, I also loved the character of Harris Greenwood - not as a person, but as such a well rounded, complete character! Watching Harris evolve over his lifetime was the epitome of a dynamic character, and not always in good ways. His brokenness, his intensity, his fear...it was all so powerful. I didn't love Harris, but I loved his character. I DID love Liam. I didn't like him at first, but I grew to love him, which just emphasizes how talented Christie is -- to create a character and pull us along the journey with Harris of coming to know and care for him. Lomax seemed a typical "bad-guy" and the "maybe it's my baby" part seemed forced and disconnected. Here's this guy who is so proud of being a father to seven children and the long suffering husband with his home and family and he's a "good guy" but apparently he's also sleeping with Euphemia? It doesn't fit with who he is painted to be. If he's a cheater who is sleeping around and then telling his lover (Euphemia) she has to give up the baby then it's not such a "fall from grace" for him to start the Opium trip. His character would be fine and effective - even sympathetic - if that twist was removed. It just felt cheap. I didn't love Liam 2 -- I wanted his character to be MORE fleshed out, but it felt like Liam 2's story is where Christie started to get bored and want to wrap things up too fast. Crawling from the house to the van and then back to the house was a little too much...It wasn't realistic first (if you have a spine severed that severely? Not likely.) and secondly it wasn't necessary. He could have done the same reflection lying on the floor without the back and forth dragging. It just felt forced...and I wanted to know more about him. We heard about his addiction, but his memories actually had nothing to do with it (aside from his detox with his mother.) How did he struggle? Also - no explanation of WHY he didn't answer Meena or every interact with his child? He loved her so much he almost lost it, but when she has his child he just totally ignores her? Doesn't seem realistic. Again - Christie seemed to be speeding up toward the end of the book. And then there's Jake. At the beginning I was really interested. Like I said above, I was actually frustrated when the book started going back in time because as it started I really wanted to focus on the future issues and how to solve the sick trees she's spotted. As soon as the Lomax hints started being dropped I got frustrated. It was too obviously a way to spin the end of the story. Take that out, let her claim her inheritance, and save the patch of trees. Or get rid of the "cathedral" and live on the island by herself. Better yet, let her BE pregnant and have the baby and live in Cabin 12 and emphasize the healing power of nature and why it has to be saved for the next generation -- that would make SO much more sense than her just picking a random child from a dump on the last pages of the book. The story is about family and continuity even when it's not expected or desired...but not just "hey, let me buy you dinner" while walking away from what the whole story has centered on. Honestly, Greenwood Island is the central spot in the story and at the end she just walks away from it into the dust and the retching and imminent death. So what was the whole point?
In the end, my assessment is this: Christie is a phenomenal historical fiction writer, but his post-apocalyptic writing leaves room for improvement. In my rating this one is good enough I'll keep it, think about it, and recommend it to friends -- but I don't think it will last for generations. 4 Stars.
While Christie is clearly writing in the same branch (tree humor...lol) as Proulx, he writes an entirely different story, which was refreshing. As for the story itself - I'd say 90% of it is very good...10% of it is forced and frustrating.
The story starts with Jake, living in a futuristic world where a blight (the withering) has killed off nearly all the trees in the world. Jake works in a "tree cathedral" where people come to visit the few remaining trees, and a visitor with a mystery about her past opens the door to the rest of the book. (Spoliers to follow!) The story that unfolds is fantastic. I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the "tree ring" metaphor -- structurally the story travels from Jake to her parents to her grandparents to her great grandparents and then back out again, "almost like rings on a tree!" However - it's not as clunky as at sounds. Christie is more a weaver than a woodsman, captivatingly transitioning from one time period to the previous and back again with finesse and gentle elegance. There are no hard stop chapter changes, a new character is introduced, gradually becomes central, and then slowly eases out of focus. When I first realized what was happening I was frustrated because I wanted the story that had been introduced with Jake, but by the end I was actually sorry to see the historical aspect fade away.
So what DID I love? Everett!! What a fantastic character! Christie really built him in such a three dimensional manner -- from scary, off-putting and negative to beloved. I might even have cried when Liam found Everett's coffin. OK, I might have cried a lot. Ironically, I also loved the character of Harris Greenwood - not as a person, but as such a well rounded, complete character! Watching Harris evolve over his lifetime was the epitome of a dynamic character, and not always in good ways. His brokenness, his intensity, his fear...it was all so powerful. I didn't love Harris, but I loved his character. I DID love Liam. I didn't like him at first, but I grew to love him, which just emphasizes how talented Christie is -- to create a character and pull us along the journey with Harris of coming to know and care for him. Lomax seemed a typical "bad-guy" and the "maybe it's my baby" part seemed forced and disconnected. Here's this guy who is so proud of being a father to seven children and the long suffering husband with his home and family and he's a "good guy" but apparently he's also sleeping with Euphemia? It doesn't fit with who he is painted to be. If he's a cheater who is sleeping around and then telling his lover (Euphemia) she has to give up the baby then it's not such a "fall from grace" for him to start the Opium trip. His character would be fine and effective - even sympathetic - if that twist was removed. It just felt cheap. I didn't love Liam 2 -- I wanted his character to be MORE fleshed out, but it felt like Liam 2's story is where Christie started to get bored and want to wrap things up too fast. Crawling from the house to the van and then back to the house was a little too much...It wasn't realistic first (if you have a spine severed that severely? Not likely.) and secondly it wasn't necessary. He could have done the same reflection lying on the floor without the back and forth dragging. It just felt forced...and I wanted to know more about him. We heard about his addiction, but his memories actually had nothing to do with it (aside from his detox with his mother.) How did he struggle? Also - no explanation of WHY he didn't answer Meena or every interact with his child? He loved her so much he almost lost it, but when she has his child he just totally ignores her? Doesn't seem realistic. Again - Christie seemed to be speeding up toward the end of the book. And then there's Jake. At the beginning I was really interested. Like I said above, I was actually frustrated when the book started going back in time because as it started I really wanted to focus on the future issues and how to solve the sick trees she's spotted. As soon as the Lomax hints started being dropped I got frustrated. It was too obviously a way to spin the end of the story. Take that out, let her claim her inheritance, and save the patch of trees. Or get rid of the "cathedral" and live on the island by herself. Better yet, let her BE pregnant and have the baby and live in Cabin 12 and emphasize the healing power of nature and why it has to be saved for the next generation -- that would make SO much more sense than her just picking a random child from a dump on the last pages of the book. The story is about family and continuity even when it's not expected or desired...but not just "hey, let me buy you dinner" while walking away from what the whole story has centered on. Honestly, Greenwood Island is the central spot in the story and at the end she just walks away from it into the dust and the retching and imminent death. So what was the whole point?
In the end, my assessment is this: Christie is a phenomenal historical fiction writer, but his post-apocalyptic writing leaves room for improvement. In my rating this one is good enough I'll keep it, think about it, and recommend it to friends -- but I don't think it will last for generations. 4 Stars.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Kidnapping, and Death of parent
Minor: Infertility and War
jlye's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved Greenwood so much. I was sad when I finished reading it because I wanted it to go on forever.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Abandonment, and War
Moderate: Child death, Suicide, and Death of parent
Minor: Homophobia and Racism
careinthelibrary's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
This book is fantastic but MAN where are the Indigenous people? The absense didn't make sense to Canadian history or climate action culture.
"Because there’s nothing like poverty to teach you just how much of a luxury integrity truly is."
"What is nature exactly, Willow?...Is one of my reclaimed wood tables Nature? Am I nature?"
"Whenever she tells the story of the cyclone...she will puzzle over how to properly describe the sound it made as it ate through her library. She'll grapple with how one could possibly capture precisely the sound of ten thousand books drawn up into the air and scattered for hundreds of miles. And it won't be until years later--long after the Depression ends and poor people stop riding the rails...and long after she's able to again venture into that section of her field where they planted the windbreak of maples together, trees that have only thrived ever since. And long after the void he left in her life entirely heals over--only then will she arrive at a suitable answer: they sounded like birds."
"So know this: your father loved you with everything he had. He just didn't have much left."
"Time, Liam has learned, is not an arrow. Neither is it a road. It goes in no particular direction. It simply accumulates—in the body, in the world—like wood does. Layer upon layer. Light, then dark. Each one dependent upon the last. Each year impossible without the one preceding it. Each triumph and each disaster written forever in its structure. His own life, he can admit now, will never be clear, will never be unblemished, will never be reclaimed. Because it is impossible to ungrow what has already grown, to undo what is already done. Still, people trust the things he’s built, and there is something to that. It’s not enough, but it’s what he’ll take with him."
"What if a family isn't a tree at all? What if it's more like a forest? A collection of individuals, pooling their resources by intertwined roots, sheltering each other from wind and weather and drought... what are families other than fictions? Stories told about a particular cluster of people for a particular reason. And like all stories, families are not born, they're invented. Pieced together from love and lies and nothing else."
"Because there’s nothing like poverty to teach you just how much of a luxury integrity truly is."
"What is nature exactly, Willow?...Is one of my reclaimed wood tables Nature? Am I nature?"
"Whenever she tells the story of the cyclone...she will puzzle over how to properly describe the sound it made as it ate through her library. She'll grapple with how one could possibly capture precisely the sound of ten thousand books drawn up into the air and scattered for hundreds of miles. And it won't be until years later--long after the Depression ends and poor people stop riding the rails...and long after she's able to again venture into that section of her field where they planted the windbreak of maples together, trees that have only thrived ever since. And long after the void he left in her life entirely heals over--only then will she arrive at a suitable answer: they sounded like birds."
"So know this: your father loved you with everything he had. He just didn't have much left."
"Time, Liam has learned, is not an arrow. Neither is it a road. It goes in no particular direction. It simply accumulates—in the body, in the world—like wood does. Layer upon layer. Light, then dark. Each one dependent upon the last. Each year impossible without the one preceding it. Each triumph and each disaster written forever in its structure. His own life, he can admit now, will never be clear, will never be unblemished, will never be reclaimed. Because it is impossible to ungrow what has already grown, to undo what is already done. Still, people trust the things he’s built, and there is something to that. It’s not enough, but it’s what he’ll take with him."
"What if a family isn't a tree at all? What if it's more like a forest? A collection of individuals, pooling their resources by intertwined roots, sheltering each other from wind and weather and drought... what are families other than fictions? Stories told about a particular cluster of people for a particular reason. And like all stories, families are not born, they're invented. Pieced together from love and lies and nothing else."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, and Death of parent
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cancer, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Outing, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Abortion
Wrongful imprisonmentrachschmitz9's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse
arroweee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I loved reading this book! The way it's setup and unfolds was done excellently and my feelings towards the characters changed over time much like we change in our own lifetimes!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Abandonment, and War
feathery's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Cursing, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Vomit, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Outing
Minor: Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Outing
jazzyinthewild's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
I've found so many forever favourites this year already, and my luck didn’t run out when I recently read Michael Christie’s ‘Greenwood’.
Spanning over 120 years the book is structured like the concentric growth rings of a tree and focuses on 5 of the most pivotal rings in Greenwood history - giving the term ‘family tree’ a whole new definition.
The Greenwood family, as their surname suggests, are all in some way or another connected to trees - whether that be through logging, carpentry, dendrology, tourism or activism.
We flick from 2038 where ‘The Great Withering’ - the wave of fungal blights and insect infestations caused by climate change - has wiped out almost all of the world's forests and people around the globe are dying from a new cough-inducing strain of tuberculosis caused by the increase of dust storms, all the way back to 1908 where the logging industry was just beginning to find its feet.
Trees became a luxury, only affordable for the richest members of society, with Greenwood Arboreal Cathedral open for pilgrims, celebrities & billionaires to spend some valuable time with one of the last remaining forests in the world - although most of them just want to take a selfie in the trees to post to their socials..
Christie’s writing completely blew my mind. The story is structured in such a unique & apt way, and the details are absolutely insane! It was so easy to become invested in each and every character, learning so much about each of their lives with SO MUCH DETAIL. I adored every character.
This is what I would class as a climate fiction book, but the story comes incredibly close to our reality right now (as do most in this genre). Of course many of us have been aware of the detrimental effects of climate change across the globe for a while now, and with temperatures reaching 40C for the first time in the UK this week, it is becoming harder and harder for people to deny & ignore.
This is definitely one for fans of The Overstory. I also kept thinking of Once Upon A River whilst reading this, finding familiarities in how incredible the storytelling is.
This multigenerational, pageturner of a climate fiction book is a must-read and has definitely made it into my top 5 reads so far this year, and claimed a spot on my forever shelf.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War
Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Rape, Suicide, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury
tiasreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Drug abuse