James (JD) Dittes
asked:
Who do you think was Powers's model for Patricia Westerburg? Ever since I read Peter Wohlleben's The Hidden Life of Trees, I can't stop reading everything I can find on trees. But it would seem that Powers is going much further back than recent scholarship.
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The Overstory,
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Greg
I had the feeling that, while clearly fictional, Patricia was at least partially based on Rachel Carson, whose Silent Spring was subjected to ferocious criticism by the establishment when first published.
Amy
I just read a review of the book Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest which states that Powers based Patricia Westerford on its author, Suzanne Simard. The review (by Hamilton Cain of the Star Tribune) likens Simard's book to both The Overstory and Barkskins by Annie Proulx.
Jess
I wondered this too--she was my favorite character, and I often wondered if some of the passages weren't quoted text (I listened to the audio version).
Peter Kuypers
Yes, I think that Patricia is based on Wohlleben; they have the same initials and the titles of their books; The Hidden Life of Trees and The Secret Forest are a bit similiar. They also have the same theories about communication between trees.
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