The Family Tree

An absolute delight to read. Tepper is one of my favourite authors, and I'm willing to forgive her a lot of her soapboxes (heavily laboured in this book as they are) because of the beautifully crafted nature of her stories. I never have difficulty reading her books - they slide through the mind like jelly down the throat. (okay, so I might be exaggerating here. there is at least one of her books that I'm unlikely to read again, but being a sad completist, I've probably still got it in my collection. this year at least).

Split between a future time and the present, the story follows Dora Henry (in the present) a cop with husband troubles and the plant that mysteriously appears in her garden, and a group of assorted travellers (in the show more future) all of whom are following one fortune or another, as seen by one of the 'Seers of Sworp'. It is no surprise that the present and future peoples meet, but there are a number of surprises from that point on, which on rereading as only very slightly telegraphed.

My big complaint about this book is not the enviro-evangalism, which is at least reasonably well integrated into the plot in this book (unlike, umm, whatever the one is that I'm never going to read again, but am too lazy to go and look up the title), but the ending, which seems to come at the wrong point of the story. Not that I'm sure that it could go anywhere, and the threads that are hanging loose are just everyday ones (do they have kids? what happens to the settlers? what happens to the bad guys?), but I don't have that satisfaction of having finished reading a story. Instead, I'm wishing that there was more to read. show less

Oh, Tepper, how I love you. Why have I not read all of your books?

This is, at first, a confusing bunch of unrelated stories and then suddenly, magically, inevitably it is one blisteringly good story- a story that makes one question one's essential assumptions about what it means to be human, what it means to be ethical, what it means to be good. There's a richness here that wells up slowly and almost imperceptibly, a richness that comes from top-notch writing and plotting. This is a book to be read over and over. I can already tell that once is not nearly enough- and I can't wait to go back and see what I missed.

The Family Tree deals with all of the serious themes that Tepper is known for - ecology, overpopulation, etc... but does so in a very clever, funny way. The format is one of two seemingly unrelated, interleaved stories (one a contemporary drama, one an Arabian-Nights-flavored fairy tale) which merge about halfway through the book - some might find it a bit gimmicky, but I like it...
It's one of those books that it's hard to say much about without major spoilers, so I'll leave it at that!

The first half of this book takes place in two timelines: present-day America, told from the point of view of Dora, a police sergeant who is finally leaving a loveless marriage, and in a fantasy world, told from the point of view of Opalears, who is accompanying her prince on a quest to fulfill a prophecy, picking up fellow travelers along the way. The two stories seem unrelated except that in both times, the trees are acting strangely, growing up in great numbers and rebelling against people. Although both stories are very readable, the high contrast between them is very disorienting--until they come together with a very neat but completely unexpected revelation. Toward the end, Tepper's hand becomes a little heavy; the authorial point show more of view--her frustration with the destruction of the earth's resources, her strong feminism--intrudes just a bit too much. Overall, though, this is a well-crafted adventure story that's pretty hard to put down. show less

I enjoyed the humor in this Tepper and her renderings of the various 'people' and characters. Many of them captured my heart, more and more so as I learned more about them. Very cleverly done. The plot was also sinuous - almost unmanageably so, but never quite over the limit. Hard to write about this one without spoiling anything, but let us just say, that there are omens and portents of an imminent disaster in a time three thousand years in the future that need to be investigated, and which involves a trip 3000 years back into the past..... At the same time, more critically..... I am sure the story would annoy some readers into almost tearing their hair out, it has a slightly preachy air to it. I didn't mind it. ****

A parable, tho I thought parables were usually much shorter. You could call it a fairy tale, or two fairy tales that eventually join up. In the one tale, there is an ordinary woman whose world is taken over by trees. In the other, Scheherazade setting with a quest, mystery to solve and journeys. As the chapters alternated between the 2 settings, I wondered what could these two tales have in common.
This book had a kind of "surface" feel to it: lighthearted despite talking about serious matters, targetted to your head instead of your heart. I was reminded a little of Piers Anthony's series with his play-on-words approach. Happily Tepper didn't go as far overboard.
This was not the kind of writing I expected from Tepper, but in the end I show more thought it was a very appropriate read during this year of the pandemic. show less

The Family Tree by Sheri Tepper is a book that is difficult to categorize. It is part post-plague apocalyptical tale, part romance, part fantasy/sci-fi, part eco-treatise, and partly confusing! At the same time, it was fascinating, well written, believable, immersive, and completely unique.

Firstly, the confusing part: the story is written part current times, part future; in addition, the story is told by a number of different narrators (from both the past and the future) in alternating chapters. I found this so frustrating that I actually skipped many of the alternating chapters until I could work out what was going on, then went back to them. I don't recommend this, as there are some very interesting twists to the story. Stick with show more it...all the threads come together and make sense.

Now the rest: This is a greatly enjoyable story which will likely be with me for quite some time. Believable...?! The day after I finished it I read a newspaper article describing one of the main events in the story. It is clear that a plague could easily decimate the population, and other threads in the story are just as plausible. The fantasy elements of the story are strong, but again, not too far fetched. The characters are idiosyncratic, flawed, lovely. Conversation is interesting, and the plot is fast paced.

All in all, reading this book was a very unique experience and I'm glad I did. show less