The Tree-Sitter: A Novel [Paperback]

Suzanne Matson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 2007

A passionate and tensely pitched tale of first love and idealism set in the Oregon forests.

Julie Prince is a top college student, destined for conventional success. But then she falls in love with Neil, a radical graduate student, and abandons her privileged East Coast life to tree-sit in the forests of Oregon. At first it is a romantic field trip; soon, though, Julie finds herself increasingly moved by the magnificence of the endangered forest and, like Neil, invested in its protection. Eventually pulled into a militant act of sabotage, Julie is forced to reassess her deepest held loyalties and beliefs.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Matson's third novel (after A Trick of Nature), Julie Prince faces the end of her junior year at Wellesley and the expectations of her highly accomplished, somewhat overbearing mother, who pushes her to take on an internship, a trip to France or perhaps some résumé-building volunteer work. But Julie has fallen in love—both with Neil, an ecological activist who passionately espouses saving forests, and with his cause. Leaving her tidy life behind, she heads to the Oregon forests to take up her position in the branches of an old-growth Douglas fir. At first, she's convinced she's made the right decision: her meditative life in the trees gives her the peace that her hectic life has lacked, and her fiery affair with Neil blossoms. But when the tree-sitters start moving toward more violent means, and their peaceful existence is torn by tragedy, she wonders what, exactly, she's gotten herself into—and whether her own life is an even exchange for the trees'. Thoughtfully told, this story of the all-encompassing blaze of first love and an uneasy eco-activism is surprising and honest. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

"Love can make you do right and make you do wrong," as the song has it, and it isn't always easy to decide which is which. Julie Prince, an ace student at Wellesley, has been groomed for success by her lawyer mother (Julie's father is an anonymous sperm-bank donor), but she decides to accompany her boyfriend, Neil, to Eugene, Oregon, to join a group of ecowarriors determined to stop the logging of old-growth forests. The lovers stage a tree-sitting protest, living dreamily on a platform suspended in a centuries-old Douglas fir; then Julie boldly infiltrates the timber company as a temp. But when Neil starts making bombs, Julie is forced to reconsider her values. In a quantum leap from her previous family dramas, Matson incisively explores urgent questions about our abuse of nature, the difficulty of achieving social change, and the despair that leads to violence. Like Alix Ohlin in The Missing Person (2005), Matson makes a vital connection between personal awakenings and the environmental and political realities with which we all must contend. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (March 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393329445
• ISBN-13: 978-0393329445
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,495,035 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How easy it can be to lose yourself in activism and love, March 5, 2006

By 

C. Hill (Oregon, U.S.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tree-Sitter: A Novel (Hardcover)

Julie leads a privileged life. She grew up an only child, her mother a successful Boston lawyer, her father an unknown sperm donor. She is finishing up her junior year at Wellesley, a prestigious private college, and has a healthy trust fund waiting for her. One night at a frat party, she meets Neil, who is writing his dissertation on the economics of deforestation. They start dating, so when Neil decides he's had enough of words and statistics and academia in general, Julie agrees to go with him to Oregon, the site of much of the deforestation Neil has been researching.

So Julie drives west with Neil and they become part of "the movement." For the first two weeks, they are in the forest, the site of secret camps and living platforms rigged high in old-growth trees to prevent them from being cut down. Julie enjoys herself at first. But it quickly becomes clear that Neil is so obsessed with the cause that he can't see beyond it. He's exceedingly cynical, reminding Julie that that if you try to tell an American about ozone depletion, global warming, and species and habitat destruction, you will get laughed at or categorized as a kook. So he has chosen action, and if people accidentally get hurt as a result of that action, then so be it.

Julie's love for Neil causes her to lose herself. She acquiesces to Neil's wishes and desires, whereas he does not do the same for her. She does and says things (or more often DOESN'T do or say things) based solely on how Neil will think and react. At one point, Julie is thinking about Cathy and Mole, two other members of the movement who are somewhat romantically involved. "I wondered how much her involvement with the movement was simply to please him." What is ironic about this observation is that Julie hasn't yet realized that much of her own involvement with the movement is simply to please Neil.

This story - narrated in the first person by Julie - is a tale of self-exploration and self-discovery, and a great deal of that has to do with Juile's mother. Throughout the summer, Julie is constantly reflecting on her relationship with her mother. Whenever she has a spare moment for idle thought, she is thinking about something related to her mother. "Running away" with Neil to Oregon for the summer was a rebellious act against her mother, and the consequence seems to be that Julie can't stop thinking about her.

Oregonians and other Northewesterners will enjoy the familiar descriptions of this scenic corner of the country, as well some of the local references in this book. My favorite was when Julie is being given a tour of the university town of Eugene, and her guide explains the abundance of coffee shops: "Northwest coffee is a necessary drug to cope with the unrelenting gray and rain."

I enjoyed this book a lot. Matson's prose is lovely to read, and the story she tells here is both interesting and informative, without being preachy. Though Julie's story, Matson shows the reader how easy it is to get caught up in ideals and rhetoric, and love too, and how hard it can be to find your way back out again.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good..., April 20, 2009

By 

M. Nichols (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tree-Sitter: A Novel (Paperback)

When I first saw this book, my thought was, "A fictionalized version of "Legacy of Luna." I put it back on the shelf. Later, I found myself drawn back to it. I'm so glad I read it. It reminded me, style wise, of Ann Hood's "Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine." (Hood endorsed the book; perhaps Matson is a protege.) It is a very nicely written examination of extremists in the environmental movement, told through a protagonist who is new to the politics. It is a light read, and yet has substance to it. I think a lot of people will enjoy this.

3.0 out of 5 stars Authentic people, places, and events, January 3, 2009

By 

Deborah George (Missouri) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tree-Sitter: A Novel (Paperback)

The characterization in this story is authentic, yet soft-focused with the polite remove of gentility.

There are some beautiful, ruminative sentences in this book. For example: "..time seemed infinitely generous when you were awake at sunrise. You could see vistas, you could let intention gradually take shape" (203) and "Just because you knew something was behind you, and that you'd never get it back, didn't mean you were finished with it, or ever would be" (241).

There are also some sentences whose meaning I appreciate in spite of a confused initial reading: "After the initial vertigo of loss--I'd been so certain, and if not Preston, then no one, no father--I grew to like the sound of it: Guardian" (97).

All in all, with the exception of priviledge afforded by wealth, I can easily walk in the shoes of Julie, the narrator. I could certainly have fallen for a brilliant, intense grad student with a passion for environmental activism and followed him across the country for the good of the trees. And the rest.

* I meant to give four stars. The edit option does not allow edits to the star rating.