The Tree review.

I read The Tree by John Fowles book last weekend. It is a short read but the content inside requires time to digest.

As the name suggests, I thought this book was an introduction to botanics or a non-fiction book telling facts about trees. Turns out it was a 50% autobiographical book and a 50% philosophical essay.

The book has 4 chapters and it is only 76 pages long(At least the Turkish version is). Took two pauses in between so it took me a little over 2 hours to finish.

The Turkish version’s name is Trees btw. Ağaç = Tree, Ağaçlar = Trees. (when you add -ler -lar to a word it becomes plural in the Turkish language. Example: Araba = Car, Arabalar= Cars.

It starts with the author talking about his early life (1920’s) and the life of his father. We learn that he is a businessman, also a WW1 veteran, and a failed author/artist managing a small tobacco company. He pays exceptional care to the apple trees in his garden and takes care of them as his main hobby.

The man is proud of his work, his preciseness, and his total control over nature. The garden always looked neat, trees were pruned, the fruits were locally famous because of their great taste…

Source of the image.

However, our author almost despises this approach to nature and how we place ourselves in nature. He sees…