Skyscrapers of nature: 'Wild Trees'
Preston explores a mysterious world once known only to a few intrepid, entranced explorers.
By Larry Searsfrom the April 24, 2007 edition
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All good storytellers find ways to win audiences at the outset and then keep them engaged till the end. It is just this skill that has been the key to Richard Preston's success as a writer. His earlier books ("The Hot Zone," "The Demon in the Freezer," and "The Cobra Event") were medical mysteries in which he proved a master at using complex scientific information to bait a gripping narrative hook.
Still, I wondered, would Preston's latest book, The Wild Trees: The Passion and the Daring, a nonfiction work about the scientists who devote their professional and personal lives to the study of botany, offer sufficient thrills to hold my interest throughout?
The answer is a decided yes.
"Wild Trees" owned me almost from the start. Preston dedicates the book to his brother, asking, "Remember the tree we used to climb when we were boys?" I had my own answer clearly in mind. Anyone who has ever climbed a tree eager to experience the magic of the world seen from its heights will be grabbed by the story Preston presents.
Two of the book's central characters, Steve Sillett and Marie Antoine, are each introduced by a tree-climbing story.
Marie Antoine is first seen as a 4-year-old climbing a "green and bright and fragrant" balsam fir growing beside the family mansion in Ontario, Canada. She travels 40 feet into the air and revels in the secret world she discovers. No adult sees her.
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