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Summary: From Louis Zukofsky to Michael Pollan
Review: This book is stunning! Imagine that the end of the chapter on the apple made me slightly weepy. Mr. Pollan can write! This book is seemingly researched with care. The approach is inventive, the tone often funny, the descriptions lyrical. Mr. Pollan could use an editor to cut down on some redundancies though, and it seemed to me that Mr. Pollan somewhat loses sight of his thesis in the last chapter on the potato, but the information therein makes up for this slight glitch. Too, at first I struggled with the many personifications that pepper this book, which seem to indicate an anthropocentric assumption at the heart of the text. But in the end, it seems to me that Pollan is arguing for a kind of up-dated Objectivist philospohy, rather like the one developed by the poet Louis Zukofsky, a philosphy that we would as a culture do well to revisit. This is a very compelling book. I intend to teach it in some of my upcoming courses.
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Summary: Enlightening
Review: "The Botany of Desire" is just the book we need at the moment as we face such difficult issues as genetic engineering, cloning, and stem cell research. With admirable objectivity, Pollan shows the impact of technology on the survival of four plants - the apple, tulip, marijuana, and potato, and the impact also of capitalism on their modern forms. Remarkably, this book was recommended by a priest during last week's sermon. He didn't elaborate, except to call it "fascinating." It is certainly that.
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Summary: Botany of Desire
Review: Interesting premise and very readable. Gets repititious and long winded.
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Summary: A new way of viewing the commonplace...
Review: Michael Pollan leads one through horticulture, culture, science, time, space, and even into the future in support of his intriguing theory about who we are, who we think we are, and our relationship with the natural world. The thesis is fascinating and the prose is briliant -- at times I found myself savoring the language nearly at the expense of the ideas -- conversational and gentle, it is as if Michael is right there with the reader enjoying the moment as well.Each section begins from a wholly disparate point in time or space and then gradually carries the reader to the central point of the book. If the point of non-fiction is to provide one with a new and unique way of seeing the everyday, then Michael Pollan has succeeded beyond all measure. A terrific way to spend some hours this summer -- especially to the sights and sounds of summer. Have sent nearly every relative I have a copy -- some of their remarks have informed this review.
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Summary: How a seed, bulb, tuber and weed conspired to rule the world
Review: Is that plant waving its leaf at me to come over there?! No, It can't be!, but after reading the BOTANY OF DESIRE don't be too surprised if that thought doesn't flit across your mind too; and no, you don't have to be under the influence of one of the plants Michael Pollan talks about to think like this. Our view of plants as the passive partner in the long coevolutionary life they have shared with man is a paradigm that this book seeks to shatter. "We automatically think of domestication as something we do to other species", says Mr Pollan "but it makes just as much sense to think of it as something certain plants and animals have done to us." The title of the book hints at this underlying premise. It is made clear very quickly that Mr Pollan believes that you can't understand certain human desires and behavior without first appreciating the plant world and its interrelationship with ours. Thus he divides his book into four parts, each dealing with a specific plant and a human desire: apples and sweetness, the tulip and beauty, cannabis and intoxication and lastly, the common potato and believe it or not, the desire for control. This book is a mix of fascinating history, approachable science, philosophical whimsy, humorous insights into nature, and simply good writing. The history of the tulip is well told. From its development by the Ottoman turks through to the period of "tulipomania" that saw it achieve "world domination" in its appeal to humans, but ironically at the same time contributing to a sort of madness that gripped the Dutch, and brought about economic ruin in 17th century Holland. The history of the cannabis plant is also very interesting as are the authors comments on the drug war, specifically how it has simply sent growers indoors where a much more potent hybrid has been developed. If you look at the world from the plant's view as Mr Pollan tries to do throughout, you would simply say that this was probably planned by the cannabis plant in the first place! The best expression of this plant view of the world is provided by the following example. Even where we know that we were the active agent, in control, the domesticator, and have brought nature and plants under our thumb through agriculture, Mr Pollan says "it makes just as much sense to think of agriculture as something the grasses did to people as a way to conquer the trees." Enjoy this fascinating bit of history, evolutionary biology, nature writing, and pure good fun, and...what is that plant over there doing?
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Summary: Buy This Book!
Review: Here's a book you can enjoy on many levels. It's filled with facts about plants and their relationships with Man, and it reminds us that plants use Man for their own survival as well. Beyond that, it actually touches on the meaning of life, and helps to connect all living things in your mind. It's one of those books that you'll keep thinking about long after you've read the last page. It's one of the best books I've read. Highly recommended.
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Summary: A BOTANICAL EPIPHANY
Review: I am a teacher of Horticulture and Seller of Botanical Prints (shigitatsu.com). Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire is a revelation taking Darwin's theory on step further. After reading this thought-provoking book, I will not only stop to smell the roses, but look at them with renewed insight. Ten pages of sources are also included. The principal works referred to in the text, as well as others that supplied the author with facts, which influenced his thinking, are referenced.
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Summary: What's all the hype?
Review: This book needed severe editing to remove redundancies. His point of view is eye-opening, and could have made a fascinating article in The New Yorker magazine. Time and again in each chapter, the author repeats the same anecdotes and snippets of information. His editor should be ashamed. I am irritated to have wasted time and money on this book.
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Summary: Some of the Most interesting Botany You'll Ever Read.
Review: Two different people sent me copies last week of Michael Pollan's book, The Botany of Desire. I'm a writer (Allergy-Free Gardening, from Ten Speed Press) myself and a lifetime horticulturist and I guess they figured I'd appreciate this book. They were right too. I found this book extremely hard to put down. Pollan is a writer first and a botanist second but he is remarkably observant about horticultural matters. He is also unusually talented at explaining complex ideas and he does so in a way that is fresh, fun, often funny, and suprisingly profound. Pollan's section on Johnny Appleseed alone is worth the price of the book. Here Johnny is a multi-dimensional character, one not just eccentric, but a shrewd fellow with great vision and considerable human frailty. The Botany of Desire is chiefly the history of the tulip, apples in America, cannabis, and the potato. This may not sound like the recipe for a really satisfying read, but in Michael Pollan's more than able hands, it certainly is. If you enjoy gardening, history, or just plain old very decent writing, I expect you too would appreciate this excellent book.
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Summary: An absolutely fascinating book
Review: This is one of those books that come out and you wonder why no one ever thought of writing it before. But who would have guessed that a book about such mundane topics as potatoes, apples, the ordinary tulip and the (admittedly less banal) marijuana plant could be so absorbing, fresh and fascinating? It is largely Pollan's engaging style that makes this book so very hard to put down, but his insights are thought-provoking and very new and his ability to apply the lessons the plant world provides to larger social constructs and issues is convincing. My only gripe is that it is not longer--I would gladly be reading it still.
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