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Melanie B. (Desoto, TX)
Thoughtful Cultural and Educational History of Ginseng
I was not expecting this graphic memoir to be highly educational and meaningful. The history of ginseng and its cultivation is not a subject matter I would have easily understood had it not been written in this format. The illustrations brought meaning where words alone would have failed to enlighten me. I enjoyed this book and will recommend it for book group discussion.
Marion_Mueller
Ginseng Roots : a Memoir
Ginseng Roots : a Memoir by Craig Thompson. Pantheon, 2025.
Graphic artist and author Craig Thompson returns to his roots to share his memories of growing up in central Wisconsin. But, he also returns to ginseng roots, a medicinal and aphrodisiac herb cultivated in central Wisconsin, that form so much of his childhood memories. Thompson's memories are intimately entwined with the root. A renewed interest in cultivating ginseng as a lucrative cash crop occurred about the time the Thompson family moved from Traverse City, Michigan. To earn money Thompson, his siblings and mother cultivated the fields (they didn't own the fields, but worked them) each summer from age 10 until 20 when he left home. It was hard, back aching work requiring long hours of stooping over plants surrounded by straw and frequently sprayed with pesticides. Thompson and his brother hated it. Their escape was comic books, and soon the brothers were drawing their own cartoons. Originally these chapters were published in serialized form as comics.
Criag Thompson's graphic artwork is detailed and fine tuned, using colors often associated with comics, red, white, black and orange. Red is the color of the ginseng flower; red is a favorite color in China where much of the U.S. ginseng is consumed. There are intricate drawings of the plant during its four to five years of growth, of the seeds, of the rows of plants and straw, of the awnings and covered gardens, of assorted machinery. The little village of Marathon City comes alive from its entrance bridge across the Rib River to the businesses, groceries, churches, and schools. Red barns, tall silos, gravel roads, woods, and local folks connected with local ginseng business are recognizable as is Wausau, Wisconsin's main street and square. He even picks up on the language of the locals," ya know." A little ginseng root comic character scurries around in and out and up and down the illustrations on many pages reminding the reader that the book is about ginseng root, too, not just Thompson's childhood memories.
Thompson doesn't stop with Wisconsin where he interviews old neighbors and present ginseng growers and dealers to learn contemporary growing practices and business policies. He travels to South Korea and China to study current and traditional ginseng cultivation and use. He learns about the use of herbs and ginseng in Chinese medicine as he tries to find relief from hands that have crippled. On extravagantly designed pages, Chinese dragons and fabled characters appear, connecting Asia and Wisconsin. Intermixed the reader is surreptitiously introduced to Thompson's philosophy and politics and other writings: corporate agriculture, work ethic, global economy, environmentalism, plant based healing, class division, parental relationships and religion.
The result is an adult graphic novel with substantial information about a unique crop that has connected North America to China since the eighteenth century. This reviewer, who is from the same county in Wisconsin and whose father and later cousins grew ginseng, found the work fascinatingly accurate. Readers exploring graphic novels, herbal medicine, and Asian and American culture revolving around ginseng would also find that analysis true.
Ann_W
Graphic, pictorial family biography
Craig Thompson while family were ginseng farmers. It's a very important ingredient in cooking. However, the actual process is quite arduous. However, as we much agricultural produce, there are many not only physical, medical and psychological stresses. Money was always a problem. Parental problems, constant moving. As a psychologist, I knew there would be problems, each person.
That was mother, father, 2 sons and a daughter. It is part an exploration of their lives. It is both an American story, the power of stereotypes, expectations. A perfect book illustrating listening, documenting and using words and pictures in a meaningful while.
Nancy_S1
Ginseng Roots written and illustrated by Craig Thompson
Craig Thompson is an award winning graphic novelist. This hard cover book is a compilation containing his comic book series relating to his unique experiences as it relates to Ginseng. Early childhood, coming of age, and family involvement in the Wisconsin Ginseng fields, part travel, part essays and political observations, along with cultural experiences are shared in comic book form with dialogue and detailed illustrations.
This was a learning experience for me as I am not an avid graphic novel reader. Digesting my experience upon completion, I dipped into something new and can sit back and say Wow I learned a great deal in this unique format.
Caroline
Leave the story, take the art
GINSENG ROOTS is ostensibly about Craig Thompson's unusual childhood job: For ten summers, forty hours a week, he, along with his brother, sister, and mom, harvested ginseng in their small town of Marathon, Wisconsin. China, Korea, and many other Asian countries prize ginseng root for its medicinal properties, and on the surface, ginseng is the star of this gorgeously illustrated sequential-art memoir.
But sadly, this book as a whole isn't a star. Thompson is a scattered writer, constantly veering away from memoir. Unable to decide what to share and what to leave out, he shared it ALL. Crammed into this book are numerous story lines and little details that are unrelated to ginseng, along with too many snoozy ginseng facts and transcribed interviews. This frenetic mix kind of works in the sense that GINSENG ROOTS offers something for every reader, and if one part is boring that boredom doesn't last long; a shift is around the corner. Thompson's goal isn't obvious, though, and it feels like he himself didn't know the goal and was figuring things out as he went along.
Nevertheless, GINSENG ROOTS is undeniably an achievement that shows off Thompson's artistic talent and dedication. The time commitment alone was a feat. Each page is a minutely detailed artistic wonder, and Thompson sank all the way down into his subject, spending three weeks in China and Korea getting into the nitty-gritty of ginseng and interviewing numerous people all over the place, both in those places and in Wisconsin. In a cute touch, Thompson had his brother, Phil, illustrate some panels, and it's fun to compare their artistic styles. But still, a clear through-line and tight organization is always better, as is understanding what readers genuinely want to know.
I haven't yet read Thompson's earlier memoir, BLANKETS, but it sounds like its subject matter naturally provided an organized plot line. That's what GINSENG ROOTS needed. As strange as Thompson's summer job was, there's barely a story in it. And ginseng doesn't easily open storytelling doors. Certain cultures have valued it for hundreds of years, and it has medicinal properties—like so much else in the natural world. Nothing Thompson tells readers about ginseng makes it obviously deserving of a book. Thompson admitted he had trouble figuring out what to write about for this second memoir. It sounds like the time has come for him to stop mining his life for stories and instead focus on fiction or even just on illustration alone.
Donna W. (Wauwatosa, WI)
Ginseng Roots
This book was part memoir, and part factual account of the ginseng industry. Also mixed in was some history of the Hmong and other Asian communities. While I learned a lot of information, it was hard to keep interested because it switched back and forth between memoir, and educational book. The story did not flow well, and this may have been partly because it was written in comic book form.
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