Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Through a Potato's Eyes
Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire is a collection of four essays on four different plants, each representing a desire that humans have: apples (sweetness), tulips (beauty), marijuana (intoxication), and potatoes (control). Pollan's writing is clear and purposeful, full of the kind of rampant speculation that would get a real scientist in trouble (or labeled as a "pop scientist" as Carl Sagan was), but perfect for the gardener-turned-investigator that Pollan is. In high school, we learn that plots boil down to basic structures, one of them being human vs. nature. Pollan attempts to flip that and write a book that is nature vs. humans by focusing on how the plants benefit from the years of selection by humans. Although the book is obstensibly about the plants, Pollan introduces you to a number of people who provide both the assistance and the foils for his natural protagonists, like: Johnny Appleseed (a real figure) and Bill Jones (who is more interested in a St. Appleseed); Monsanto, their captive customers, and the off-the-grid organic farmer Mike Heath; Bryan R., a breeder and grower of marijuana in Amsterdam, who is both frightened and proud of his patch of [marijuana]; and Dr. Pauw, who owned all but one of the most desired tulips during the mania that hit Holland.The style of the book resembles that of John McPhee, partly because of its four-essay structure, but also in the short, broken sections that flit back-and-forth in time, place and thought. Pollan, unlike McPhee, has a conclusion to draw from his subject, though, and that is the need to support biodiversity and his fear of monoculture--be it a natural one like the reliance on the "lumper" potato in Ireland that led to the Great Potato Famine or the artificial one of human culture, where people show a range of interest on many things, not just the tulip (or dot.com) of the moment. Reading between the lines, one can celebrate not only the wonder of nature but also fear the danger of hubris in thinking that we are separate from that nature, that we are not as changed by it as we change it. In these days of global warming and other environmental pressures, it's a lesson we would all do well to heed.
Rating: - A treat to read
The central idea of this book - the idea that plants obtain a Darwinian benefit from appealing to the desires of humans - underlies four essays each on a single plant (apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes). Frequently this thesis was buried underneath another of Pollan's interesting ideas (for example the futility of man's manipulation of the natural environment, or what makes the apple peculiarly "American"). But to be honest I did not mind. Pollan is a completely entertaining writer. He is equal parts funny, insightful, poetic, and informative. For example, I loved his extended metaphor of the variability of nature as a library. Each apple tree looks about the same, but inside they are quite different. The value of the library lies in these differences. The reasons I gave this book a "4" rather than a "5" may be minor from your perspective, depending on your own reading habits: The Tulip essay was well done but not news if you have read other books or articles on Holland's tulip mania. The Marijuana essay seemed to me a bit, um, disjointed and paranoid (hmmmm...wonder why?) although still entertaining. You may have already read the Apple essay in Harpers and/or the potato essay in the NYT Sunday Magazine. If you have not, however, they are both must reads (you will never eat a non-organic potato again when Pollan gets done with you). Pollan's book itself illustrates the generative power of variability - he floats from idea to idea like a bee, and something new is created as a result.
Rating:  - Like candy, sweet without substance.
Botany of Desire is to good evolutionary biology and natural history writing what Curious George is to Gorillas in the Mist.The stars Michael Pollan gets are for his lyrical writing, for making me think a little more deeply about a few plants for a couple of hours. He gets no stars for the natural history or for substance. This was an essentially substanceless book. A few funny anecdotes strung together without interior logic or any constancy of theme. What's his main thesis? He wants us to consider that plants evolved in order to attract our participation in their propogation. Well, that's pretty ho-hum since it's standard evolutionary theory. Of course, we as humans have a greater effect than the bees do, but the selfish plant gene is operating under the same restraints whether its seeking a human or an apian propogator. So, he has no truly novel concept to deliver. Nor is it novel to suggest that plants shaped human evolution. This reciprocity of effect is old news. Good natural history doesn't have to deliver something new. Many successful natural history books take solid, long-known ideas and put them across to the public in an effective, way. However, Pollan doesn't do that either. In fact, he merely collects a few observations, speculations and his own personal circumperambulations of, about and around a plant and tosses them into the hopper. His chapter on marijuana was so incoherant I began to think it was deliberate - an exemplar of marijuana's effect. This bricolage of a book is pretty to listen to, but lacking much of value to say. A bon bon, a froth and frosting, lacking any substance. In other words, Pollan doesn't have much to say, but he does say it rather well.
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