The Botany of Desire (A Plant's Eye View of the World)
Michael Pollan
2001 Random House

Rating ****

I will try to avoid making a reference how appropriate it seems that a Pollan would be writing a book about the world from the perspective of a plant. Sometimes, those things happen. That is actually what this whole book is about ­ the way nature makes things happen and how we make things happen and the interaction between the two.

Man has convinced himself he is the master of nature, if not all the time, then for most of the time. Pollan's notion is that the plants themselves use us rather than us exclusively using them, to further their biological and evolutionary aims. The plants accomplish this, each in their own unique way, by appealing to one or another of our desires. By fulfilling what we desire most, a plant species thereby enlists us in their cultivation and propagation which spells biological success. Are we growing the wheat or has the wheat, by satisfying our desire for bread, really using us to grow themselves? The process, though, is not an either-or one. As is so often pointed out in the book, we are partners, we and the plants. It is co-evolution by which we grow and change together, each helping the other achieve something of value. We get our sweet tooth indulged and the apple trees blanket a continent. We get our ``high" and the marijuana plant is nurtured, refined and pampered in some of the most expensive and elaborate green houses in the world.

Using four different human desires and a specific plant which satisfies each, Pollan advances this idea in a very interesting and thoughtful way. Through history, current trends and his own insights, each story gently nudges us to join him in understanding the plant's view or our relationship with them. Starting in each case with his own garden and gardener's musings, we are carried through history, across continents and occasionally into the future as the story of our quest for our heart, mind or palate's desires are cleverly and sometimes dangerously catered to by nature.

The theme of yin-yang, male-female, mind-heart, control-abandon, order-chaos, science-art, or as Pollan calls it Apollo-Dionysus, is woven throughout the book too. In delightful ways, he gives us glimpses of his interpretation of events through these age-old balance points. There are fine examples of that delicate equilibrium being tipped one way or another, usually by us, and how the plant world redresses the balance, sometimes in not so gentle ways.

I enjoyed this though-provoking and informative book. I also happen to agree with its underlying message ­ that we are in this together with nature. We will always fail, and fail miserably if we persist in trying to dominate the natural world. That only by working together in side by side with nature in an understanding and respectful way will we truly have our desires satisfied, including the desire to live on this earth for many years to come.