‘Ginseng Roots: A Memoir’ HC (review)

Written and Illustrated
by Craig Thompson
Published by Pantheon

I forget if it was the 1970s or 1980s when there was a sudden national boom in ginseng as a dietary supplement.

Some big celebrity was pushing it. Was it Larry King? Seems like. I actually took it for a while myself. As I recall, it was claimed to be a cure-all for everything from acne to ED. I haven’t given ginseng much thought since those days.

When I was offered a surprisingly massive new graphic novel entitled Ginseng Roots: A Memoir, my initial instinct was to pass on it as it sounded like a dull textbook. But then I saw it was by Craig Thompson, whose art I have always enjoyed, and next thing you know, I found myself diving in to both the history of the root and the history of Craig (no relation) Thompson.

Ginseng Roots is, as it’s subtitled, a memoir, and if you’re at all familiar with Thompson, you know he’s a past master of the autobiographical comics format.

Here we have him looking back from the present day—or at least the recent past—over his youthful work in the burgeoning ginseng industry of Wisconsin.

Did you know there was a ginseng industry in Wisconsin?

I did not.

Craig and his brother worked themselves to the bone for comic book money from a very early age. Craig’s sister—whom he left out of his earlier autobiographical stories—also appears here, along with relatives, parents, friends, and former employers. We see the artist chronicling his revisiting of Wisconsin and interviewing these folks, eliciting their memories, both good and bad, of the good old days. We also get lots of flashbacks to those days and it all becomes very fascinating.

Unexpectedly even more fascinating is the detailed history of the ginseng root itself and the American ginseng industry.

As much as I expected not to care for these sections, they drew me in quickly and deeply! Craig gives us a big-eyed anthropomorphic ginseng root cartoon figure to narrate or comment on many of those sections, making them all the more palatable.

The narrative of Ginseng Roots is actually pretty far-ranging.

Since the history of ginseng is tied so much to Asia, we get a lot of Asian history, as well as more recent Asian business practices, Asians in America, prejudices, medical practices, and even the Vietnam War. If that doesn’t sound incredibly interesting to you, it didn’t to me, ether. And yet…

Craig’s art is extremely pleasing, reminding me most of the work of mid-20th century children’s book artists or, to be specific, Robert McCloskey (Blueberries for Sal, Homer Price). It’s all done up in a gloriously detailed, classic illustrative style that bears in-depth poring over. The art is entirely in black and white but with various shades of red highlights on every single one of the book’s more than 400 pages.

Craig’s introspective story bears some similarities to the late underground artist Jack Jackson’s numerous factually-based historical stories and graphic novels. At times, I’m also reminded of Walt Disney classroom films of the 1960s and 1970s, with Craig himself doing most of the narration here. I always knew more about something I hadn’t really had much interest in when it started, and that’s what happened here.

There are extensive annotations at the back of the volume, bringing the receipts for various specific autobiographical points. Craig Thompson has once again put himself out in public, naked if you will (literally in one scene!) in order to learn something about himself and his past, while at the same time sharing his splendid artistic talents with the rest of us.

In the long run, I may not remember much the information overload about ginseng roots a month from now, but right now, thanks to Craig Thompson’s Ginseng Roots, I’m an expert.

Booksteve recommends.