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Ginseng Roots: A Memoir (Pantheon Graphic Library)
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About This Book
From the celebrated author of Blankets and Habibi comes a new graphic memoir exploring the class divide, childhood labor, family, and our globalized world—all centered on Wisconsin's ginseng farming industry When Blankets first published in 2003, Craig Thompson's seminal memoir about first love and faith lost in rural Wisconsin débuted to rapturous acclaim. The winner of two Eisner and three Harvey Awards, it is considered one of the all-time great works of graphic storytelling. Now, in Thompson's long-awaited return to the autobiographical form, comes the story that Blankets left out. Ginseng Roots follows Thompson and his siblings, who spent the summers of their youth weeding and harvesting rows of coveted American ginseng on rural Wisconsin farms for one dollar an hour. In his trademark breathtaking pen-and-ink work, Thompson interweaves this lost youth with the 300-year-old history of the global ginseng trade and the many lives it has tied together—from ginseng hunters in ancient China to industrial farmers and migrant harvesters in the American Midwest to his own family still grappling with the aftershocks of the bitter past. Stretching from Marathon, Wisconsin, to Northeast China, Ginseng Roots charts the rise of industrial agriculture, the decline of American labor, and the search for a sense of home in a rapidly changing world.
Reviews
"Spectacular and inspired ..."
"[Thompson's] signature style—meticulously detailed realism with expressive characters populating his panels of mostly black and white with shades of orange—remains as affecting as ever, creating another painstakingly multilayered title to add to shelves everywhere."
"Thompson fuses lyrical reflections on his childhood with a thoughtful exploration of economic and cultural exchange to create a poignant meditation on labor, family, and the many ways in which global and personal endeavors intertwine, often unexpectedly."
"Thompson also makes liberal use of red and orange tones, a technique that both enlivens and unifies its pages."
"Thompson is less successful when trying to extract more general, unambiguous conclusions from his delicate vignettes."
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