Review: Braiding Sweetgrass

Nicole Wojnowski

Professor Melissa Santos

ENG-102-037

14 February 2018

                                                            Braiding Sweetgrass: Evaluation

            Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer is a fantastic novel that consists of various chapters using personification and oral tradition tales about the Earth, known as creation stories. Creation stories date back to when people were creating stories about how the Earth was created and the importance of various types of life. These stories were used as a source of entertainment and as a way to create possible ideas to how everything started. From generation to generation, these stories are passed down and we are able to create novels, like Robin Wall Kimmerer did with Braiding Sweetgrass. She discusses the reciprocity, and impact on decisions that we make, which will later be discussed and explained in further detail. It is important for people like Kimmerer to have their voice be heard because it makes a big impact on today’s world where we don’t have as much of a connection to nature like earlier cultures had.

            In the first chapter of the novel “Sky Woman Falling”, Kimmerer describes a creation story in which a woman falls from the “Sky World” which starts a chain series of events that creates Earth. The author uses various materials such as water, soil, mud, animals, vegetation, plants, and weather. This chapter captures the readers’ attention and creates a connection that we have seemed to lose with nature over time. The second chapter, “The Gift of Strawberries” goes in depth with a tale of reciprocity. The young woman tells how berries have always been a huge part of her life and how “the currency of a gift economy is, at its root, reciprocity.” (Kimmerer 28) Reciprocity was the style of living a long time ago where people did not pay for things, they exchanged goods like "gifts" as said in the novel. It was a give-give community where everyone pitched in and held their own way. Not only does this novel connect the reader to creation stories but it also puts the reader into perspective with the way our culture is now, compared to what culture was like in early years. As said in Bonnie Black’s book review in Vitality Magazine, “Indigenous peoples have always revered sweetgrass as one of the four sacred plants and understand it as a living, breathing entity that embodies the concept of gratitude and reciprocity.” (Black 2014)

            I recommend this book to others because it is very different from other stories that are out there. There are romance stories, science fiction novels, informational texts and other such books but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of creation story type books. Not only is this a creation story novel but within its many chapters, there are lessons to be taught and it opens your mind to why we need to be more conservative with our resources and make better choices for the environment. A key idea for this book is how things used to be when people were connected with nature and it opens the reader to the idea of appreciating what Earth has to offer us. Robin Wall Kimmerer does an excellent job touching upon the subjects that she is passionate about and her messages and I feel that they are easily understood by the reader well. I enjoy this different style of reading and as a person who isn’t a fan of reading, I was drawn into this story. In fact, I was eager to continue to read. To those who may not enjoy reading, like me, I recommend giving this novel a chance because you may find a new favorite novel, or at least a novel that you enjoy reading.

Works Cited:

Black, Bonnie. “Book Review: Braiding Sweetgrass.” Vitality Magazine, 1 May 2014.

Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions, 2013.