Eating the Landscape review

Heather Hogan

ENG 102

March 12, 2018

Book Review

Eating the Landscape Review

Enrique Salmón carries the readers of “Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience” across the southern United States, and northern Mexico. Through this voyage, he tells many tales of the way he, an American Indian, lives. Food is extremely important to Salmón. He is able to weave an idea about food onto almost every page of this book.

Publishers Weekly reviewed this book. They felt that, “Though the cause is worthwhile, and the author dedicated, he is not a skilled enough writer to turn workaday prose into compelling narrative.” I do not agree with Salmón being not skilled as a writer, as he is. He paints vivid pictures in the reader's mind of the landscape or person he is discussing. I do agree with this not being a compelling narrative. Personally, I could not keep myself interested in this book. It was just not the type of genre that I am into reading. However, this book did provide me with new facts that interested me. For example, Salmón explains a few benefits of eating an indigenous diet. One of the many benefits is that, “...diabetes, obesity, and heart disease is very low among indigenous populations…” (79). This is very different than eating American food, like fast food. Many Americans suffer from all three of the mentioned issues, and they can all be life-threatening.

I would recommend this to anybody that is interested in the way food is intertwined in their culture. Also, those interested in Indigenous culture in general. If neither of these interest you, maybe skip reading this book.

Work cited: "Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience." , Rev. of Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience, by Enrique SalmónPublishers Weekly, 6 Feb. 2012, https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780816530113. Accessed 12 Mar. 2018.

Salmón, Enrique. Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience. University of Arizona Press, 2012.