Structure

The structure of the book is diffuse and reflective, loosely centered on an anecdote about picking serviceberries at her neighbor’s farm — a moment Kimmerer returns to throughout the book. This cyclical structure mirrors natural rhythms: seasons turning, plants blooming and dying back, gifts given and returned. It’s poetic and evocative, inviting readers to experience the world as an interconnected web rather than a linear argument. However, this same structure can also feel frustrating. Kimmerer frequently revisits key ideas, like the power of gift economies, but doesn’t always push her reflections to a more concrete or satisfying conclusion. For instance, she repeatedly acknowledges that gift economies tend to work best in small, close-knit communities, yet she never fully engages with the implications of this limitation. What would it take to scale reciprocity beyond intimate circles? Could a gift economy ever function on a larger, societal...