The Man with the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming-Yi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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This book is at once a work of eco-fiction, literary fiction, and speculative fiction. The story revolves around a pair of characters whose worldlines become intertwined when the Pacific Trash Vortex is spun out, crashing into the Eastern shore of Taiwan. “Riding” the trash vortex is Atile’i, a member of a remote Pacific Island where second sons (of which he is one) are exiled to the sea to ensure the tiny island’s population doesn’t outstrip its resources. Atile’i is found by Alice, an academic who moved to a rural area of the Eastern shore and who is in an extended period of grieving the loss of her son and [common law] husband. Their union helps them each in the process of finding closure for their respective traumas.

There is a secondary story involving supporting characters, but at its heart, the book is about how an unlikely pair is brought together by environmental factors. That said, the secondary story does offer the reader insight into the indigenous population of Taiwan, a number of tribes whose relation to the island has been overshadowed by both the huge numbers of Chinese immigrants and the various agents of colonization (i.e. Europeans and the Japanese.)

I found this book to be highly readable. It manages to highlight environmental perils without being preachy in a way that detracts from the intensity of the story (and, thus, which reduces the effectiveness as a tool of persuasion.) [This being a line that some other eco-fiction writers have been unable to walk, such that they dissipate the power of story through a need to virtue signal, tribe signal, and finger-point.]

I’d highly recommend this book for readers of literature in translation, eco-fiction, literary fiction, or anyone who likes an interesting story.

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