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A review by nickyxxx
The Man with the Compound Eyes by Wu Ming-Yi
2.0
2.25 stars.
The first book of 2023 is out, and the first book of 2023... was a major disappointment. I won't say it was a bad book because it was evident that a lot of effort and energy went into it, so to call it a mess would be unfair. And hidden behind all the symbolism, there's probably a beautiful message, and I hope other people can find it.
But diving deeper... No, I couldn't make sense of this. Firstly, the book was 90% flashbacks, and although it may have suited this book, it's just not my taste. There were so many characters reflecting on certain events in their lives, and those flashbacks seemed randomly chosen. Not all of them, but some were, and it completely confused me. If flashbacks dominate the majority of your story, I expect them to be related to the overarching plot, but that wasn't always the case here. Especially with secondary characters who, in my opinion, didn't contribute much to the main storyline. A story is not a story without characters, and almost every book needs supporting characters, but their flashbacks didn't add much to the story's message and, in fact, detracted from it.
Speaking of characters, I didn't understand them well. And by that, I mean the way these characters were introduced in the story. Normally, the various threads of characters converge at a certain point in the story, or at least, that's usually the case, and as a reader, you get to see how they are connected. But in this case, that wasn't so, or at least, I was left confused about their actual relationships. There are two main characters, clearly, but the rest remained vague. Sure, some supporting characters had an impact on the main characters, but others seemed to lead their own lives without contributing to the advancement of the story or strengthening the book's message. In fact, some characters had their own message that, as mentioned before, diverted from the main message of the book.
Side note: I also didn't find the characters particularly interesting – there were very few that truly caught my attention. To be honest, I only found Atile'i fascinating, with his cultural background and unique customs. The rest of the characters were flat and minimally developed, and some were nothing more than names on a page, which always feels lacking to me. With such a short book, more effort could have been put into this, even if the characters weren't always essential.
Now, let's talk about the story itself, which a) started very slowly, b) was mostly unclear to me, and c) left me quite confused. The environmental themes included in it are understandable, and I have nothing against them, but their connection to Alice's storyline remains unclear to me. Maybe that environmental message, like her primary storyline, has an influence on her personality, I don't know. It would be nice, but I didn't see it, and character development is usually something I care a lot about in books. Furthermore, there were too many perspectives and flashbacks to effectively portray climate change and convey the message. Sure, it's nice if you can depict the impact of climate change through the influence it has on a character. But when you throw in so many flashbacks and perspectives into the story, you can't develop all the characters so deeply and give them clear personalities – let alone show the development of those personalities resulting from climate change.
There seemed to be a lot of symbolism, and normally I have nothing against that, but this book seemed to consist of 70% symbolism, and I didn't understand half of it (well, actually, the majority). It becomes quite difficult to follow the story in that case. And maybe a lot was lost in translation, as others have pointed out to me, but well, that doesn't change the end result. Perhaps the original version is understandable, but this English edition, in particular, wasn't. Speaking of symbolism, the ending was a big question mark, and that can be intriguing because it keeps you thinking even after closing the book. However, in this case, I just don't feel like pondering over it – especially because the rest of the book couldn't hold my interest at all. What is true and what is imagination, or some kind of coping mechanism, can be a beautiful concept, but in this book, it was mostly confusing. That principle was thrown into the book towards the end, and as a result, I never felt the need to pay attention to the truthfulness of certain characters' perceptions throughout the book. If truth or memories are a theme in the book, there should have been a hint of it at the beginning so that as a reader, I understand that I should pay attention to that, creating an intriguing tension that holds my attention.
The original version is probably more understandable because, as others have pointed out, some things are inevitably lost in translation. But even then, this edition was not worth reading for me, and I quickly lost track.
TL;DR: A confusing book with shallow characters lacking coherence, with commendable/fascinating themes overshadowed by symbolism and seemingly irrelevant flashbacks.
The first book of 2023 is out, and the first book of 2023... was a major disappointment. I won't say it was a bad book because it was evident that a lot of effort and energy went into it, so to call it a mess would be unfair. And hidden behind all the symbolism, there's probably a beautiful message, and I hope other people can find it.
But diving deeper... No, I couldn't make sense of this. Firstly, the book was 90% flashbacks, and although it may have suited this book, it's just not my taste. There were so many characters reflecting on certain events in their lives, and those flashbacks seemed randomly chosen. Not all of them, but some were, and it completely confused me. If flashbacks dominate the majority of your story, I expect them to be related to the overarching plot, but that wasn't always the case here. Especially with secondary characters who, in my opinion, didn't contribute much to the main storyline. A story is not a story without characters, and almost every book needs supporting characters, but their flashbacks didn't add much to the story's message and, in fact, detracted from it.
Speaking of characters, I didn't understand them well. And by that, I mean the way these characters were introduced in the story. Normally, the various threads of characters converge at a certain point in the story, or at least, that's usually the case, and as a reader, you get to see how they are connected. But in this case, that wasn't so, or at least, I was left confused about their actual relationships. There are two main characters, clearly, but the rest remained vague. Sure, some supporting characters had an impact on the main characters, but others seemed to lead their own lives without contributing to the advancement of the story or strengthening the book's message. In fact, some characters had their own message that, as mentioned before, diverted from the main message of the book.
Side note: I also didn't find the characters particularly interesting – there were very few that truly caught my attention. To be honest, I only found Atile'i fascinating, with his cultural background and unique customs. The rest of the characters were flat and minimally developed, and some were nothing more than names on a page, which always feels lacking to me. With such a short book, more effort could have been put into this, even if the characters weren't always essential.
Now, let's talk about the story itself, which a) started very slowly, b) was mostly unclear to me, and c) left me quite confused. The environmental themes included in it are understandable, and I have nothing against them, but their connection to Alice's storyline remains unclear to me. Maybe that environmental message, like her primary storyline, has an influence on her personality, I don't know. It would be nice, but I didn't see it, and character development is usually something I care a lot about in books. Furthermore, there were too many perspectives and flashbacks to effectively portray climate change and convey the message. Sure, it's nice if you can depict the impact of climate change through the influence it has on a character. But when you throw in so many flashbacks and perspectives into the story, you can't develop all the characters so deeply and give them clear personalities – let alone show the development of those personalities resulting from climate change.
There seemed to be a lot of symbolism, and normally I have nothing against that, but this book seemed to consist of 70% symbolism, and I didn't understand half of it (well, actually, the majority). It becomes quite difficult to follow the story in that case. And maybe a lot was lost in translation, as others have pointed out to me, but well, that doesn't change the end result. Perhaps the original version is understandable, but this English edition, in particular, wasn't. Speaking of symbolism, the ending was a big question mark, and that can be intriguing because it keeps you thinking even after closing the book. However, in this case, I just don't feel like pondering over it – especially because the rest of the book couldn't hold my interest at all. What is true and what is imagination, or some kind of coping mechanism, can be a beautiful concept, but in this book, it was mostly confusing. That principle was thrown into the book towards the end, and as a result, I never felt the need to pay attention to the truthfulness of certain characters' perceptions throughout the book. If truth or memories are a theme in the book, there should have been a hint of it at the beginning so that as a reader, I understand that I should pay attention to that, creating an intriguing tension that holds my attention.
The original version is probably more understandable because, as others have pointed out, some things are inevitably lost in translation. But even then, this edition was not worth reading for me, and I quickly lost track.
TL;DR: A confusing book with shallow characters lacking coherence, with commendable/fascinating themes overshadowed by symbolism and seemingly irrelevant flashbacks.