NOT SCI-FI

Dong’s surreal novel follows a young man’s quest for free energy.

The unnamed narrator is from a country in the Pacific Islands called Yarden. In Yarden, the narrator takes art classes as a child and dreams of one day finding a way to create free energy. The boy’s interest stems from disputes in Yarden over the ways energy is distributed; conflicts over the issue lead the country from protests to civil war. A doctor who volunteers to provide medical aid during the unrest enters the picture. “Doctor,” as he is called, winds up befriending the narrator and eventually helps him to leave the country, though the boy’s family remains behind in Yarden. The narrator begins a new life in a place called Railroad City. It is here that he will begin to pursue his true passion: the creation of a perpetual motion machine that will break the laws of thermodynamics. The narrator takes to his education in Railroad City in an uneven manner; while he loves and excels in science, he struggles with classes like literature. (Not that he really cares.) In time, he devotes himself fully to his seemingly impossible goal. The journey from Yarden to the narrator’s single-minded pursuit moves sluggishly. Early descriptions of the narrator doing things like learning to “embrace more tediousness and puissance of art” are stilted. While the author’s black-and-white illustrations illuminate some of the narrator’s thought processes, it takes time for the reader to care about his fate. However, when his frenzy kicks in, the pace quickens—and when he reaches the point at which “any time spent outside of working on perpetual motion was wasted time,” it seems he might even succeed. In the real world, one cannot break the laws of thermodynamics, but this is an environment in which occurrences like a number flying off of a clockface and hitting someone in the eye are unremarkable; such odd touches lend a unique feeling to a story that keeps the reader curious.

Though slow to get started, the narrative builds to a compelling look at a mad genius.