Reviewed by Reagan Prior ||
Author: Aimee Nezhukumatahil
Title of Work: World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
Genre: Memoir
Published: September 8th, 2020
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
When you read Aimee Nezhukumatahil’s prose, you can tell she is a poet. It’s eloquent, beautiful, and refreshing. Her 2021 essay collection World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments is, on one level, about appreciating the world around us. Savoring the flavors, sounds, smells, and beauty of nature. On another level, this collection is about the connection between nature and race and nature and culture. Nezhukumatahil explores several different forms of essays, such as a braiding technique employed in the “Monsoon” and “Flamingo” essays and the use of the second person in the “Axolotl” essay. In “Calendars Poetica,” she does her own take on the “Ars Poetica” in essay format. In “Questions While Searching for Birds with my Half-White Sons, Aged Six and Nine” the entire essay is told in questions her sons ask her while birding.
Nezhukumatahil’s writing can be characterized by its striking imagery. “The bibliography of the firefly is a tender and electric dress, a small flame sputtering in the ditches along a highway, and the elytra covering the hind wings of the firefly life like a light feather, supplier than any other beetle’s” (9). We can see every plant and animal without having to google a picture. (Not to mention Fumi Mini Nakomura’s gorgeous illustrations, which add to Nezhukumatahil’s lush writing.) Her personification of these animals shines; I will remember the smile of the axolotl and the grimace of the cassowary.
These essays consider social-cultural issues. The opening essays, “Catalpa Tree” and “Peacock” both take a look at the racism Nezhukumatathil endures as an Indian and Filipina American. A teacher tells her she cannot draw a peacock (the national bird of India) because it is not an “American bird.” In “Catalpa Tree,” her mother deals with racist attacks by her patients in a psychiatric hospital. She uses the metaphor of the tree as a shield she wishes she had against these moments. “As I pass the enormous tree, I make note of which leaves could cover my entire face If I ever needed them again. If I never needed to be anonymous and shield myself from questions of What are you? and Where are you from?” (6). In “Monsoon” she explores her culture by describing her visits to India and braiding with stories her grandmother tells her about Indian traditions surrounding monsoons. In “Whale Shark” she highlights Filipino culture by discussing a fairy tale about a teenage boy named Kablay who turns into a whale shark.
World of Wonders is packed with many unexpected moments, such as an essay about the world’s smelliest flower turning out to be about how Nezhukumatathil meets her husband. Another unexpected moment, on the darker side, is when an essay about flamingos is paired with commentary on violence against women. A crazed man at a Florida zoo brutally attacks a flamingo to the point where it has to be euthanized due to injuries. Women are attacked by men at bars, in public, in daylight, just like the flamingo. “We’d hear stories of a girl who never made it home. I thought that was just the nineties. But twenty-five years later, another story from my alma mater of a young woman missing: Someone saw her last at a quarter to ten, before the bars even mop and close up.” (119).
An essay collection about nature in our times cannot avoid talking about climate change. Nezhukumatahil makes major points about climate change throughout each of the essays, which culminate in the final essay “Firefly (Redux).” Here she realizes how our society is losing touch with nature due to urbanization and industrialization. Her students have never seen a firefly because they have spent so much time inside. Fireflies are a significant symbol in the collection, representing joy, peace, and love of life. She writes about the struggles these creatures face with migration. Fireflies no longer glow synchronously because they have been harmed by light pollution. However, they still glow, with quick flickers that barely catch the eye. They still glow, and that’s what matters. Birds still sing their songs and scientists are discovering new species of frogs. Hopefully, as Nezhukumatahil suggests, we can let this single light of a firefly be a reminder of hope. For her, it brings back memories of childhood summers. For the rest of us, it can be a guide towards returning to a world that loves nature, animals, flora and fauna, and learns how to cherish it. 100/100
Reagan Prior is a creative writing student at St. Thomas Aquinas College. She is a poetry editor for the college’s literary magazine, The Voyager. You can find some of her work in The Voyager and in a forthcoming issue of Soundings East.
