"Plants illuminate facets of life and our world," writes Jessica J. Lee in the introduction to her exquisite, haunting third book, Dispersals, a collection of essays examining the movement of people and plants. In 14 linked essays, Lee (Two Trees Make a Forest) explores the notion of "native" and "invasive" species; turns a zoom lens onto mosses and other tiny but powerful plants; and considers terms like rooted and migration in light of her own Welsh-Taiwanese-Canadian ancestry and her more recent moves across (and within) Europe and the U.K.
Lee begins with the koi pond her mother constructed in suburban Canada, her longing for her Taiwanese homeland made manifest in a backyard habitat for fish too fragile for Ontario winters. Lee describes her mother's dedication in loving detail, then steps back to consider movement and displacement: species of algae and reeds and water weeds, labeled "native" or "invasive" depending on where they take root. Through her experience as a mixed-race woman, her research into plants and their histories, and her longtime love for National Geographic, Lee also wrestles with complicated ideas about what it means to explore and to discover--and who gets to claim (and profit from) those discoveries.
The book's last essay, "Synonyms for Mauve," is a tender meditation on motherhood and Lee's intense need to create a safe, appealing home for her young daughter. "I am moving in search of beauty," she writes. Throughout Dispersals, Lee continues her insistent, clear-eyed quest for nourishment and vitality, even when both are complicated, and encourages readers to do the same. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams