Shipwrecks has the feel of a fable. It takes place in a remote Japanese fishing village and tells of their timeless customs. The prose is simple and unadorned. The people cross a moral line in their quest to survive and suffer retribution for it.
During the winter months, the villagers light fires along the beach to distill salt from the sea. Their real purpose, however, is to lure ships onto the reef outside of the bay so that they can collect the bounty of their cargo... and kill any surviving crew.
Shipwrecks is a fairly short book, but it could have been more effective as a short story or novella. Many pages are dedicated to the village rituals and fishing techniques, described over the course of three years, and there are a few extraneous subplots. This material provides a richer sense of the subsistence-level life of the villagers, but it dilutes the power of the main story.
During the winter months, the villagers light fires along the beach to distill salt from the sea. Their real purpose, however, is to lure ships onto the reef outside of the bay so that they can collect the bounty of their cargo... and kill any surviving crew.
Shipwrecks is a fairly short book, but it could have been more effective as a short story or novella. Many pages are dedicated to the village rituals and fishing techniques, described over the course of three years, and there are a few extraneous subplots. This material provides a richer sense of the subsistence-level life of the villagers, but it dilutes the power of the main story.
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