This is more than just a self-indulgent story about an imagined joy ride the author takes across Taiwan with his recently departed friend Mike and dead dog Guo-Guo. It brings into sharp focus both the author’s “Taiwan curiousness” and his love of travel. The result is a wide-ranging story that spans space and time to capture the fullness of Taiwan in its vivid colors, historical experiences, and social mores. Backed by extensive documentary and site research, Kurt Lu transforms a story about a flight-of-fancy road trip into a deep-dive exploration into Taiwan’s varied topographies and ecologies as well as luminaries past and present. In bringing closure for himself, the author hopes to help lighten the multigenerational unease of his nation.