On Such a Full Sea

A Novel

De: Chang-rae Lee

Narrado por: BD Wong

“Watching a talented writer take a risk is one of the pleasures of devoted reading, and On Such a Full Sea provides all that and more. . . . With On Such a Full Sea, [Chang-rae Lee] has found a new way to explore his old preoccupation: the oft-told tale of the desperate, betraying, lonely human heart.”—Andrew Sean Greer, The New York Times Book Review

“I've never been a fan of grand hyperbolic declarations in book reviews, but faced with On Such a Full Sea, I have no choice but to ask: Who is a greater novelist than Chang-rae Lee today?”—Porochista Khakpour, The Los Angeles Times

From the beloved award-winning author of Native Speaker,The Surrendered, and My Year Abroad, a highly provocative, deeply affecting story of one woman’s legendary quest in a shocking, future America.

On Such a Full Sea takes Chang-rae Lee’s elegance of prose, his masterly storytelling, and his long-standing interests in identity, culture, work, and love, and lifts them to a new plane. Stepping from the realistic and historical territories of his previous work, Lee brings us into a world created from scratch. Against a vividly imagined future America, Lee tells a stunning, surprising, and riveting story that will change the way readers think about the world they live in.

In a future, long-declining America, society is strictly stratified by class. Long-abandoned urban neighborhoods have been repurposed as highwalled, self-contained labor colonies. And the members of the labor class—descendants of those brought over en masse many years earlier from environmentally ruined provincial China—find purpose and identity in their work to provide pristine produce and fish to the small, elite, satellite charter villages that ring the labor settlement.

In this world lives Fan, a female fish-tank diver, who leaves her home in the B-Mor settlement (once known as Baltimore), when the man she loves mysteriously disappears. Fan’s journey to find him takes her out of the safety of B-Mor, through the anarchic Open Counties, where crime is rampant with scant governmental oversight, and to a faraway charter village, in a quest that will soon become legend to those she left behind.

plot spins out unevenly

Overall the book is an interesting read but it is told so unevenly that it got in the way of enjoying it.

Intriguing but slow

Any additional comments?

As a person who needs a story with some momentum, I wasn't able to get into this book. The writing is beautiful, with careful and sparse diction. The author creates a strong sense of place, with an atmosphere that is worrisome most of all in the degree to which everyone treats it as normal. The main character is described (at least in the portion I read) from a detached vantage point that leaves her deliberately somewhat opaque. The anonymous narrator is perplexed by her decisions. The narration was perfectly suited to the portion of the book I listened to.

While I did become curious about what happened to Fan and how her journey went, the pace did not pick up early enough in the book, nor was I sufficiently attached to the characters, to continue listening. I liked the world-building but I didn't have the willpower to keep paying attention. Yet this wasn't a book that I sought a refund for, because it felt like it might be sufficiently worthwhile to try again when I have more patience.

If you are a listener who prefers relatively fast-paced books, think twice about this one. Or, if you are a listener with a lot of patience, please post a review to let the rest of us know if it's worth the effort!

Thrilling and well-narrated

Wonderfully performed, and a very human story set in a unique take on the future.

Overrated!

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Chang-rae Lee's "On Such a Full Sea" (Sea) received very strong reviews from the New York Times and The Guardian. I was less than impressed. Sea has an imaginative premise, but lacks a solid story to maintain the reader's engagement. Throughout Sea the reader never feels a sense of conclusion as so many questions and issues are unresolved. At points Sea seems like a series of unconnected short stories with only a single familiar character. References to dystopia science fiction theme are overblown (one reviewer comparing Sea to Brave New World). Chang-rae Lee leaves you in dark relative to the development or history of the dystopia society.

I will pay Chang-rae Lee his due respect as a writing of prose. He is the master of describing what others are feeling, observing, or experiencing. Ultimately, despite the technical perfection of the writing the reader just doesn't care about the characters.

I have read 56 books in the last two years, where Sea ranks in 44th position (21%).

feels like part one of a serial

What did you like best about On Such a Full Sea? What did you like least?

It is an engaging story, but too much of the storyline is unexplained. I would read part 2 (assuming this is going to turn into a serial) just to see what happens next...

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I thought all of it was very interesting.

Have you listened to any of B. D. Wong’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was the first time I listened to Wong narrate. I thought he did a wonderful job!

Could you see On Such a Full Sea being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

no