"On Such A Full Sea", a futuristic vision from Chang-Rae Lee
"Fan couldn't help but picture her Reg, clopping down the stairs, sleep still sanding his eyes... using his height to allow Josey to decorate the street trees for Lunar New Year, or just riding scooters again, feeling free enough to fly away. For none of us can resist such hopeful flashes, which are, in the end, what lights our way through this ever-dimming world."
"On Such A Full Sea" describes a distant future, one could debate how distant, in which America is divided between three groups: one of protected enclaves of great wealth(Charters); one of lesser elite protected enclaves that produce much of the needed food and products for the Charters, and these enclaves have more or less insured levels of prosperity, patterned lifestyles, and safety; and outside of the walls of these two protected groups lies an anarchic rest of the country, unpredictable, at times wild, but with some functioning communities that have arisen from the looming chaos and inevitable material poverty.
This novel is obviously a different turn of writing focus for Lee. His last book, "The Surrendered", was a serious, intense, and multi-faceted book that was terrific but could not be called relaxing. This latest book is done in a relaxed style, even if the topic is at times dire. The writing occasionally moves into pages of almost unspeakable perfection, if such a thing is possible.
Like any futuristic novel, much of what is read can be layered over the present and that is certainly the case here. This is done in a way that is not at all didactic or forced or even necessary to notice, but it is surely there. "For what are we aiming for... To have built, each of us, some private fortress impenetrable to everyone save a few cousin achievers? We allow that it's simple instinct to wish to be secured against all manner of riot, whether natural or human and to strive... We are not the kind to decry such pursuits... We won't fret when someone perches upon his lofty black rock... At the same time, however, it chills us to think that despite how much we trust one another, some fundamental shift is underway."
This is the unusual book that upon closing the cover, it was decided here to reread it in a few weeks or months, for both the language and the overall impact.
The major accomplishment of this book commentary is that it managed to avoid one of the words of the year in fiction reviews, and that is "dystopia". There it is, are you satisfied?
"On Such A Full Sea" describes a distant future, one could debate how distant, in which America is divided between three groups: one of protected enclaves of great wealth(Charters); one of lesser elite protected enclaves that produce much of the needed food and products for the Charters, and these enclaves have more or less insured levels of prosperity, patterned lifestyles, and safety; and outside of the walls of these two protected groups lies an anarchic rest of the country, unpredictable, at times wild, but with some functioning communities that have arisen from the looming chaos and inevitable material poverty.
This novel is obviously a different turn of writing focus for Lee. His last book, "The Surrendered", was a serious, intense, and multi-faceted book that was terrific but could not be called relaxing. This latest book is done in a relaxed style, even if the topic is at times dire. The writing occasionally moves into pages of almost unspeakable perfection, if such a thing is possible.
Like any futuristic novel, much of what is read can be layered over the present and that is certainly the case here. This is done in a way that is not at all didactic or forced or even necessary to notice, but it is surely there. "For what are we aiming for... To have built, each of us, some private fortress impenetrable to everyone save a few cousin achievers? We allow that it's simple instinct to wish to be secured against all manner of riot, whether natural or human and to strive... We are not the kind to decry such pursuits... We won't fret when someone perches upon his lofty black rock... At the same time, however, it chills us to think that despite how much we trust one another, some fundamental shift is underway."
This is the unusual book that upon closing the cover, it was decided here to reread it in a few weeks or months, for both the language and the overall impact.
The major accomplishment of this book commentary is that it managed to avoid one of the words of the year in fiction reviews, and that is "dystopia". There it is, are you satisfied?
posted by John Borden at 12:33 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home