Diving into On Such A Full Sea

photo: www.amazon.com

In a near future, pockets of the world have deteriorated from environmental pollution, rendering most of the open land wild and lawless. However, small walled-in communities, known as Charters, retain the luxuries of past lifestyles, from gourmet meals to elegant mansions, maids, and pristine health services. The Charters are wealthy and ambitious, forever competing with each other since childhood to secure well-paying jobs. If they don't secure a well-paying job, they'll be kicked out, forced to live or die in the wild "counties."

The Charters are supported with produce and other materials by settlements of B-class citizens. These people work for the Charters, but are protected from the counties and enjoy schooling, as well as malls, and things like television. One such settlement is B-Mor (once called Baltimore), which supplies the Charters with perfect fish.

One of the fish divers, named Fan, makes history when she chooses to leave the safety of B-Mor in search of her lover, Reg, who was taken from B-Mor because of his immunity to C-illness - a deadly disease that everyone, counties person or wealthy Charter, eventually succumbs to. Fan ventures out on her own, braving injuries, imprisonment, and attacks, to find out what has become of the man she loves.

What makes On Such A Full Sea so compelling is its style and voice. The narrator is a B-Mor resident, telling Fan's story many years after she left, almost speaking to Fan, rooting for her, letting her know that the whole of B-Mor is behind her. Fan and Reg become myth, legend, less of people and more of an embodiment of ideas.

This aligns with the portrayal of Fan herself as a heroine. She rarely takes definitive action herself, and doesn't fall into either category of badass fighter or beguiling charmer. She's a physically small woman who survives mostly through the help of others. But she has, or embodies, fierce ideas about what she needs to do.

With the myth-like style of the story, Fan's journey doesn't make a lot of logical sense. There are several moments where I had to suspend disbelief, such as when Fan is saved by someone at just the right time, or particular characters and events, who seemed so important at the time, never resurfaced.

With undertones of Chinese immigration and treatment in America, as well as themes of class privilege, identity, and love, On Such a Full Sea is a compelling, mildly dystopian world, with an uncertain ending that mirrors the uncertainty of the future and what lies ahead.

8/10 📕