A review by beholdtheanimals
On Such a Full Sea, by Chang-rae Lee
4.0
Holy shit, this book! First off, it's more like six books in one, with each episode of our heroine's journey a complete tale unto itself. This is a good thing though--it's not the largest book but it doesn't sprawl excessively, even a few of the subplots feel like a means to explain the world and thus disappointed me slightly when they didn't all tie together in the end. Most of the book's many threads do coalesce into something strange, beautiful, and poignant though. Like the structure, the language delighted me in parts and threw me off a little in others--Lee does a great job of establishing the collective voice of the people of B-Mor and even if it felt a bit too deliberately stilted in places, it sinks into the brain. Look up, I'm even using it myself ("our heroine's journey")
BONUS POINTS for the fact that, consciously or unconsciously, Lee seems to have channeled one of my very favorite fairytales, The Snow Queen. You'll have to read the book yourself to see if I'm right or if I'm nuts, and when you do it will 100% be worth your time.
BONUS POINTS for the fact that, consciously or unconsciously, Lee seems to have channeled one of my very favorite fairytales, The Snow Queen. You'll have to read the book yourself to see if I'm right or if I'm nuts, and when you do it will 100% be worth your time.