Dear Great Book Guru,  Sea Cliff Beach was definitely the place to be this weekend.  Early Sunday,  we headed down to have “ breakfast by the sea” and what a delicious breakfast it was and the lunch menu looked great, too!  While waiting on line, I overheard a couple discussing a new book set in the near future. One loved it and other said it was terrifying- something about New China and Baltimore???   Sea Cliff Beach Fan

Dear Sea Cliff Beach Fan,  I was there with my family everyday of the weekend and I agree totally with you – Carol Vogt, the Beach Committee, and Ann Koppel and her staff all deserve our thanks. ON SUCH A FULL SEA  by Chang-Rae Lee is a dystopian novel that  describes a future where disease, pollution, and financial collapse have left  the world a very grim place.  China’s population  has been  decimated by  industrial pollution and a group of its survivors have been resettled in Baltimore, a city Americans have abandoned because of civil unrest. These survivors live a constrained life- albeit safe and comfortable- where their sole function is to provide food and delicacies for an elite population of scientists, financiers, and technocrats who live in lavishly affluent gated communities. Between these two worlds, is open space where violence, anarchy and pandemics reign. The novel’s protagonist is Fan, a young girl whose  adventures  we follow as she travels in search of a missing friend. There is an uncomfortable recognition of many of our own concerns:   global warming, bird flu, swine flu, cancer epidemics, social inequality,  service economies,  outsourcing….  As a chilling commentary on our present ills and a despairing prediction for our future, this novel is not for the fainthearted. 

 

Reminder: Sea Cliff Civic Association's Annual Village-Wide Garage Sale is Saturday, June 7. Deadline to register is May 31. Need a form?  Available at Village Hall or Children's Library.