On Such A Full Sea

Reg is Fan’s 19-year-old boyfriend, and ostensibly, the object of her search. Although we are given a number of descriptions of Reg throughout the book, we never actually get to meet him or see him in action, as all the stories we hear about him are secondhand. Physically, he is tall, and his skin is “the color of a smooth river stone, though one that’s lighter than those around it, a wheat-brown, buttery hue that seemed to glow warmer in the pale illumination of the grow facility” (7). The grow facility is where Reg works, and where he meets Fan; he tends the plants that hang over the fish tanks. The fact that he is tall and has long arms help him in his duties, reaching even the plants that hang in the innermost sections.

Reg is a kind and caring man, dedicated to his household. He often brings home candies for the younger members of his family, and sticky rice cakes for his elders. Reg spends almost all of his free days with Fan, shopping in the underground mall, splitting smoothies and baskets of chicken wings with her, and enjoying each other’s company in a very relaxed way. In fact, it seems to most observers that their love wasn’t based around lust, as they “didn’t just rush away on their free day to the pillowed compartment of a mini-inn like so many of our youth (and not-youth) now do and on the roaring pyre of their lust self-immolate” (72). Reg also spends time with those younger than him, neighborhood kids such as Joseph, whom he plays ball with.

Reg’s most startling and unique characteristic is that he’s rumored to be “C-free.” In the society of the book, cancer (colloquially referred to as simply “C”) is rampant, with Charters spending vast sums of money on treatments to keep it at bay and extend their lives. The largest, most profitable industry in the world has become the pharmaceutical industry, mostly due to their anti-cancer drugs and research. Reg is an incredibly rare specimen, since he is the only known human who is “free of the curse” (74). He vanishes very early in the book, and it’s heavily implied that his C-free status has something to do with this. There is some conjecture as to how Reg’s bloodline stayed C-free, some believing it to be in his genetic makeup and heritage: “The lines of his family, the Xi-Jang clan, go back right to the beginning of B-Mor, the Jangs among the originals who landed in the destitute city that very first hour” (76). One of Reg’s ancestors fell in love with a local girl, a black woman with the surname Willis, and a few of the traits of this mix show up in Reg. The researchers believed at first that the C-free status may be due to the particular mix of blood; however, further research on the Jang family line yielded no further results, showing Reg to be truly unique.

Joseph is a 10-year-old boy who is friends with Reg. Joseph lives on the same block as Reg, and has known the older boy since Joseph was an infant. Despite their difference in age, Reg often plays soccer with Joseph and his gang. Joseph becomes a victim of the flood that serves as the impetus for Fan to finally leave B-Mor. One day, when Joseph is watching his younger brother and his friend, the rain lets up long enough to allow the boys to go outside and play. They end up swimming and playing in a pond that has been created by the flooding, chasing fish and having fun. When an underground pipe becomes unblocked, the rush of water pulls Joseph’s younger brother’s friend down under the water. Joseph ensures that his brother is safe, then dives under, not knowing that the smaller boy has already passed through the pipe and come out the other side. Joseph’s bravery sends him to his death, as he is caught underwater and drowns, pinned against the sides of the drainage pipe.

Quig is a man who lives in the county known as the Smokes. He is bearded, with a wide jaw and a nose that appears to have been broken multiple times. When Fan first meets him, she sees that there is an “expression in his eyes […] of someone who has seen the worst of this life and would not be disturbed to see whatever measure more” (41). Quig is, at his core, kind and caring, taking time to teach Fan to drive and spending his own precious time and resources healing the sick and wounded. Quig is a also hard man, one who can take the horrors of the outside counties because he has lived through so many of them. We find out that his wife and child were murdered in front of his eyes by strangers attempting to rob the hotel they had been staying at. He has saved countless lives, birthed babies, and watched many people die.

This expression of being hard-nosed and able to do whatever is necessary is demonstrated often. For example, in Chapter 4, Quig witnesses Loreen’s cruelty to Fan. Having warned the woman once before, Quig simply shocks her with a cattle prod, knocking her out, and lets her fall face down into a puddle of urine. He does this seemingly immoral act for moral reasons—to protect a little girl from a violent, grown woman—but his complete stone-faced calm during the act of violence is telling. Still, he has a warm heart and is capable of feeling guilt when he does something against his own moral center. When he is in the process of bartering Fan away as a servant to Miss Cathy and Mister Leo, he can barely look Fan in the eye, feeling ashamed of his underhandedness. Later, after the truth about Mister Leo has been revealed, and Miss Cathy still wants to keep Fan around, Quig is quick to say that the final decision should be up to Fan herself.

Quig is a doctor, formerly one that lived and worked in the Charters. He had been a veterinarian, working his medical practice on animals. Pets had been popular at one time in the Charters. However, due to a sudden ban on all pets, Quig was forced to take his family and leave the Charter village, heading for parts unknown. After the tragedy involving his wife and daughter, he settled out in the counties and created his compound, which he rules over thanks to the contributions of the many people he has healed. His primary goal in life seems to be healing, taking the Hippocratic oath to heart. He takes the time out to pick up Fan from the road and take her home to heal her, when he could have taken Loreen’s advice and just continued driving. He even helps to save the life of Mister Leo by keeping him from dying of complications from a seizure. His dedication to saving lives is a major guiding principle.

Loreen is an overweight, violent-tempered woman who lives with Quig at the compound. When we first see her, she is feeding Fan in the aftermath of a car accident. She crosses her arms over an ample bosom, wearing loose blue-jeans and a gray sweatshirt that matches her graying hair. Fan is surprised to see that Loreen is heavy, as the rumors are that counties people are supposed to be underfed, but Loreen is “thick about the hips and thighs, and with a fleshy face that made her look much younger than she was” (51). Her eyes are a pretty blue, and she might have been naturally pretty herself except that her nose is bent and when she speaks, her voice is always harsh and irritated.

Loreen has a cruel streak, evident in the way she treats Fan. When Fan needs help and has nowhere to go to the bathroom, Loreen seemingly waits a long time to return with a bucket, and then beats Fan mercilessly for relieving herself in a paint can and spilling it thanks to Loreen’s own interference. She tells Fan cruel things, reminding her that she should not feel special because Quig is taking care of her, as he certainly has plans for her. When Fan listens at the door to the goings on around the compound, she hears Loreen bossing everyone else around, sounding annoyed and acting rude.

It is only later on—after Fan has rescued Quig and Loreen from the Nickelmans and has decided to go along with Quig’s plan to sell her to the Leo and Cathy household—that Loreen begins to soften. One of her final acts is to tell Fan “thank you” as she hugs the girl, after Fan sacrifices herself to get the much-needed medicine for Loreen’s son, Sewey. Quig has given Fan the final say on whether she will stay with Miss Cathy, and Fan decides to do so, showing Loreen that Fan is truly a decent person who cares about others.

The 13-year-old son of Loreen, Sewey lives at Quig’s compound. He is a pale, curly-haired boy with a friendly disposition and a curiosity about Fan. He is the first person, outside of Quig and Loreen, to communicate with Fan at the compound. He brings her a box of strawberry-flavored soy milk, and befriends her quickly, asking many questions about her life in B-Mor, her search for Reg, and her life in general. Sewey is the one who gives Fan most of the information about the compound, telling her that he has lived there as long as he can remember, and revealing how things work at the compound’s medical facility, where he works by helping keep the line organized and moving.

Sewey is talkative and sweet, often speaking rhetorically so Fan has to say very little. While telling her about the compound, Sewey also takes Fan on a tour of the physical grounds, and introduces her to his other friends, such as Eli. In return, she helps him organize the lists of patients and run the reception part of the clinic.

Eli is a friend of Sewey who also lives in the compound that Quig built. Eli has a bit of a crush on Fan, as evidenced by little gestures he makes when they all play together. Eli has some suicidal ideation and actually attempts the act at least once when in the presence of Fan and Sewey. He goes into the cold pond, telling his friends that he won’t go very far. When Fan jumps in and swims down to save him, she finds that Eli’s pockets are filled with rocks that he has picked up on their hike to the pond. They save Eli, but don’t tell anyone else about their experience there. Fan analyses Eli but cannot see that his life or circumstance is any different than anyone else’s at the compound, except in the way that Eli’s mother is apparently a consort of Quig, and often spends nights in Quig’s private chambers.

The Nickelman family is a group of folks from the counties, consisting of a middle-aged couple, one elderly man, and close to a dozen children of varying ages. The couple are fleshy and plump; the children are all lithe and muscular. All of the Nickelmans wear clingy, burnt-orange colored overalls over various t-shirts and other casual clothes, if they wear anything underneath at all.

They travel around performing circus acts together, having great skill and strength when it comes to balance and tumbling. They live in a secret grotto in a section of dense woods, which is almost impossible to spot from the outside. They grow their own food, and care for numerous animals, being strictly vegetarian. Their main living quarters is under the root system of a gigantic tree. Their dark secret is that the children don’t actually belong to the couple, but have been stolen and gathered from other people in the outlying counties. The parents or guardians are usually killed and fed to the Nickelmans’ dogs, and the children are adopted into the family of performers.

Mister Leo is a middle-aged man who lives in a Charter village. He owns a very large and prestigious mining company, and directs all of its operations from his mansion. He is fit, sturdy, and self-confident, exuding “a pure and easeful sense of confidence and command and ever rightful ownership” (196). He is also described as being very handsome. He collects art, which he shows off to his guests whenever possible, and seems to be generous of spirit and friendly when he is first introduced. However, we discover that he hides some very dark secrets. He has been preying on young women that are brought into the house for a long time, all of them around the same age and ethnicity as Fan. He attempts to sexually assault Fan, and is only stopped by Miss Cathy who clobbers him with a stone statuette, ending the cycle of abuse with a decisive moment of violence. It is also revealed that the medicine he was exchanging with Quig and Loreen, in exchange for Fan, was only a partial dose, and that he was holding back some of it just in case the deal soured.

After the incident with the statuette, Mister Leo becomes an invalid, unable to feed or dress himself without help and spending his life in a wheelchair. He is attended to by Mala and Miss Cathy, the latter of whom seems to relish Mister Leo’s new condition as a sort of revenge for her own suffering at his hands.

Miss Cathy is the wife of Mister Leo. She is tall and full-figured, described as probably having once been a “very beautiful and commanding woman, with her fine cheekbones, and regal, straight nose” (205).In the book’s narrative present, she looks somewhat sickly, her red hair fading into gray roots. She has pimples on her forehead, and the skin on her arms is flaking.

When we first meet Miss Cathy, she appears drug-addled and melancholy, suggesting that she has been subjected to a difficult emotional life and perhaps some tragedy of her own. She is quiet and awkward at dinner, occasionally making an odd remark and then quickly excusing herself, saying that she’s tired. There are hints that she suffered in her youth, and she reveals to Fan that her favorite pastime was running away from home, just to see how far she could go: “I would just run, at first as fast I could so the guard wouldn’t see me, but when the road started getting rough, I would slow down and try to stay out of sight” (288).

After her violent act against Mister Leo, Miss Cathy appears to get some of her power back, and takes control of the house. She has a secret room, a chamber filled with the previous young girls that the couple had taken into their home and kept like pets. Miss Cathy can only sleep if one of the girls is sleeping next to her in a small bed, and even then, she switches places with the girl in the middle of the night. She exercises total control over what they eat, wear, and do, although she obviously does care very much for them. Even when girls four and five eventually become sick, she refuses to give up her power, plugging her ears against the advice of Dr. Upendra. After the room is broken into by the medical staff and Fan reveals Miss Cathy’s girls, Miss Cathy seems somewhat defeated, allowing Fan to leave the house with Dr. Upendra without saying another word. The girls, for their part, feel that Miss Cathy is less their captor and more like a big sister, with damage of her own: “Miss Cathy was their wounded and vulnerable big sister, if one distant, stuck in an ugly misery herself, and from some of the mural scenes, it was evident she had been compromised too, in her youth” (256).

Mala is the head servant and maid for Mister Leo and Miss Cathy. She takes care of the house, cooks meals, and generally keeps things on track. She is the mentor for each new girl that they bring into the household, including Fan. Fan takes an immediate liking to her when they meet, feeling an immediate affinity for the woman. Mala quickly opens up to Fan, and tells her about her family situation. Mala has a husband and children who live out in the open counties. She works for twenty days straight and then takes a full day to visit her family and be with them. This is a difficult way to live, but Mala has adjusted well, and considers this a necessary sacrifice for the future of her kids: “Because of her work, her daughters, now sixteen and thirteen, would at least have sizable dowries they could offer to suitor families” (202).

Mala cares very much about the girls, and feels terribly guilty about what goes on with Mister Leo. Mala keeps a secret file of photographs on her handscreen with pictures of each of the girls. She expresses terrible sorrow when apologizing to Fan for allowing Mister Leo to have his way with the girls. Mala finally stands up for what she believes when she makes her decision to allow the medical team into the secret chambers of the house, against Miss Cathy’s wishes, to ensure that girls four and five can get the care they need to survive. Fan remains in touch with Mala, and discovers that Mala’s husband and children are going to be allowed to come live at the mansion with their mother, after the medical incident and Miss Cathy’s acquiescence.

These are the girls that live in Miss Cathy’s secret rooms. They have all had operations to make their eyes larger, in order to appear more like anime characters. The girls were all formerly servants in the main house, but sometime after Mister Leo had his way with them, they were adopted into Miss Cathy’s menagerie. Although similar in many ways, they do have a few distinct moments of their own. Four and five, for example, try to help Fan by getting themselves sick, and nearly dying in the process. Six is an excellent artist, and does much of the work on the giant mural that serves as the central project of the girls. Once, long ago, they had names, but discovered that it was easier to refer to one another by their order of entry into the group.

Upendra is the doctor who rescues Fan from Leo and Cathy’s house. Doctor Upendra, or Vik, was a colleague of Dr. Oliver Cheung, and has known Betty Cheung since they were children. He is the youngest chief of emergency medicine that the Charter medical center has ever appointed. He likes to spend money, living in a smartly outfitted two-bedroom apartment in a top condo development, spending liberally on high-tech athletic gear, kitchenware, and vacations with his girlfriend, Ludmilla. He rarely sees Ludmilla, and quickly takes a liking to Fan once he helps her escape the house of Mister Leo. He offers to allow Fan to stay with him, and takes her out on the town.

Dr. Upendra is having an affair with Betty Cheung, who has seemingly ended things, but Vik does not let that stop him from talking to her about it whenever he sees her. This makes for a strained friendship between him and Oliver, which culminates in a vicious fight at the local swimming pool. Vik remains relatively athletic and strong, and is clearly superior to his colleague Oliver at swimming. Fan remains friendly with him, as does Betty, which is how Vik becomes instrumental in the plan to save Fan from Oliver’s schemes at the end of the novel.

Oliver is the brother of Fan, having long ago been promoted to a Charter due to his exceptional performance on the placement tests. He is a researcher of cancer drugs and has patented and developed a cancer drug that represents a major leap forward in the C-drugs industry. Because of this, he has brokered a deal with a major pharmaceutical company that will make he and his family so wealthy that he and his children will be set for life. When he was originally moved to the Charters, he kept up with his violin playing and swimming, but eventually turned to medical study. He does retain some vanity over his body however, with Betty telling Fan that Oliver “couldn’t walk by a mirror without furtively checking the state of his biceps or abs with his new toning regimen of weight lifting and swimming” (380).

Oliver has a grand plan to build a home modelled after the way people live in B-Mor, with family being close and living together as a unit. He lives in a strange middle ground between his origins in the work colony and his adopted lifestyle as a Charter, trying to set up a rich person’s version of the living situation of his family back in B-Mor. Although he enjoys Fan being back in his life and wants to support and provide for his family, he does have a selfish and treacherous streak. At the very end of the book, he has offered Fan as a research subject to the pharmaceutical company to push the deal through and ensure that he will get his money.