Last Days in Ocean Beach

Last Days in Ocean Beach

Last Days in Ocean Beach is the story of William, a scientist working at the Center for Extinction Studies, a think tank at the College of the Sun funded by a green billionaire. William lives "on the border between dread and wonder" as he desperately works to raise the alarm about climate change and its dire consequences to an apathetic public, learns to live with grief, and hold on to love. Along the way, we meet the residents of his wonderfully shabby apartment complex in Ocean Beach--bikers, hippies, skate punks, adventure tourists, reggae singers, aimless young professionals, Iraq war veterans, decadent retirees, a hospice nurse, and a Buddhist monk, all of whom are searching for something, looking to live more fully. Last Days in Ocean Beach is a blues song moaning and rocking the beach party at the end of the world. Jim Miller manages to find real warmth in the cold light cast by our apocalyptic moment; this is a rare instance of actually dealing with, instead of attempting to “fix,” the cascade of emotions and ideas that naturally come from the immensity of the challenges around us. --Bill McKibben, author of EAARTH Jim Miller's protagonist observes what each one of us knows--we're all heedlessly driving and flying our way to oblivion. At a time when our planet is under siege, this important novel explores how delicately our individual lives and our relationships are woven into its future and the future of human life. --Sandra Alcosser, author of EXCEPT BY NATURE Jim Miller is the author of the novels Flash (AK Press, 2010) and Drift (University of Oklahoma Press, 2007). He is also co-author of a history of San Diego, Under the Perfect Sun: The San Diego Tourists Never See (with Mike Davis and Kelly Mayhew on The New Press, 2003) and a cultural studies book on working class sports fandom, Better to Reign in Hell: Inside the Raiders Fan Empire (with Kelly Mayhew on The New Press, 2005). Miller is also the editor of Sunshine/Noir: Writing from San Diego and Tijuana (City Works Press, 2005), Sunshine/Noir II: Writing from San Diego and Tijuana (with Kelly Mayhew on City Works Press, 2015), and Democracy in Education; Education for Democracy: An Oral History of the American Federation of Teachers, Local 1931 (AFT 1931, 2007). He has published poetry, fiction, and non-fiction in a wide range of journals and other publications, and has a weekly column in the San Diego Free Press and the OB Rag. Miller is a native San Diegan and a graduate of the MFA program at San Diego State University. In addition to his MFA in Fiction, Miller has a Ph.D. in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University. Miller teaches English, Humanities and Labor Studies at San Diego City College. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Kelly Mayhew, and their son, Walter.