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More copies of this ISBN:A Gesture Lifeby Chang Rae Lee
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:"A Gesture Life" is the story of a proper man, an upstanding citizen, who has come to epitomize the decorous values of his New York suburban town. Courteous, honest, hardworking, and impenetrable, Franklin Hata, a Japanese man of Korean birth, is careful to never overstep his bounds and to make his neighbors comfortable in his presence. He keeps his garden well tended, bids his customers good-bye at the doorway of his medical supply shop, ignores the taunts of local boys. Yet as his story unfolds, precipitated by the small events that take place around him, we see his life begin to unravel. We learn of an adopted daughter, who has vanished from his life, a romantic relationship gone sour; a minor conflagration that threatens the foundation of the life he has built. Gradually, we discover the mystery that has shaped the core of his being, his terrible, forbidden love for a young Korean comfort woman when he served as a medic in the Japanese army during World War II. Review:"Lee works his themes with precision and elegance...The accretion of wisdom in Lee's novel is stunning. He expertly evokes the collision of unacceptable truth with the illusion of workaday serenity...A beautiful, solitary, remarkably tender book." The New York Times Book Review Review:"Once againthis gifted young author has given us a beautifully tapestried story of seeking identity and acceptance in another culture while remaining separate from the tug of it....The mystery of Franklin Hata's careful and proper uninvolvement with life is slowly unraveled as he ruminates....Chang-rae Lee's elegant and lustrous prose is precisely right as the voice of this touching and troubling man." Verity Ludgate-Fraser, The Christian Science Monitor Review:"The accretion of wisdom in Lee's novel is stunning. He expertly evokes the collision of unacceptable truth with the illusion of workaday serenity. In Native Speaker Lee displayed an admirable, lyrical restraint in the face of emotional subject: the difficult and sometimes perilous process of becoming an American, and staying one, with the losses and gains that such a battle for identity entails. A Gesture Life is a beautiful, solitary, remarkably tender book that reveals the shadows that fall constantly from the past, the ones that move darkly on the lawns of the here and now." Andrew O'Hagan, The New York Times Book Review Review:"Once again, this gifted young author has given us a beautifully tapestried story of seeking identity and acceptance in another culture while remaining separate from the tug of it....The mystery of Franklin Hata's careful and proper uninvolvement with life is slowly unraveled as he ruminates....Chang-rae Lee's elegant and lustrous prose is precisely right as the voice of this touching and troubling man." Verity Ludgate-Fraser, The Christian Science Monitor Synopsis:From the acclaimed author of "Native Speaker" comes his second novel about a Japanese World War II veteran who becomes a proper man and upstanding citizen in New York. As his life slowly unravels, he is transported back to his days as a medic in the Japanese army and his obsessive love for a young comfort woman. A "New York Times" Notable Book of the Year. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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