I can relate to Hata's search for a place and an identity, and I can relate to his attempts to make some order out of the causes and effects in his life. I've not experienced anything to the degree that Hata has, but as a life-long nomad, I've done my share of trying to fit in and trying to discover who I am in relation to the wheres and whos of my current stop, wherever and whenever that might be. This was a beautifully written gut-punch of a story, but I couldn't love it because it carried the much-too-real aroma of the despair and futility that lurks just beneath the surface.
Acknowledging that despair by loving this story seems too dangerous; I prefer to keep my distance from it.
Dec 11, Sang Ik rated it it was amazing. I find it interesting that so many people review books based on their judgement on much of what 'should' have happened or how the book 'should' have been written or even more interestingly, how a character should have been e. Hata was too unemotional, etc. I feel Chang Rae Lee gets the short end of the stick concerning much of this and I find it rather ironic that the character was so ingrained that one would be dissatisfied that intensely.
Still - for the reader unacquainted with Lee jus I find it interesting that so many people review books based on their judgement on much of what 'should' have happened or how the book 'should' have been written or even more interestingly, how a character should have been e. Still - for the reader unacquainted with Lee just yet, I ask you to consider him a bit more than perhaps he has been given credit for in some other reviews. Besides his literary success with Native Speaker , I must admit that I find this book to be his best work to date.
READERS GUIDE
Perhaps Native Speaker is easier to relate with and fits more comfortably within the genre of hyphenated Asians in their convoluted duality - thus also easier to digest and even culturally more understandable in Asian-American literary discourse. A Gesture Life is a tad bit more ambitious - requiring a more empathetic 'cultural' lens ie.
He's NOT simply a Japanese man. Or in terms of trauma, calling a person German during the Second World War without mentioning he's also Jewish.
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Besides, Lee's deft strokes does wonders in unraveling subtleties. His beautiful prose may be a bit overboard to some, but he is intricate in his weaving New York Times reviewed his work as reflective of the word "accrue" and his pace is one that perhaps plods. It works in seemingly agonizing speed, but part of this process is what makes this book so satisfying in its later violent and disturbing consequences.
It takes patience, it underlines things unsaid, and is reflective of the title - merely one that can be left in gestures. Would that be satisfying for the reader this slow drowning? Would that be as 'active' as something like The Life of Pi or as interpretive and performative as Foster Wallace's raging ingenuity? Lee is a different mold and his books are of a different 'fragrance' than others. It is much like an old worn paper, you have to concentrate and focus to feel each groove that lines its pages.
It's a work of labour and asks you the demanding task of carefully layered suffocation and suppression and trauma if you will. It also engages in a perspective of a much older, disengaged individual that still surprises me since Lee was so young when he wrote this. If I had to compare, he smells somewhat similar to Ted Hughes at certain points.
If you have the patience, I highly suggest you let it give you a try. I was intoxicated when I jumped head first it does require some courage and was sapped at the end by its unveiling.
A Gesture Life Reader’s Guide
Lee is an excellent if quiet guide and A Gesture Life does have much to offer. Dec 22, Yulia rated it liked it. Oct 12, Jenny Mckeel rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: I think Gesture Life goes in my top five favorite books. I recommend it to everyone. It's about a Korea-born Japanese-American man who is forced to face, and in certain ways is attempting to face, the legacy of a lifetime of refusing to feel. It takes place in the present and goes back and forth to various times in the past. It touches on horrible things that happened during World War II. It's also a thrilling, horrifying page turner, in the WWII sections.
It deals with heavy issues, but deals wi I think Gesture Life goes in my top five favorite books. It deals with heavy issues, but deals with them in a sad, honest, and poignant way. Lee's writing is gorgeous and he does an amazing job of describing perceptions and mental processes in a particularly elegant way.
It evokes complicated emotions, I think, both empathy and intolerance. I love this book!!!!!!!!!!! Aug 18, Gail Goetschius rated it it was amazing. A Gesture Life is a beautiful and subtle novel, one of the best I read this year. Since childhood Hata has made fitting in and being accepted and respected the single goal of his "gesture" life. In doing so he betrays the three women who are most important to him. Told in Hata's voice the "Doc" is a classic unreliable narrator.
His inaccurate perception of events is a A Gesture Life is a beautiful and subtle novel, one of the best I read this year. His inaccurate perception of events is a brilliant way of showing that it is the appearance of things and not the truth that is important. It takes active reading to really know what is going on. The story of K, the comfort woman, was very hard to read. It is a part of history that I needed to learn.
Hata tells us and believes himself that he loves K yet he uses her and is unable to come to her defense. Similarly he betrays Sunny, his adopted daughter, when he forces her to have a late term abortion in her late teen years. When he has the opportunity for happiness later in his life with Mary he remains emotionally distant and loses her. The turn around in his life comes when Sunny and her young son return to the area.
He also has a chance for redemption when he stands behind the family who buys his store. Lee uses some beautiful water symbolism in the novel. At one point Hata takes a scalding bath and both Hata and Mary have near drownings in the pool. When Hata gains insight into what is truly important he facilitates two rebirths; he saves his grandson and his friend from drowning.
This is a book that will stay with me for a long time. I am definitely a Chang Rae Lee fan. Dec 03, Julie rated it did not like it. My dislike and distrust of the subject matter trumps the well-written prose, unfortunately. And, really, the tale of a Japanese man whose character is marked by silent inaction falling in love with a Korean comfort woman makes me want to throw something against the wall. View all 5 comments. Feb 03, Steph rated it it was amazing.
A Gesture Life
How does one fill a void for which there is no hole? This seems to be the question that Franklin Hata is asking as he reflects on his life and the lives that have intertwined with his. How surface acquaintances and weekday friendships can come so easily to a renowned and beloved member of a small, up-scale community, and how, for that same man, all attempts at intimate relationships meet with unparalleled disaster.
For all of the various reasons that these relationships fail, one cannot help but How does one fill a void for which there is no hole? For all of the various reasons that these relationships fail, one cannot help but see Hata as the common denominator. Although endued with eloquent introspection and self-awareness, Hata is sadly unable to articulate the source of his doomed attempts at love, even if consciously and regrettably he recognizes them as being mere echoes of a deeper, paradoxical complexity; of how someone so desperate to have meaningful relationships seems hopelessly blocked by an internal, emotional or spiritual deficiency.
It is evident in the expendability of his entanglements, beginning with his adoptive parents who he claims never to have felt truly belonging to to his own adoptive daughter and grandson, both of whom he seems doomed to maintain a distanced and compartmentalized intimacy with. Perhaps the most telling moments of his life involved his hesitancy with both K and Sunny.
With K, the relationship is as confused and unnatural as the surroundings in which they find themselves, and it may be unfair to hold Hata accountable for the choices made while caught in the midst of a nightmarish state where the normal confines of human decency and morality cease to exist. Nevertheless, he is rendered incapable of action or real sacrifice, and is left to face the horrors that await as a result of his refusal to accept reality, but rather to act on a wishful fantasy that has no hope of coming to fruition.
This passive-resistance is most present though in his relationship with Sunny.
A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee
Be it the emotional block, cultural implications, or the prevailing numbness preceding from the ghosts of his former life, something there is that prevents Hata from fully assuming his role as a parent. To be numb to the emotional hardness in a child is to send the silent message of apathy or indifference. The void remains unknown and unfulfilled. But at the very least, Hata and his estranged family retain a measure of peace about it. For all of its painful subject matter, Lee has created a beautiful story.
What makes the horrific images that the reader is presented with digestible is the lyrical prose and profound observances that weave themselves into the external and emotional carnage. The story of K and her fallen sisters renders an equally moving and resonating note in the mind of the reader. Jun 20, Mirjam rated it liked it. I thought that this book started out strong, with beautifully lyrical prose I think the thing that was so annoying to me was that the author could really have done something with that back story.
Soldier fancies himself in love with Korean "comfort woman," when I thought that this book started out strong, with beautifully lyrical prose Soldier fancies himself in love with Korean "comfort woman," when really he is just using her with no attention paid to what her needs or wants might be - the only difference between him and his comrades is that he is wrapping his consumption of her in a noble-looking mantle of chivalrous love there are interesting similarities to the way in which Hata fancies himself to love his adopted daughter, Sunny, when really he is just emotionally invested in her, or more accurately, his image of how she should be.
And finally, he sacrifices her physical integrity, as well as her needs and wants, to this noble-looking image of the perfect father and daughter. What was lacking for me in this book is that neither of these issues seemed to be resolved, and the first seemed not to be even addressed. And that total lack of accountability soured the entire book for me.
Dec 23, Stacy rated it liked it Recommends it for: A Gesture Life was deceptive in its simplicity, in its lulling me into this nuanced narrative of an old korean man living in a small middle-class american town. Feb 04, Morgan rated it really liked it Shelves: In A Gesture Life, Chang-rae Lee leads us with dazzling control through a taut, suspenseful story about love, family, and community—and the secrets we harbor. It is a haunting, breathtaking display of talent by an acclaimed young author. You read this over an average of words per minute.
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Search for any book Search! Chang-rae Lee Pages: Guess Based on page numbers. Yet as his story unfolds, precipitated by the small events surrounding him, we see his life begin to unravel.
Gradually we learn the mystery that has shaped the core of his being: In A Gesture Life , Chang-rae Lee leads us with dazzling control through a taut, suspenseful story about love, family, and community—and the secrets we harbor. It is a haunting, breathtaking display of talent by an acclaimed young author. 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. As in Native Speaker , he writes of the ways outsiders conform in order to survive and the price they pay for doing so.
He has written a wise and humane novel that both amplifies the themes of identity and exile he addressed in Native Speaker , and creates a wonderfully resonant portrait of a man caught between two cultures and two lives. Buy the Audiobook Download: