A Gesture Life: A Novel

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Never judge a book by its cover--or, for that matter, by its name. Otherwise you might overlook A Gesture Life, Chang-rae Lee's fine if awkwardly entitled follow-up to Native Speaker. As he did in his debut, the author explores the dilemma of being an outsider--and the corrupt, heartbreaking bargains an outsider will make to adapt to his surroundings. The protagonist, Franklin Hata, has actually spent his whole life donning one variety or another of existential camouflage. First, as a native-born Korean, he bends over backwards to fit into Japanese culture, circa 1944. Then he attempts a similar bit of environmental adaptation in postwar America--more specifically, in the slumbering New York suburb of Bedley Run. But in neither case does he quite succeed, which gives the novel its peculiar, faltering sense of tragedy.

"There is something exemplary to the sensation of near perfect lightness," confesses this resident alien, "of being in a place and not being there, which seems of course a chronic condition of my life but then, too, its everyday unction, the trouble finding a remedy but not quite a cure, so that the problem naturally proliferates until it has become you through and through. Such is the cast of my belonging, molding to whatever is at hand."

A Gesture Life presents this chronic condition in two different time frames. In one, delivered via flashback, Hata is a medical officer in Japan's Imperial Army. Posted to a tiny installation in rural Burma, he's ordered to oversee a fresh detachment of Korean "comfort women"--i.e., victims of institutionalized gang rape. At first he maintains his professional distance, not to mention his erotic appetite: "It was the notion of what lay beneath the crumpled cotton of their poor clothes that shook me like an air-raid siren." But soon enough he's drawn into a relationship with one of the women, whose bloody and horrific denouement leaves a permanent mark on the "unblissed detachment" of his existence.

The present-tense, American half of the story revolves around Hata's life in Bedley Run, where he adopts, alienates, and finally forms a shaky rapport with his daughter, Sunny. We might expect this sort of material to pale in comparison with his wartime trauma. But oddly enough, Hata's suburban melancholia is much more compelling--and the gradual disclosure of his past, which is supposed to ratchet up the tension, seems too crude a mechanism for a writer of Lee's superlative talents. (His truest tutelary spirit, in fact, might be John Cheever, who gets an explicit nod at one point.) None of this is to dismiss A Gesture Life, whose dual narratives are written with a rare, unhurried elegance. And if Lee's splice job lacks the absolute adhesion we expect from a great work of art, he nonetheless pulls off a remarkable, moving feat: he puts us inside the skin of a man who, "if he could choose, might always go silent and unseen." --James Marcus

Book Description

The riveting story of a Japanese immigrant who leads a proper, decorous life in a New York suburb. As his life slowly unravels, he is transported back to his days as a medic in the Japanese army in World War II, and his obsessive love of a young comfort woman.

"Not since Kazuo Ishiguro's Remains of the Day has there been a novel so attentive to the interplay of dark memory and light manners...a beautiful, solitary, remarkably tender book."-New York Times Book Review

"Exceptional...A beautifully tapestried story of seeking identity and acceptance in another culture while remaining separate from the tug of it."--Christian Science Monitor

"A Gesture Life is the touching, multilayered rumination of an uneasy psyche. It is also a tragic, horrifying page-turner, whose evocation of wartime victims is unforgettable...a deeply involving tale."-Chicago Tribune

A Gesture Life is:

"Unforgettable."-USA Today

"Mesmerizing."-San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"Masterly."-Newsweek

"Magnificent."-Newsday

"Beautiful."-Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Hugely affecting."-Boston Globe

"Remarkable."-Kirkus Reviews (starred)

One Of The Most Celebrated Novels of the Year
A New York Times Notable Book
A Los Angeles Times Notable Book of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Notable Book of the Year
A Finalist for the New Yorker Book Award
An Esquire Distinguished Book of the Year
Talk Magazine's Best Book of 1999
An ALA Notable Book of the Year
A St. Louis Post-Dispatch Notable Book of the Year

Customer Reviews:

Doc--an honest, dishonest narrator.......2006-12-24

Ah, the unreliable narrator. Lee has an excellent command of the English language, as always present in his novels. This element is always an interesting juxtaposition in the lives of his characters--as it is often assumed that immigrants would be clumsy and ignorant when speaking in a non-native language (which is also a reference to one of his other works, Native-Speaker).

Doc, who is called Doc by all the towns residents, is not a doctor at all, one of many ironic details of his life. He is excellent proof that inaction and not making active choices are in fact action and active choices. A man with a weak heart, literally and metaphorically, Doc Hata misrepsents himself his whole life, or lets others believe things about him that aren't quite true, nor are they false.

A work of slippery truths, examples of how memory is distorted and frail, liminal spaces, and unexpected twists, this novel provides an excellent literary and thought-provoking journey.

child's play.......2006-03-10

child's play, that's the impression one gets upon reading chang-rae lee's gesture life, child's play in the sense that the author is at home in english as no other writer currently wielding this thing we've assigned our globe's lingua franca. maybe i exaggerate a little, but there is no denying the talent, the effortless grace with which chang-rae lee can evoke an image, intercalate a dialogue with a telling descriptive detail, and sustain a narrative without resorting to gimmicks or fancy word play. mastery of diction, syntax, narrative structure and style, they're all there for the aspiring novelist to envy and admire and the casual reader to blissfully ignore as the story and the plot is as equally elegant, profound and compelling. buy the book or steal it if you must, just get the darn thing and read. you'll be doing yourself a favor.

Looking to read Everything Else He's Written!.......2006-02-25

A Gesture Life. The very title of this novel intrigued me. What exactly would that look/feel/sound like? Then I pulled the book from the shelf and was no less satisfied but all the more compelled by its cover---at once dreamy, theatrical, beautiful in some classic way...

Now that I have finished this book I can say "Yes, I certainly know what Chang-rae Lee means by A Gesture Life. This work is phenomenal in ways that lull the reader into a sense of "All is right with the world", only to have that world up-ended by layers-deep revelations...some coming in cumulative fashion, others coming at you so fast you've no time to 'duck' [or even consider the possibility]. Then again, there are those illuminations that you believe you understand, only to find they stretch and grow larger, and at times, to the point of inconceiveablity.

Lee's writing is on par with the finest I've ever had the experience to read. It is breathtaking in its poetic beauty, haunting in its relentlessness, transcendental in its offering of this amazing life of Doc Hata, its main character. I am left struck with so many new awarenesses, and simple relief for the realizations brought to light within the pages of this book. I often imagined HOW Lee kept himself composed to write many parts within it. Lee's ability to empathize and lend grace to unspeakable circumstances is immeasurable.

Remarkable, astounding, honest work. I am grateful to know this author's work and will now seek out everything else he has to share with us.

Bravo, Bravo, Bravo.

A whole life made "out of gestures and politeness".......2006-01-15

Franklin Hata (or "Doc Hata," as he is known to the residents of Bedley Run) is a friendly and polite, if reserved and serene, septuagenarian who is considered by his neighbors as a stalwart member of the community. Of Korean birth, he was adopted and raised by a family in Japan and entered the Japanese Army during Second World War before emigrating to the United States. In spite of his efforts to immerse himself first in his Japanese homeland and then in American suburbia, he never becomes fully part of either culture.

The conflicted protaganist of "A Gesture Life" is also a reluctant narrator of his own life. Having spent seven decades building a facade of decorum, he hides failures and misfortunes from the reader, revealing them glacially as he accounts for the loneliness in his old age, as well as for his ultimate inability to fill roles others expect of him--and he expects of himself.

Hata's story revolves around the presence of five women, and he sheds his secretiveness as he introduces and portrays each of them. Foremost is his adopted Korean daughter, Sunny, who as a youth gradually rebelled against his propriety and his remoteness and who scorns the dreams he has envisioned for her future. Repulsed and even embarrassed by his artificiality, she tells him spitefully, "You make a whole life out of gestures and politeness."

Hata also becomes close (or as close as his politesse will allow) to three women in the community: a neighbor with whom he has a brief affair, a realtor who wants to put his immaculately kept home on the market, and the mother of a terminally ill son who, along with her husband, buys Hata's medical supplies shop when he retires.

But a central conceit of the novel is a lesser-known aspect of the Pacific war. We gradually realize that Hata's relationship with his daughter is an unsuccessful attempt at redemption for his involvement, as a medical officer in the Japanese army, with the Korean "comfort women" who were enticed to volunteer for service and then forced to be prostitutes--and particularly for one of the women, Kkutaeh, who suffers horrendously on his watch.

Lee's novel is notable for its dichotomy: Hata's quiet mien and the seemingly calm first-person narrative conflict sharply with the tragedies and the strife he witnesses and reluctantly recalls. "A Gesture Life" is a study of a man so concerned with always doing the right thing that he inevitably does the wrong one. It is only when he confronts his past that he truly finds redemption.

Too much suburbia, too little war.......2006-01-06

I bought this book because of the great reviews, because I was looking for something new, and because of the emphasis from some reviews here on Amazon on the World War II sections.

But overall, this book is first and foremost about life in american suburbia - the very powerful World War II chapters occupy at best 20-25% of the book, and don't kick in until about half way through. So much of the remainder of the book reverted to why people have a hard time making deep friendships or building satisfactory family relationships in typical, affluent american neighborhoods. Some parts here were very touching, particularly the one about the Hickey's, but others seemed forced, particularly the Liv-Renny relationship. The sequence of events towards the end strains credulity, and I found the "happy" ending dissatisfying.'

I dont usually identify with books in set in america suburbia. In this case, I came out somewhat satisfied. At the very least, I finished the book (in two days), which is already saying something given that I was unable to do so when I tried books by Richard Ford and Tim Obrien which also had great reviews. But it will take another book to make me a fan of this genre.

Recognizing the transracial adoptee: adoption life stories and Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture Life.(Critical essay): An article from: MELUS

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Recognizing the transracial adoptee: adoption life stories and Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture Life.(Critical essay): An article from: MELUS
Mark C. Jerng
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from MELUS, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2006. The length of the article is 11000 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Recognizing the transracial adoptee: adoption life stories and Chang-rae Lee's A Gesture Life.(Critical essay)
Author: Mark C. Jerng
Publication: MELUS (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Page: 41(27)

Article Type: Critical essay

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

Paws-itively Wonderful.......2003-07-16

I absolutely loved this book! It is well written and has a cohesive plot, which is rare for an animal mystery nowadays. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in dogs, dog shows, or just mysteries! The cast of characters in this book makes it (and the rest of the series) a laugh a page. Aunt Peg in particular is just the funniest.

A glimpse into dog show life.......2002-07-02

Not only are these mysteries entertaining, but they also inform the reader of the ins and outs of the dog show business and breeding. I am new to dog ownership and these books have answered many questions I was afraid to ask others.
Surely worth enjoying!

Woof!.......2000-12-04

Welcome back to the "dog eat dog" world of dog breeding and shows, where Melanie Travis and her Aunt Peg are once again embroiled in a mystery. This time, in Dog Eat Dog, a member of Peg's kennel club is murdered shortly after a meeting, and Melanie is compelled to find the killer despite the fact that she is not a member of the club herself.

This, however, is not the only thing "eating" at Melanie: the ex-husband is back in town and anxious to take up where he left off with Melanie's son, five-year-old Davey, even though the two haven't seen each other in four years and two months. Needless to say, the reunion does very little for Melanie's escalating relationship with Poodle breeder Sam Driver, particularly when the former hubby drops hints of taking Davey back to Texas.

Discoveries of gossip and blackmail are the focus of Dog Eat Dog, which is a good followup story to Underdog. A light, sometimes humorous read, this is a recommended "cozy".

Pleasant read.......2000-10-18

This is a book definitely to be reserved for the rainy day read. It is not demanding or particularly compelling and the characters are somewhat two-dimensional and caricaturish. The plotting is simplistic and homespun. Yet, while not being among the more accomplished of the genre, it is generally unobjectionable if one's expectations are not set too high.

Interesting Characters, including the Dogs!.......2000-06-08

I got this book on a whim because on the cover are two beagles similar to my beloved hound. I also bought it looking for a fun, light-hearted mystery that has as its background something that I am interested, in this case the dog world. It is not overly ambitious, nor is it very complicated. But I enjoyed it greatly and have read all the others in the series. There is a new one in September, and I can't wait! I would put this on par with Grafton's mysteries, or the Jackson Braun Cat Who.. series. One piece of advice: I'd read them in order, starting with Pedigree to Die For. (And Aunt Peg is a hoot!)

Book Description

This intriguing book describes the practice of magic around the world and through the ages, from the spirit worship of ancient civilizations to the spells and potions of modern day witches.

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Tales of the Witch World 2

Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HZ1MSW

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Tales of the Witch World 2
Andre Norton
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 031293078X

Book Description

Curious about veganism? Want to be a vegan? Already a vegan? Just wondering how to be vegan without going insane? In this informative and practical guide on veganism, two seasoned vegans help you love your inner vegan freak. Loaded with tips, advice, stories, and comprehensive lists of resources that no vegan should live without, this book is key to helping you thrive as a happy, healthy, and sane vegan in a decidedly non-vegan world. In this sometimes funny, sometimes irreverent, and sometimes serious guide that's not afraid to tell it like it is, new, long-time, and potential vegans will find: -how to go vegan in 3 weeks or less using the "cold tofu" program; -the arguments for ethical veganism; -how to get along with friends, family, and others, including other vegetarians; -tons of useful and practical tips for surviving the grocery store, restaurants, and dinners with omnivores; -how to respond when people ask you if you "like live on apples and twigs;" -how capitalism is implicated in animal and human oppression Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World is your guide to embracing vegan freakdom. Come on, get your freak on! About the authors: Tattooed leftist vegan freaks themselves, Bob and Jenna Torres both hold PhDs from Cornell University.

Customer Reviews:

I will soon be a Vegan Freak.......2007-09-27

I have been transitioning into veganism for a little while now (slowly removing dairy and eggs instead of doing it all at once). One of my biggest concerns with becoming a vegan is what my friends and family will say. Not that I care about their opinions, because it will not change my own, but I just didn't want to hear all of thier comments constantly. All of my friends have been supportive, but family members "who know it all" have been lecturing me on protein, vitamins, health, the "fact" that animals who are part of the egg and dairy industries "are not harmed" (which any vegan will tell you is not the case AT ALL), etc. This book gives you a lot of information about ways to deal with the comments of others and gives you a lot of knowledge about the different aspects of being a vegan (why vegans doing wear leather, wool, etc). I also like how they put in own personal experiences. This was a good book and I highly recommend it!!!

Excellent Vegan Intro.......2007-08-06

Being a newly minted Vegan, I was looking for a book that would give me a good introduction to the subject without burying me in propaganda. Vegan Freak is that and more. The authors are funny, intelligent, and well versed in the trials and tribulations of being a Vegan in modern consumer society. They give excellent tips, suggestions, and advice for dealing with family/friends/co-workers who may not understand your choice; all with a friendly and accessible narrative tone. Despite a somewhat brisk discussion of the moral basis for Veganism and the logical arguments that support it, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to adopt a Vegan lifestyle or who has questions on the subject.

not sure what about this one........2007-05-02

I read this book and liked it's style and the information was helpful but I feel like the authors need to revise this book and try a little harder to cut down on the opinions and repetitive info and instead pack in more of their valuable advise. I'm not sure how to better explain this but I will illustrate how I read this book. I Read the whole thing really fast first of all, and when i got to the end I was shocked it was over. So I thought maybe I missed a chapter or two. So I skimmed back through it searching for the lost chapters, but they were not there. I was so desperate for more that I read the appendix over and over searching for more info. I guess I fell that this book is incomplete

Being vegan doesn't mean you're a hippie and have to smell!.......2007-03-11

Being a vegan is a way of life and doesn't mean that you'll go around stinking, and that no one will like you. Being vegan is a life choice just like one that you make when you decide to get out of bed and/or brush your teeth. Going to college in a "hippie" town and running in to quite a few vegans this book made the life choice / life change easier for me when I was vegan. I still use this book for helpful insight and advice even though I am not vegan right now. Being vegan does not mean that you will go broke at the grocery store either. One of the first things out of people's mouths is - "I bet you spend a fortune on food!" It's not true. There are a lot of options out there for vegans to live on a budget and still be vegan, happy and healthy.

I support all outlooks on eating and I can say for myself that while I was totally vegan I was the most happy and most healthy that I've ever been. I hardly ever got sick, and could eat when I was hungry without worrying about carbs and calories all the time. I could munch on asparagus and make meals for potlucks that everyone was dying to know the recipe for.

Being Vegan is not easy - this book definitely points that out. Being something that is outside of the "norm" that we all see around us is definitely something that takes a while to get used to. By reading this book that "change" into being vegan is much easier. I've bought this book and shared it with people who were just interested on knowing exactly what being vegan meant.

I plan on going back to being "100% vegan" soon and I will use this book as one of my main sources of entertainment and pleasure reading.

I'm Glad I didn't Buy It........2007-02-25

I was really eager to read this. Sometimes I feel very alone in my veganism so I checked this book out. All I learned was don't make veganism sound difficult so non-vegans think they could never do it. (Like whining you miss cheese.) The book was repetitive and referenced a lot of other books during the reading. Now, that is appreciated when there is recommended further reading at the back of the book but not throughout the read. Also, plain English writing (how we speak aloud) is annoying in a book. I couldn't get past that.

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It's more than just diet.
Essential for the Vegan Bookshelf
Basic facts about veganism
A Masterpiece
A simple Q-&-A.

Being Vegan
Joanne Stepaniak
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Vegetables & Vegetarian | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Healthy Living | Personal Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor

ASIN: 0737303239

Book Description

In Being Vegan, renowned activist and award-winning on-line columnist Joanne Stepaniak presents the definitive Q&A primer on an often misunderstood life choice. Fielding questions from friends and foes, she describes how compassion, kindness, and mercy to animals can be integrated into everyday life. It covers living the vegan philosophy and ethic, discovering hidden animal products and ingredients, and more.

Customer Reviews:

It's more than just diet........2004-08-14

The best book yet that I found about living the vegan lifestyle. Because there is more to being a vegan than the food.

Essential for the Vegan Bookshelf.......2004-07-08

I loved this book! I thought it was very well written and had some very good commonsensical advice. While I'm not an
animal rights person (more an "animal welfare and good/responsible
care") most of the rest of the philosphy/ethics makes good sence after reading the book. Ms. Stepaniak provides practical answers to many issues that might come up when someone decides to adopt a Vegan lifestyle. She also spells out the Vegan philosophy in clear terms. Anyone entering a Vegan lifestyle, considering a Vegan lifestyle or has a loved one who is Vegan should read this book.

Basic facts about veganism.......2004-06-13

Remember this book is basically question and answer and lacks the flow I like in many other vegan books. It's a lot of useful information. Being a vegan myself I thought I knew everything but there were many eye openers in this one. The thing I didnt like is that she does not promote veganism in cats nor dogs. It has been well known for long that dogs can be very healthy and happy and nutritionally satisfied on a meat free diet. And since now there is a synthetic form of taurine cats aren't dependent on their meat diets anymore either. Read "Obligate Carnivore" by Jed Gillen to inform yourself about having vegan pets. Please don't take her advice - there is a lot of suffering we can spare by feeding our pets a vegan diet, without sacrificing their health.

A Masterpiece.......2002-04-20

I have rarely read a more insightful presentation of vegan thought than Joanne Stepaniak's "Being Vegan". All too often, vegan ethics are watered down in texts in the name of making the lifestyle choice "practical" or "convenient". I think we are better off staying the course for compassion and concern. This book presents that important message in way I haven't felt since reading Animal Liberation. I highly recommend this book.

A simple Q-&-A........2002-04-19

Nothing too complex here. Joanne Stepaniak answers questions about veganism with clear, simple language and explains the hows and whys of veganism. Veganism is not about being "perfect" or "pure" or better than anyone else; it is about doing the least harm to others possible.

Customer Reviews:

Everything You Need to Know About Being A Vegan.......2000-04-09

This book is a short but sweet introduction into becoming a vegan. It gives valuable information on the moral and health reasons for changing your lifestyle to the vegan lifestyle. The author gives good advice on how to explain to your relatives and friends your decision to change your lifestyle to veganism. It explores different types of vegetarian lifestyles as well as exploring the vegan lifestyle. A valuable "Where to go for help" section is included in the back of the book. This includes places to find food and clothing for the vegan. A few recipes are included in the book also. This book can be read in a short time and is easily understood.

Everything You Need to Know About Being a Vegan (Need to Know Library)

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Everything You Need to Know About Being a Vegan (Need to Know Library)
Stefanie Iris Weiss
Manufacturer: Rosen Publishing Group 1999
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MCNHOC

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