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Jan 10, 2008

Yulia rated it:

i'd been told this was chang-rae lee's strongest novel, but after having read it, i was very disappointed and don't think it can compare to his previous work, "native speaker." i know the detached, impersonal tone is intentional in this novel, but after a while it gave me the chill of a morgue, the sense i was being told the story not of breathing individuals but of ghosts. that said, perhaps this was intentional as doc hata's past is haunted by people he can no longer reach. still, More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2009

Morgan rated it:

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1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 20, 2007

Jenny rated it:

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, More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2007

Dayna rated it:

This was a heartbreaking book. A reserved Japanese store owner has settled in a small American town, raising an adopted Korean daughter. He appears to lead a regular working-class life. Later in the novel it is revealed that he was a doctor in the Japanese military during the war and had fallen in love with a Korean comfort woman. What is most painful is the conflict between the man's quiet exterior and the emotional/political life he has led. I admire this novel for addressing the continuing More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 02, 2011

Alesa rated it:

Like an excellent gourmet meal, this book requires some digesting, even after you're done. It shifts back and forth between Japanese soldiers in WWII and their Korean "comfort women," to a small town on the East Coast where a former Japanese soldier has retired. It examines the super-polite, rather repressed nature of Japanese relationships, with the viewpoint character wondering about things he's done in the past, with considerable (if understated) regret.

After finishing More...

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Jan 09, 2011

Kathyladner rated it:

This story missed the mark slightly. The story uses flashbacks very well to give insight into the lack of emotional depth or feeling the main character displays towards loved ones. An interesting look into how a person of Japanese/Korean descent affected by his participation in WWII, adoption and his native culture can enter American society with reserve, dignity and professionalism but without feeling....really more a lack of understanding that he fails to have feeling or empathy. The story lo More...

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Jun 22, 2010

Kris rated it:

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Apr 08, 2010

Catherine rated it:

The key episodes that bookend Doc Kurohata's life, as told by Lee, are an odd match - but perhaps that's the point; that lives of almost humdrum, disciplined ordinariness can exist for those who lived through war; that a man might participate in and witness the most dehumanizing incidents, yet carve humanity from the everyday pieces of another life; that there is in each of us the capacity for horror and for love. The thing that holds these disparate pieces of Hata's life together is language - More...

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Oct 19, 2011

chucklesthescot rated it:

This book was so boring that it nearly cured my insomnia. We got the extremely boring life of a Japanese man living in a boring town and doing virtually nothing on every page. Very exciting. We have a supporting cast of annoying and obnoxious characters who bugged the hell out of me, a plot that was going nowhere fast and the book was badly written and uninteresting. This is the second book by this author that I have endured and I hated both of them.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 14, 2009

Chana rated it:

A elderly Japanese man who lives in a well-to-do town in America, who is well-respected in his community and has had success in business, tells his story in a soft voice of philosophical rambling. It is the kind of story where nothing much happens and when things do happen they are ghastly - suddenly and arbitrarily grossly violent and disturbing. All is not as it seems: first of all he is not Japanese, he is Korean. He has relationship problems and abandonment issues. Lest you think I exaggerat More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 15, 2010

Judy rated it:

Chang-rae Lee's second novel did not fully work for me. Again he has a protagonist who is adrift between cultures. Franklin Hata was born in Japan to impoverished Korean parents, then adopted out to a Japanese family who raised him with every advantage. He had planned to become a doctor but before he could complete his medical training he was conscripted into the Japanese military. He served throughout WW II as a medic.

When the story opens, Doc Hata has made what he considers a succe More...

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Dec 03, 2007

Julie rated it:

My dislike and distrust of the subject matter trumps the well-written prose, unfortunately.

I have always had a problem with Chang Rae Lee's portrayal of Asian/Asian American woman. 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. Especially this book.

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 03, 2009

Mari rated it:

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Apr 21, 2010

Yun rated it:

I would normally have passed on this book without much thought, but the author's Korean-American background and the word 'Korean comfort women' during WWII immediately caught my eye. I have heard of this word being used to refer to women used to control the soliders and contain the their madness during WWII and naturally wanted to read more about them.

As I read the book, I learned that this is a story about a Japanese-American man, 'Doc Hata', a very polite and considerate man, just More...

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Oct 18, 2010

James rated it:

Chang-rae Lee's second novel follows a Japanese-born Korean middle-aged man who is coming to grips with his past experiences as a Japanese Imperial Army medical officer who witnessed brutal crimes and then as a post-war, modern American parent.

There's a lot of insight into the role of the "outsider" and what it means to relate your past to your present. Readers who are looking for an easy to follow plot line won't find it here as Lee likes to let his descriptions flow from t More...

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Feb 23, 2011

Lisa rated it:

Doc Hata is in every way an outsider. His very name does not fit him. Doc Hata isn't actually a doctor. Genetically, he isn't actually a Hata.
A Korean adopted by Japanese, Doc Hata was a medic on the wrong side of World War 2 who went on to build a respectable life for himself in a prosperous village 40 minutes outside New York City. Beneath the pleasant veneer of successful assimilation lies a longing for true connection.
Hata's rigorous swimming routine reflects his continual negoti More...

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Jul 17, 2011

Mirjam rated it:

I thought that this book started out strong, with beautifully lyrical prose...and then, although the main story was compelling, it kept getting tripped up by flashbacks that told a back story that initially had great potential but then turned into an annoying tale about a man who thinks he has honor but does not. 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," More...

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Dec 20, 2010

Brian rated it:

Franklin Hata is Japanese man of Korean birth living the modest life of the perfect neighbor in a Long Island suburb, but there are ghosts from his past as a doctor serving with the Japanese Army in Korea that he thought he had buried deep in his past. His well-ordered life is destroyed when a fire in his house and a crisis involving his estranged daughter bring these ghosts to the fore.

Chang-rae Lee's novel time shifts between his current suburban life and the horrors of his experienc More...

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Mar 21, 2009

Pamela rated it:

I had this book for a long time before I read it, because I assumed it had been translated and I always hate that "lost in translation" thing. However, it was written originally in English - so. The story involves an elderly Japanese man who has settled in a small town without any other Asian people and is him retelling his life - but, that is about as clear as things get. As the story goes on, he keeps revealing things about his experiences during World War II, a little at a time, More...

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Jan 01, 2012

Frederick rated it:

This is the story of Ed "Doc" Hata. When we first meet him he is a retired shopkeeper in a small town about 40 miles from New York City. He is a well-respected member of the community, having run a medical supply business for many years. The book is about his taking stock of his life and arranging his final years.Gradually we get to know more about him. He has an adopted daughter from whom he is estranged and has a stormy relationship. He grew up in Japan, of Korean descent. He was in More...

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Dec 27, 2011

jun rated it:

Began reading this because I heard of Chang-rae Lee.
I was skeptical (Asian Am lit isn't my thing).

Anyway, really blown away. This is one of those quieter books that leave you much to think about and much to feel. Where incidents that ought to move or horrify you, don't hit you with the depth of their severity until a few chapters later.

Incredibly layered.
Even in the revealing of the full character of Franklin Hata.

Beautiful, somber prose.
Go More...

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May 18, 2010

Anne rated it:

I'm still thinking about this book......it's a first person narrative about an older Japanese man quietly living in upscale small town outside of NYC. A few present events unwind, some war time memories unfold, all sort of oblique. The writer doesn't really tell us everything.....instead, I keep thinking about the character's good intentions in present and past, and the resulting consequences. There's more than enough moral ambiguity to go around, and I think I might try this book again. Whi More...

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Nov 20, 2011

Steven rated it:

Chang-rae Lee's novel, "A Gesture Life," begins sedately but gradually builds to a crescendo of tragic memories and personal crises that tears apart the seemingly bland existence of "Doc Hata," taking him to his earlier realization that what he had sought to achieve as a person was "something more than a life of gestures." Skillfully weaving together a set of separated strands of Hata's life -- the trauma of his passionate effort to save a Korean "comfort More...

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Jul 12, 2011

Erin rated it:

It took me months to push myself through this novel. I wanted to abandon it so many times, but I had read (and loved) a few of Chang-rae Lee's short pieces in The New Yorker and was excited to read one of his novels. Apparently I should have read Native Speaker, not A Gesture Life.

The book is laboriously constructed. What I mean by that is it often feels like a story that was built, rather than inspired. I think it was designed to be realism, but was often hard for me to believe. I h More...

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Jun 07, 2011

Trish rated it:

Chang-rae Lee is an amazing writer. I can’t remember the last time I read writing this good from a Contemporary writer, his prose are beautiful. The story itself is rather secondary to the writing, and honestly in a lesser writer’s hands I would have stopped reading it. The story line is basically two-fold, Franklin Hata’s experience as a Japanese military field medic during WWII where he falls in love with a Korean Comfort woman, and his life in an upper middle-class NY suburb after the war. More...

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Sep 09, 2008

Elizabeth rated it:

Although "A Gesture Life" held my interest, it was difficult to really like any of the characters. I resented (though I understood) the narrator's detachment from life, specifically the emotion 'love.' I kept waiting for him to breakdown the barriers he puts up, but he never really does.

One of the most interesting (albeit ugly) aspects of the novel is the story of the Korean comfort women. I would like to have seen that part of the story more developed and less about Sunny More...

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Dec 27, 2007

Stacy rated it:

chang-rae lee is a quiet author whose narratives unfold delicately and fully; like a tightly-wound tea leaf when confronted with boiling water. 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.

i don't always know what to say about a book that i've liked, or what it was about it that "did" it for me. the first novel of lee's that i'd read was native speaker, and i More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 25, 2009

Bonnie G rated it:

A bit of a downer, but interesting exploration of the thinking of a man. The main character is hiding a lot from the reader, so it is a bit of a mystery, but I didn't really understand the man so it was hard to keep going at times. It was fascinating how removed from him his adopted daughter was, and I couldn't figure out if she had some detachment syndrome or if she detected something missing from her dad. Anyway, it was OK, but not one I would recommend.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 12, 2011

Charlene rated it:

Lee writes a simplistic, yet complicated story of isolated love, uncomfortable relationships, honor, respect, and ultimately, human emotion.

Though this story had its moments, the beauty of the story is Lee's ability to capture the main character's (Doc Hata) struggle between assimilating with his environment or just existing -- constantly questioning whether it is important to just be or leave a lasting impact.

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May 07, 2011

Kathleen rated it:

Franklin Hata, a retired Japanese man, lives in a desirable community, where people constantly want to buy his house. He's sold his business, Sunny Medical, manages to keep up appearances with the neighbors at all times. Still, he has secrets, and doesn't talk about them. Why isn't his adopted daughter in his life? What happened when he was a medic in the Japanese Army during WWII?
Compelling and well written.

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