false 96352 11 Chang-Rae Lee, named by <I>The New Yorker</I> as one of its 20 writers for the 21st Century, has confirmed his place in that company with <I>Aloft</I>, a masterful treatment of a man coming to terms with his own disaffection. In two previous novels, <I>Native Speaker</I> and <I>A Gesture Life</I>, Lee, a Korean-American, writes of lives being not what they seem: in the first, the protagonist is an undercover agent; in the second, the two halves of Franklin Hata's life never quite come together. Both novels won numerous awards, including Best First Novel, the Hemingway PEN Award, the American Book Award and the Asian-American Literary Award, among others. In <I>Aloft</I>, Lee revisits alienation, a fractured family, mixed heritage and the quest for identity.<p> Jerry Battle, 59-year-old widower and father of two, retired from the family business--the unmistakably earthbound Battle Brothers Brick and Mortar--buys a small airplane because "From up here, a half mile above the Earth, everything looks perfect to me." All is not well below. Jerry knows it, saying<p> <blockquote>...the recurring fantasy of my life... is one of perfect continuous travel, this unending hop from one point to another, the pleasures found not in the singular marvels of any destination but in the constancy of serial arrivals and departures, and the comforting companion knowledge that you'll never quite get intimate enough for any trouble to start brewing.</blockquote><p> His view from aloft saves him from the gritty reality of the detritus of life--and from life itself.<p> This high-flyer must come to earth, however, when he finds that his daughter is newly pregnant, diagnosed with cancer, and refusing treatment; his son, who is running the company, has piled up enough debt that bankruptcy is imminent; and his father has gone missing from his assisted living facility. Jerry can no longer say, with impunity, "Jerry Battle hereby declines the Real." Lee takes us on great side trips into the pleasures of food and recreational sex; his wife Daisy's death; his longtime lover Rita's almost endless patience, weaving long, Miltonic sentences that start in one place and end up miles away--flights of fancy--trailing clouds of insight and poignancy. With <I>Aloft</I> Lee just keeps getting better. <I>--Valerie Ryan</I> 92872 2004 Aloft total:615|5:73|4:226|3:236|2:64|1:16| 615 2121 870 83 4 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Feb 13 07:01:33 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 07:07:52 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue May 26 23:49:41 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 23:54:32 -0700 2009 Lee is a brilliant writer, and if his shots are sometimes a little too cheap or his characterizations a little too pat, who cares? He is never not clever, and in this work he supplements his usual verbal acrobatics with loving descriptions of the best things in life, lifestyle porn that ac...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Jan 24 15:13:53 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 24 15:13:53 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 24 11:25:24 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 24 11:36:24 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Aug 23 01:11:26 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 23 01:22:54 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 12:40:28 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 11:36:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed May 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jan 22 15:10:20 -0800 2008 Fri May 09 13:24:09 -0700 2008 ...more...]]> 1 0 false false Tue Feb 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 09 13:29:09 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 06:37:45 -0800 2009
This book was very challenging for me to get through because I can't stand long sentences. It's really tough to remember what's going on if you didn't read this in one sitting, and it's tough to read this in one sitting because I didn't feel like anything dr...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Nov 14 12:21:29 -0800 2007 Tue Jun 10 06:34:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Apr 03 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 29 09:11:14 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 03 10:38:40 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jul 03 13:35:20 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 03 13:35:35 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Apr 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 21 17:17:03 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 28 09:14:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 31 11:08:54 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 31 11:11:43 -0700 2008 1 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun May 27 00:38:49 -0700 2007 Sun May 27 00:43:05 -0700 2007 Aloft, inscribed and signed by the author. Last year, he made an appearance at a local bookstore to read from the book and to promote its publication in trade paperback format. His hair was slightly dissheveled and explained to the audience that he had just (c...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Apr 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 09:16:23 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 28 10:52:13 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Jan 26 17:08:54 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 17:15:00 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Wed Jul 15 04:49:15 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 04:51:22 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Tue Feb 24 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 07:42:13 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 06:21:49 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Nov 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Oct 27 18:40:54 -0700 2009 Tue Nov 03 05:11:43 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sat Feb 28 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 28 16:21:45 -0800 2009 Sat Mar 07 18:16:14 -0800 2009