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"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
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Chang-rae Lee's much-awaited second novel is a haunting, compelling exploration of the Japanese experience of the Second World War, and the fate of their Comfort Women. 'You make a whole life out of gestures and politeness,' Sunny tells her adoptive father, Franklin Hata. Born in Korea and raised in Japan, Franklin deflects everyone - even his daughter - with courtesy and impenetrable decorum, becoming a respected elder of his small, prosperous American town. As Sunny tries to unpick her father's scrupulous self-control, the story he has repressed emerges: his life as a medic in the Japanese army and his love for a woman who is a soldier's chattel. The tragic tension between Franklin's need to communicate the horror which has shaped his life, and the guilt which has kept him silent are at the heart of this unforgettable work of humane understanding. 'Stunning . . . It's a beautiful, solitary, remarkably tender book.' Andrew O'Hagan 'A wonderful mixture of Richard Ford and Kazuo Ishiguro.' New Yorker 'Superb. Stirring and impressive; the work of a very fine writer indeed.' John Preston, Daily Telegraph 'A writer of immense subtlety and craft.' Maya Jaggi, Guardian 'A slow, brooding, memorable work of fiction.' Joyce Carol Oates 'Pleasing, illuminatingly fresh.subtle and delicious.' Independent 'Beautifully written.a work of astonishing psychological acuity and compassion.' Lizzie Buchan, The Times A Gesture Life is a haunting, compelling exploration of the Japanese experience of the Second World War, and the fate of their 'comfort women'. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781862074019
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9781862074019
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Franklin Hata, Korean by birth but raised in Japan, is an outsider in American society, but he embodies the values of the town he calls his own - he is polite and keeps himself to himself. Seller Inventory # B9781862074019
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9781862074019-GDR
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 356 pages. 7.80x5.08x0.94 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __1862074011
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Book Description Condition: New. 2000. Paperback. Franklin Hata, Korean by birth but raised in Japan, is an outsider in American society, but he embodies the values of the town he calls his own - he is polite and keeps himself to himself. Num Pages: 356 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 198 x 129 x 22. Weight in Grams: 272. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9781862074019
Book Description Condition: New. 2000. Paperback. Franklin Hata, Korean by birth but raised in Japan, is an outsider in American society, but he embodies the values of the town he calls his own - he is polite and keeps himself to himself. Num Pages: 356 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 198 x 129 x 22. Weight in Grams: 272. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9781862074019
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 6666-GRD-9781862074019
Book Description PAP. Condition: New. New Book. Shipped from UK. Established seller since 2000. Seller Inventory # FC-9781862074019