Rating: 
Summary: Peculiar
Review: Gesture life is an akward follow up to his previous book, the Native speaker. The protagonist of this book spent his whole life as an outsider to his country and his residence: the theme follows the dull retrace of Hata's conflicting psyches. This book might have worked if it were a spy novel, but as a literary tryout, i found this book to be a total time waister.
Rating: 
Summary: Native Speaker is much better
Review: It's the language Chang-Rae Lee is so good at. In Native Speaker, despite the unrealistic bit about the spy business, his language sparkled whereas in A Gesture Life, I found it stuffy and banal and the narrarive method way too coventional. I don't know about other readers but the whole thing about Hata's life in a Westchester village rings terribly false. I know so well what Westchester is like. Because of the pure joy of his language, I couldn't wait to read this book. Well, it is boring!!! I coulnd't go on but I still went on. Native Speaker was much better.
Rating: 
Summary: Chang-Rae Lee is a latter-day Conrad,
Review: sculpting magnificent artworks from the now-richer clay of our own native language and doing it better than many of our revered authors whose first language is english. Mr. Lee's perception and language are refreshingly those of the autodidact, and I am humbled and awed by the breadth of his talent and the simple majesty of his books. Bravo to you, Sir, and Godspeed.
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Summary: environmentally unfriendly book
Review: this book has no substance except it killed bunch of trees to print
Rating: 
Summary: What a Marvelous book
Review: I doubt that few readers of serious literature will be dissapointed in A Gesture Life. The author brings to life an amazing character and voice. It's ultimately a sad book, but also one that is very moving. I would imagine that if one enjoyed Golden's book on Geisha that they would enjoy this book too.
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Summary: Hiroshima Guilt
Review: Amazon carefully screened & censored any negative reviews of this wallow in victimist self pity and resentment. Yukio Mishima is immeasurably superior.
Rating:
Summary: to the author of 'a minor disappointment'
Review: i would say that the restraint of lee's writing is due more to the character he is portraying rather than the authors lack of skills of creating a good character. if you havent read it yet, lees 'native speaker' displays the author ability to write passionately and at times ecstatically.
Rating:
Summary: Carefully crafted work of art
Review: I have enjoyed this book and admire its author for the stimulating plot and vivid depiction of both what was witnessed and what was felt by Franklin Hata. This kind of novel must be treated with care however. Issues surrounding the "comfort women" - those Japanese, Korean and other Asian women recruited to work in Japanese frontline brothels during WWII - has been hugely politicized and sensationalized. The issues, and books/films about them, have been used not only as legitimate guide into this tragic event in history but also as a way to vent prejudice and hate against today's Japan and Japanese people. We must not succumb to the temptation of racially-charged Japan-bashing again. We must, however, ensure to keep "comfort women" part of our historical remembrance and vow to respect the human rights of every individual at all times - even during the most bitter and bloody war. Overall Lee has written a book worth reading -
Rating:
Summary: Quiet, subtle, and profoundly moving
Review: This was one of the most moving books I've read in a long time. I thought it captured so many issues at once: being Asian in America, growing old and "invisible," issues of class and race, being adopted, (on so many levels), the filtering down of experience through generations, and how one event or series of events can profoundly mark one's life, even though it looks "normal" or "successful" from the outside. I know I will read it many times over.
Rating:
Summary: A minor disappointment ...
Review: I had mixed feelings about this book. There's no doubt that Lee's syle of prose and rhetorical skill is excellent, but the book is constricted by its slow pace and overly conscientious form of writing. Franklin Hata is irrevocably weak and reluctant, yet he still remains to be amazingly "persistent." Sunny's character is somewhat sparse, I readily inferred much of her defiance through her misconduct but sought a deeper explanation for it. However, I do commend Lee for his portrayals of the korean comfort women. It is a poignant reminder of the dangerous afflictions of hopelessness and tragedy and that wartime can render monsters in men. Lee not only confronts the perils of the yellow man, but the silent echoes of the women who died fallen and unanswered.
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