Rating: 
Summary: This is book worth reading.
Review: This book is thought provoking. The voice of the story is a man, Franklin Hata, who is trying to survive and cope with the inhumanities he witnesses and the hardships he experiences in his own life. As in Native Speaker, the story deals with an individual who finds ways to deal with a dominant culture. As a reader, I was left with the impression that scars from painful experiences run deep and continually interfere with our attempts to manage our lives. Some reviewers were frustrated that not all aspects of the story were well developed. I felt this was natural since the story was told in the voice of a man who has experienced much pain in his life, and it would be natural to let go or not deal with some issues or life stories. Also, the book already had 356 pages. Some reviewers stated that the flashbacks made the story difficult to follow. I totally disagree. The flashbacks were well integrated into the story and helped the reader to understand the decisions, philosophies, and actions of the main character. Although this story is at times very disturbing, the reader is not left feeling total despair. In fact, despite his hardships, Hafta, accomplishes much in his life and many of this coping mechanisms are commendable. I believe Chang-Rae Lee is a gifted writer. The awards he has received are very impressive and I look forward to reading more of his books.
Rating: 
Summary: Much Better than Native Speaker!
Review: Overall, this was an excellent novel - very well thought out, with a lyrical and fluid narrative that gets the reader caught up in the narrator's situation and his complex feelings about his wartime behavior. My only concern was some of the dialogue - it felt a little stiff and unreal between the Japanese narrator and some of his neighbors. Also, I wondered how much racism this character actually experienced, being an outsider in this small town? Lee rarely touches on this. However, I found this novel to be much better than Native Speaker, Lee's first novel.
Rating:
Summary: Dark, melancholy, profound
Review: "A Gesture Life" reinforces my impression that Lee is one of the most gifted American writers of this generation. His skills as a wordsmith are awe inspiring, which he employs to offer profound insights on the mores and prejudices of society.This novel takes patience to get into. The hesitant and painfully careful and thorough manner in which he depicts the narrator's voice are of course part of his portrayal of a Japanese immigrant who, being raised in Japan of ethnic Korean extraction, has lead a life of striving to acclimate and maintain a favorable, and low profile. However, as the novel progresses the reader discovers that this unobtrusiveness is intentional as well as cultural and is concerted to atone for barbarism in which the protagonist was involved. The work is rife with foreshadowing, metaphors and irony. It focuses on a ugly, sordid aspect of the Japanese Imperial Army as a foil for societal hypocracy and resulting irony in suburban New York. Lee employs a Dickenseque technique in painting this fictional memoir that I found in a number ways reminiscent of "A Christmas Carol". This is a dark and often depressing work. It should be taken up with the thought of reading something profound, important, and masterfully written.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written tale of a simple, yet complex life
Review: I wasn't thrilled about reading this book, as the subject matter did not sound very thrilling. However, this book is so beautifully and masterfully written, you cannot help but be drawn into this guy's life. During every scene I felt like I was there and when Franklin Hata reminisced about his life I felt like I was inside his head. As I read the book, I could envision my self in the scene and I could totally envision Franklin as one of those ordinary people you see everyday that probably has a deep and complex past to bear. I thought the writer made a wise choice deciding to tell the story first person; but you also did not get a one-sided view. At the end of the book, I could feel for Franklin; but also sympathized with his daughter and the others around him. Also, from what I know about the Japanese military culture circa WW2, the author's descriptions seem very accurate and poignant. I have read many books that involve a man (or woman) looking back on their life and this is one of the very best.
Rating:
Summary: A Pitch-Perfect Novel of Reticence
Review: It is remarkable that a writer as young as Lee can write about a reticent, aged character like Hata with such illumination. Hata is a character who is reluctant to divulge his innermost feelings, and it's a narrative tour de force on Lee's part to balance and capture the narrator's reluctance along with the story itself. Hata is a doctor in a suburban town called Bedley Run, a trusted man in the community. He has problems with his adopted daughter, and while he contemplates his troubles with her, the memories of his life as a young doctor in the Japanese Army during WWII surface as well. Parts of the book are harrowing to read - especially the massacre sequence of the comfort girl by the Japanese. Not only is it physically brutal, but the emotional resonance of the act in the character is absolutely leveling. It is one of the finest, if horrifying, patches of writing I've read as far as emotional impact goes. The writing is impeccable and poetic. Lee's measured, pointillistic prose serves Hata's narrative well. The fine restraint of his prose is there even in the most horrifying of parts in the story. Gone are the plot contrivances and antics of his debut novel, "The Native Speaker", and the novel is allowed to breathe and evolve into its inevitable end. A beautiful book.
Rating:
Summary: a sweet and sad surprise
Review: Before the end of WWII, Japan had colonized Korea. So many Koreans came to Japan, of their own will, under coercion or sometimes being cheated. The protagonist of Chang-rae Lee's 'A Gesture Life' is Franklin Hata, who was a son of them Koreans living in Japan. He was adopted to Japanese family and went to WWII as a Japanese soldier. He hid his Korean identity, because Koreans were discriminated very harshly in Japan. It was one of his 'gesture.'
After WWII, he went to USA and lived there as a Japanese merchant. But his new life in USA didn't release him from his 'gesture life.' Both his adopted daughter and his lover smelled out his 'gesture' and left him. Why didn't he confess he was Korean? Because he went to war as a Japanese soldier and couldn't save a Korean 'comfort woman' he loved there. It's a tragedy most Japanese have been avoiding for so many years.
Of course, 'A Gesture Life' is not a political essay, but one of the most excellent and important modern novels. It attacked me like a sweet and sad surprise.
Rating:
Summary: Hata Trivia
Review: Doc Hata may be named in honor of Sahachiro Hata, the man who discovered Salvarsan (mentioned in the book), a syphillis medicine. In 1909 Paul Ehrlich was exhaustively searching for an arsenic compound that would kill the sleeping sickness microbe, but not the person with the disease (although the arsenic would make the patient very ill). After testing over 900 different compounds on mice without success, his colleage Sahachiro Hata noticed that #606 killed the syphillis microbe. Their work inspired Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin.
Rating:
Summary: A worthwhile read
Review: I read this book even though I had read Chang-Rae Lee's first book (Native speaker), and had not been overly impressed by it. "A gesture life" is a much better novel. It is not a book that can be read quickly. However, it is a book that is worth taking time over. I took the time, and am glad to have done so.
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable second novel from a talented new writer
Review: Chang-Rae Lee's "A Gesture Life" is filled with the memory of pain, loss, regret and longing but not defeat or depression. The feeling of displacement or alienation suffered by Dr Hata, first as an adopted child in a Japanese household and later as an alien intruder into American society, is mirrored in his turbulent years bringing up his own adopted daughter, Sunny, whose ingratitude and hostility seems inexplicable but is ultimately rooted in the same cause. His sense of not belonging has denied him the confidence to develop any real relationships with people around him. His tentative friendship and courtship of the widow, Mary Burns, evocatively detailed, is filled with wry regret and unfulfillment. He is scarred by his surprising but tragic war time love affair with the young comfort woman (K) but also learns from the experience the devastating truth of the most cruel discrimination visited upon Korean immigrants who have settled in Japan but continued to be regarded as aliens by their hosts. Hence, his retreat into polite civilian life in America after the war and content with being merely an observer, always on the outside looking in but never quite participating or engaging. He avoids surprises, choosing a life of routine of work and daily exercise. It is only through the persistent attempt by decent people like Liv and Renny to reach out to him that finally restores his confidence in building long lasting relationships. The union between these not-so-young younger folks is a poignant reminder of how it might have been between Dr Hata and Mary. Lee manages the time shift between past and present congruously. Whilst the war time episode is by far the more dramatic, it is the present day panning out of Dr Hata's life in his adoptive community that is the more revealing and satisfying. Lee is a tremendously gifted writer. His prose is smooth as silk and flows so naturally you feel yourself riding the emotional waves with Dr Hata. "A Gesture Life" is a wonderful second novel from Lee and one that I would recommend without hesitation to anyone who loves good literature. A remarkable literary achievement.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Written
Review: I was curious about this book because it's written by a Korean about a Japanese veteran. Even though I'm Chinese, I'm tired of systematic hatred of the Japanese appearing everywhere. This book presents the protagonist as a human being capable of regrets and a need for redemption. This book is also full of fresh imagery, which is more than I can say for faux-Asian writers like Amy Tan.
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