Rating: 
Summary: New Talent
Review: I must confess that I started reading the book because it waswritten by a New Talent Prize winner. After I finished the book I am still trying to figure out which are the artistic merits of the work. Sadly this is the type of book which you can leave to rest in your night table for weeks without feeling any particular need to end it, nor any particular desire to make it last. All the characters are surrounded by an overwhelming sadness, which is certainly understandable due to times in which they are living, so all of them are rather gray and dull. The author in order to compensate for this lack of "spark" within its novel, places a sex slave which becomes the center of the action, with such a bad luck that the only parts of the plot which are good are those which have nothing to do with the story. Its a pity, I hate to loose my faith on the taste of the Jury who chooses the New Talent of Literature. Better luck next time.
Rating: 
Summary: overpraised
Review: Gesture life gets my nomination for the most overpraised work of literature in recent years. P.C. or not, I question whether the work would have received a fraction of the accolades had it not been written by an otherwise very talented Asian-American man, but admit it: gesture life is ponderous and rather dull. One can sympathize intensely with the suffering of the type of people portrayed without agreeing that the book is particularly entertaining. A must-read only for those who feel they "must."
Rating: 
Summary: Haunting, beautifully written!
Review: This is a powerful novel about a man who, at the end of his days, finds the past he tried to bury catching up with him in many ways. It's a great novel about who we are, and who we try to be, and about the walls and masks we create to keep both the world and our own identities in check.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant; brilliant
Review: Reading A Gesture Life is like peeling an onion. Deeply layered with nuances and disturbing imagery described in beautiful, detached language, it is hard to know what to think at first (hence many of the readers' frustrations) and ultimately there are no easy answers about the characters, especially Hata. I found it haunting and sad. Because it is written from Hata's warped and rationalizing perspective, I found myself constantly imagining what his actions might look like from other people's perspectives. And how, by trying to fit in and be liked, he has missed out on meaningful intimacy and connection with virtually all humans in his life. It also made me think about the facades that we all build to portray success and/or keep people away.
Rating:
Summary: worst book
Review: This is the worst book I ever tried to read! I just don't get it. Maybe it is a sign of my literary ignorance. I tried to read , but it was too painful to endure. For me, the book had no redeeming qualities - not the characters, the plot (or lack thereof), or the writing style. A complete waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: hearsays
Review: this book was on the libirary selections so me being an Asian and the writer himself being one, i immediately picked it up and read it. i was very dissapointed with his use of bad history to write a novel based on total hearsays.
Rating:
Summary: Chang-rae Lee projects himself in his protagonists
Review: Chang-rae Lee is celebrated in the Korean American community. Educated in prep school and then Yale, he is the epitomical model minority, 2nd generation child of Korean immigrants. Korean Americans can look up to his example and admire what he has achieved.I am Korean, but I also see what Lee fails to achieve in his work. This failure partly stems from his projection of himself into his protagonists. Lee's protagonists are loners, isolated individuals who are tragically destined for invisiblity and voicelessness, because they are Asian. In his protrayal of his characters as such, he forgets the other possibilities that are constantly confronting Asian American identity today. I am not trying to imply that Lee is self-pitying and humorless, though his characters often come across this way, I think that writing for him is more therapy than art. However, I do have to give credit to Lee for his undeniable representation of the Korean American voice. This of course is an inevitable outcome of Lee's identity, not an outcome of his intention.
Rating:
Summary: Forgettable.
Review: Two things are clear. Mr. Lee is fluent in English and his writing has a consistent voice. Other than those two, there's nothing admirable in this book. While the content is realistic enough, it is not truthful. Mr. Lee is a twinkie--white inside, yellow outside--and while writing with the assumed authority of a Korean-American, he has once again upheld the stereotype of Asian immigrants as being emotionally impenetrable, duplicitous and damaged. White people try to help Hata--especially his girlfriend, that "tall, statuesque" white Goddess--but he doesn't even know how to accept such "benevolence." I say benevolence sarcastically because the girlfriend sums up the seemingly benevolent but equally patronizing attitude of colonizers towards colonized. The awkward weaving of the "back-story," that of the comfort women, is really pitiful. It's supposed to explain why Hata is the way he is, but in reality it doesn't contribute to the book except as a piece of sensationalism and writerly device because Hata has always been rather "unfeeling," or at least reluctant to express his emotions. As far as the tragedy of comfort women themselves, I can only say that I've read better and more moving accounts of what comfort women went through in textbooks. I hope the readers do not use this book to understand the inner life of Asian immigrants.
Rating: 
Summary: Heart wrenching
Review: Heart -rending throughout and charged with emotion . Author is similar to Thomas Hardy in that he shows profound understanding of the pysche of characters of the opposite sex. A little humour (even if it be "dark" humuor) and an element of hope through learning from tragedy could take this already good novel to an even higher realm.
Rating:
Summary: MIND-readers
Review: This book was somewhat of a disappointment. I began reading this book thinking surely an award winner must be great, and ended up wondering if I'd missed something along the way. Though the general theme of the book became clear about midway, most of the fact presentations were disjointed and unclear. When the author switches to a little bit of what might be considered poetry, towards the end of the book, the reader is tossed into confusion. The author really should have considered the fact that most readers are not MIND-readers and could not possibly decipher the hidden meanings behind some of the passages. I wouldn't recommend this book too highly to anyone, and as far as critic's recommendations, I haven't yet found one worth it's salt.
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