Native Speaker Reviews

• An American Tragedy

  
  By A2EMEQCVOTJQN1 on 2002-03-21
  If you read a great deal, you recognize that only a few books are truly profound and will be regarded as noteworthy among those written in a particular era. Having just finished "Native Speaker" I was both moved, and extremely impressed. This is clearly one of the distinguished books of this generation.

  Chang Rae Lee is clearly a man of acute depth and insights, and he eloquently represents distinctly different cultures, and the angst, disillusionment, and metamorphisis arising from survival that affects immigrants. He also probes fundamental issues of family, loyalty, betrayal, and the question of what constitutes success. While he employs Korean, and Korean American prototypes, his themes and issues are fundamentally human, but perhaps distinctly American.

  Furthermore, Lee is a superb wordsmith and a beautiful writer, with a masterful command of the English language, which he skillfully and artistically, employs to convey his complex tale and profound concepts.

  I was motivated to read this book when I read that this was the book that had been recommended by many as that which diverse, fractious, and iconoclastic NYC should claim as it's own in the trend for each of the nation's cities to focus on a book to read. However, this is an important book for all Americans, as it trully speaks to the American experience. I noted one review compared it to Ellison's "Invisible Man". While I think that it stands alone, if I were to compare it with other American classics they would instead be Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" and Richard Wright's "Native Son". I am very pleased that I chose to read this book; it is noble, touching, and important.
  
  

• Literary Review of Native Speaker

  
  By A2TM025AKIXQO6 on 2000-05-21
  This novel depicts the problems involving alienation, isolation, and self-identity crisis that the immigrants face as the minority and outsiders in the American society. This novel takes the structure of detective fiction, developing a story of a spy who investigates an ambitious politician. Its main action concerns an amazingly charismatic New York City councilman, John Kwang, the idol of thousands of immigrant voters in his home district of Queens. Someone wants to see him go down, and it is Henry's job to provide the dirty laundry. Also this story of trust and betrayal is connected together with other, more delicate threads: his troubled relationship with his traditional Korean father, his troubled marriage to his American wife? His Confucian inability to express live to either of them except through silence. Beautifully written and intriguingly plotted, the novel interweaves politics, love, family, and loss as Park starts to make sense of the rhythm of his life. As he does, his experiences illuminate the many-layered immigrant experience in general, and the Asian immigrant experience in particular, in a way that many readers will understand and appreciate. Through the life of Henry Park, the author exposes the alienation and isolation that many immigrants and their children faces from the American society. Also he depicts the conflicts between 1st generation immigrants and 2nd generation America-born children caused from the cultural differences and the incompatible perspectives toward their lives. Through the motif of a spy, the author successfully creates feeling of uncertainty of identity and place from a point view of a perpetual outcast looking at American culture from a distance. Beginning to fear That he has betrayed both Korean and American worlds and belong to neither, the only thing that Henry Park acquired from his life as a spy and an outsider is the confirmation of his true identity filled with pain and sorrow. There are many qualities of this novel that resembles the qualities of Romanticism of Great Gatzby as Henry Park, the hero of the novel, quests for truth of his identity and displays a strong disbelief toward civilization and love toward the nature. Also Henry Park has some characteristics of the hero of Hemingway such as NADA, inability to sleep during night, and the belief of grace under pressure. Who am I? This question is thrown to the author, Chang-rae Lee himself as well as to Henry Park. Even though he immigrated to United States when he was only three, graduated from the Yale University, and established himself as Native Speaker who uses the English as his native language, he still feels that he is an outsider who can not assimilate into American society. For this sense, we could view this novel as author's honest experience of his life. The novel Native Speaker approaches the readers as an important meaning for it deals with racial problem, a peculiar aspect of American society, and boldly exposes the alienation of modern people.
  
  

• A rare find

  
  By A23GFTVIETX7DS on 2000-02-17
  Chang-Rae Lee supplies so many levels to this tale of political espionage that the reader cannot help but emerge wiser. Lee is an engaging storyteller, hooking the reader with the first line and never relinquishing his grip, giving his readers a suspenseful plot, compelling characters, precise language, and an exploration of issues facing America today. The metaphor of the second-generation American as spy is simply brilliant.

  This book is a rare find: a page-turner with real substance.
  
  

• great book, despite readers' bogus expectations

  
  By on 1998-06-13
  i thought this was a wonderful book! beautiful prose, interesting characters, galloping plot. i comletely recommend it.

  but what really horrifies me as i read these reviews is how many people seem to assume that because lee is korean american he has some sort of duty to write about "the" korean-american experience. as if there were such a thing! i've heard other non-white authors complaining of the same thing: that their work is pigeon-holed as "xx-american" and held up as representative of all "xx-american" experience. what a ridiculous idea.

  and as for A Reader From New York's comment that the novel wasn't the revealing insight into Korean-American culture that s/he expected, as you seem not to have figured this one out yet, i must caution you against basing your expectations of reality on anything you read in "popular magazines".
  
  

• Chang-Rae Lee, J'accuse

  
  By A299TUBSRXIOG5 on 2003-03-19
  When this book arrived in 1995, it was hailed as a crossover success. My Asian-Am friends all felt `vindicated' by Lee's emotionally rich characters, his finely pitched all-embracing Whitmanic prose style. I've read this book a couple of times and tried to figure out why it found such a ready and willing audience. I haven't found any close readings online, so here are some notes, my close reading, my overworked accusations.
  This book can be divided into roughly two halves. The first centers around our narrator's, Henry Park's father. His father speaks in a mangled pidgeon, won't let his son ask him about his work, hires a `replacement' when the mother dies. He is incapable of showing himself as vulnerable; when he is robbed and pistol whipped at the grocery, he comes home and locks the door to his room, so that neither his wife nor son can see him or talk to him. Henry learns from his father to hide his emotions, which comes across in his relationship to Lelia, the WASPy Bostonian he has made his wife.
  The second half closes in on Henry's relationship to John Kwang, a Korean Councilman from Queens who he is assigned to by the spy agency he works for (founded by another creepy father figure, the all-American Dennis Hoagland). Kwang is everything Henry's father is not, he embraces black folks and takes it upon himself to heal the tensions between African-Americans and Koreans in the city. He is "effortlessly Korean, effortlessly American," not the embarrasingly accented provisional citizen that Henry's father embodies. Henry infiltrates Kwang's political organization so thoroughly that Kwang tells him everything, and according to Henry "shows him his true face." Henry calls him his necessary invention, a clue that Henry is not really a spy but... an writer who wants to escape the ghetto of Asian-American lit.
  The father's character, masterful as it is, is what one might expect from a writer of identity literature. The writer relishes most the painfully intimate detail, the dark family secret. Kwang is pure invention, or at least exercise in psychological redemption. Around the midway point of the book, Park goes into a self-reflective mini-story about his relationship with another of his subjects, a Filipino who he betrays, as he must betray all of those he is paid to spy on. He talks, unsurprisingly, a lot about his father in his sessions. At one point he reflects that Dr. Luzan employs an unusual therapeutic technique, one which depends not on fast association but on slow _narrative_. This brings us to Park's relationship with Hoagland, his boss. Hoagland demands that his spies transmit back flat character description, or "registers" that sum up the profile in as few words as possible, reduce the subjects to pure "identity." Park was originally the best of his group at this, a teacher's pet. But since his botched operation with Dr. Luzan, has been crafting narratives that Hoagland finds useless, too heavy on story, not enough cold character assessment.
  Kwang is a great invention, a redemptive counter to Henry's dad. We see Kwang both as mediated by the reactive and faintly jingoistic tabloids and in his unguarded father-son conferences with Henry. His character slips in and out of the realm of folk tale; when Henry tries to restrain him, example, he finds that Kwang is inhumanely strong. At his lows, he exhibits a Fu Manchu-like sadism. Most important to Henry, he displays his weakness and humanity without reserve. In their last encounter, Henry is wildly brawling with the attackers of Kwang, whom the whole city has turned against.
  In _Native Speaker_, Lee leapt from the prison-house of identity literature, but he seems to have crossed over into a vein of contemporary high literary fiction which is hugely influenced by notions of clinical THERAPY. In this book, Park and his wife, Lelia (herself a professional speech therapist), spend most of their efforts on healing the wound of their LOSS, the loss of their perfect and only son, MITT. These are the kind of people that reenact the accidental asphyxiation in bed and at the same time are painfully aware that they are conducting a therapeutic exercise, one which will help them MOVE ON from their loss. Lee's break from the ghetto of Asian-Am Lit. is admirable, his embrace of therapy as form and subject is ... a loss.
  
  
• Native Speaker: A Post Asian American Novel
  By A3LPKWJLTBIVZ8 on 2005-06-03
  Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker is arguably one of the most beautifully written books of the 20th Century. Written when Lee was only 28 years old as his MFA thesis project, Native Speaker is a moving and often painful account of the immigrant/1.5 generation's experience in the United States. While the book moves back and forth between Henry Park's life as a spy and his relationship with his estranged wife, Lelia, the underlying theme encompassing the entire novel is that of the invisibility and displacement of Asian Americans in the United States.
  While some reviewers have deemed Henry's career as a spy a curious or strange career, anyone familiar with the invisiblity of the Asian American population in the United States will appreciate and empathize with this career choice. As a spy, Henry's job is to be invisible, the unseen. As a first generation Korean American in the United States, Henry is often the unseen minority who because of his skin color and the stereotypes of the quiet, passive, model minority keep him in the background of society. In sum, the entire novel as well as Henry himself serve as a metaphor and commentary of the invisibility of Asian Americans in the United States, while in reality they are a large percentage of society with the immigrant population continuing to grow.
  In addition to crafting a story commenting on Asian Americans in the United States, Lee also created an interracial relationship between Henry and Lelia (Scotch American) free of the exoticism and/or fetishism often found in stories involving interracial relationships. While there is little doubt that Henry loves Lelia, their relationship often causes him to undergo feelings of self-contempt and inferiorty as he fears his Korean ethnicity, Asian race, and perceived imperfect English mark him as less than an equal partner. While Lelia is free with her emotions and wishes for Henry to react in the same way, his upbrining in a somewhat violent as well as verbally repressed family often causes him to react to emotional situations with stoicism and silence. Thus, while Henry and Lelia are perfectly matched in many ways, they must still negotiate their differences in culture and ethnicity. The ethnic and cultural differences that the couple face are perhaps most apparent in their diverging beliefs on how to raise their mixed race son. Here, Henry's feelings of inferiorty surface as he worries that his son will look too Korean, will not speak perfect English, and will be subject to the same kind of abuse Henry suffered as a child. On the contrary, while Lelia becomes more consciousness of her whiteness and the privilege it carries after becoming a mother to an Korean American child, she is the one who encourages Mitt's learning about his culture as well as the Korean language.
  With the creation of Henry and Lelia's child, Mitt, Lee provides a commentary and his own take on the Eurasian character so often depicted in Anglo as well as Asian American literature as the "tragic" Eurasian, "yellow peril," or the "best of both worlds." Lee's foray into expanding the definition of Asian American (which he continues to do in his later novels, A Gesture Life and Aloft) begins with Mitt as the Hapa child and the first mixed child born of both families.
  Finally, Native Speaker should not solely be classified as Asian American fiction but must be categorized as "American" literature (a category so exclusive that only one Asian American writer to date has been admitted) as it expands beyond the Korean American and Asian American experience to include anyone who remains invisible while striving for visibility and recognition (i.e., all immigrants/refugees at one time or another living in America),and stands out as one of the best written works of the 20th century and beyond, as the prose places Lee is a category of writers whose skill with manipulating and crafting the English language draws readers in and touches them to the core. Native Speaker is truly one of those rare books you can pick up at any time, read any page and become instantly absorbed.
  
  
• A learning experience
  By A30XL5PHWCIJUA on 2000-06-25
  I picked up a copy of this book after reading rave reviews in England about his second novel, A Gesture Life. I thought I'd read Native Speaker first. I was not disappointed. I know the comparison to Kazuo Ishiguro has been made a thousand times but stylistically it has to be said that they do share a calm, measured prose which gives the reader a strong path through a jungle of emotions, memories and misunderstandings. Also, like the narrators of Ishiguro's first three novels, Lee's narrator here does not seem to see all that we as the reader can see, he does not always read the actions of those around him as we might. The narrator, a Korean-American, has a lot on his plate. He is working as a private detective whilst coming to terms with the death of his child and trying to save his marriage to a white American. I personally learnt a lot about the Korean-American community in New York from this novel. Obviously I cannot say how accurate it is and other reviewers of this book have questioned its accuracy. However, it opened my eyes to a side of the city which no film or book has ever told me about. Again, like Ishiguro's books, you come out at the other end feeling a bit hazy, not quite sure what to make of it. The only reason I gave this four stars instead of five is that I found it quite hard-going at times. The prose does not run quite as smoothly as Ishiguro's. Having said that I will certainly read his second novel and would recommend this to people looking for a new writer with new perspectives.
  
  
• see it for what it is
  By AO82YUV8IL3HZ on 1999-12-22
  I am compelled to respond to some of the criticism this book received on this review site. That somehow this book is no good because it's too Korean-American. Don't forget, in fact, keep remembering that the author, Chang-Rae Lee is a Korean-American. Everything he writes will be from his own experience and thinking as a Korean-American. That is who he is. Surely, you could not have expected Martin Luther King, Jr. to think like a white American or Charles Dickens to write a great novel about a chinese merchant in Shanghai. A reader must see this novel as a unique product of a Korean-American experience. That's what makes it so personal and subsequently enjoyable.
  
  
• A talented and insightful new writer!
  By A3NSSFRT20WXZ7 on 2001-04-03
  Henry Park, the son of a Korean grocer who lives in New York, is deserted suddenly by his Caucasian American wife. Reflecting back on his life and and the events that lead him to this situation, he considers the way deceipt over his vocation has clouded his marriage. He reviews how his life had been when his dad was alive, when his son was alive, and the lack of understanding by his wife of his Korean culture.

  A pervading sense of something having gone wrong opens this book. The search for its cause and more details is the powerful driving force behind this intriguing first novel. Its finest characteristic, however, is the way in which the author expresses what it feels like to be an ethnic Korean growing up in America---the alienation, the anguish, the longing to be a necessary part of the wider culture. It addresses the dichotomy of two divergent cultures that must be embraced by the child of an American immigrant who strives to improve his station in life, the tension that exists between Asians and non-Asians who find themselves living and working side by side, and the intergenerational clash that often occurs between the immigrant generation and its children. NATIVE SPEAKER is an absorbing story and a welcome addition to any growing collection of Asian-American literature.
  
  

• Just don't read it if you don't feel like it.
  By A1FST2DX2DL473 on 2005-06-06
  I am amazed by the reviewers screaming "Just another immigrant book! Just another Asian-American angst thing! Yadda yadda yadda! I hate it so much!" I mean, Jesus Christ, read the BOOK COVER or something before you pick it up, right? There's even a BIG picture of an Asian man and an Asian boy on the front cover--that tip you off? Just says something about the intelligence of these people. I mean, is someone forcing you to read it? Not only is it profoundly racist and elitist--"Oh, look how white I am! I can't relate to YOUR people's problems and all! And in spite of my ancestors being immigrants too, I find the whole subject of immigration unappetizing and perhaps even offensive! Give me something REALLY AMERICAN and REALLY WHITE!"--it's just plain dumb. In an increasingly diverse world, in a time when American can mean so many things--African-American, WASP, Asian-American, Latin-American, Native American, mixed--some people just want to shield their eyes, keep out the "strange" people who are "taking over their jobs" and not have anything to do with them. Well, wake up; America already is diverse and will become so at an increasingly fast pace. We all better learn to live with each other 'cause none of us are going anywhere.
  
  Now, about the book. I loved some parts of it, some parts of it were way too depressing because they were all too accurate, some very few parts could have been better. Overall impression? This is a beatifully written book that has something real, something authentic, something profound to say. This is a book that's going to last, unless fearful, ignorant people dump it into the trashcan out of xenophobia.
  
  Lee's voice is strong, passionate and a bit disenchanted. He's seen a lot of ugly things and he isn't afraid to speak out. But it's not all preaching and oh-thou-art-bad kind of a thing; he's enough of a good writer to make everything interesting, with his careful pacing, tightly structured scenes, and stunning imagery. If you can't take boring, pontificating books, don't worry; Lee provides plenty of action--after all, the main character is something of a spy.
  
  One scene that was especially striking, painful, but ultimately so eloquently beautiful that I actually cried--I never cry while reading--was the scene near the end where Park tries to shield his sort-of-father-figure-turned-bad, being pummeled but still trying to hold his ground. The absolute sadness and the poignancy of that one scene still makes my tears well up. Just the way Lee built up to that scene, and the denouement that came... made my three hours worth it. It was true poetry written in prose.
  
  Lee is a master word-smith. Sometimes all that "eloquence and poetry" business can get in the way of a book... A certain book comes to mind, Lauren Slater's "Prozac Diaries"; that book and its like suffer from the author's love with her own voice, her own cleverness, her big vocabulary and her own artistry. In Lee's case, though, his literary devices and masterful writing skills actually aid the execution of the book.
  
  I loved the book. I didn't enjoy it so much as love it, because some of the sections were just too painful, and those I skimmed and skipped; but not painful in the overtly wrought, cheap, manipulative way that characterizes so much bad maudlin literature, but painful because they contain so much truth, and sometimes the truth hurts more than anything else.
  
  And as for the argument "It doesn't reflect the Korean-American experience..." Hey, I know Lee's grasp of the Korean language is not very good, I've noticed quite a few spelling errors myself, some of them even made me howl with laughter--why didn't the publisher get anyone to check, for God's sake, they're so obvious?--but he does have a great ear for cultural innuendos and the ambience of the characters' world. I'd say that while his observations were not always very accurate or fair--sometimes his views on things did seem a little skewered or biased--they were mostly very right. And, by the by, not all Korean-Americans' experiences are exactly the same, so don't whine about the little details--he got the main overhanging arch of our stories right, and isn't that enough?
  
  Don't like this type of book? Don't waste your time by reading it, don't waste other readers' time by writing a review. But if you aren't biased--you DON'T have to like the genre--there's a fair chance you'll enjoy it. Try it if you dare.
  
  
• Lyrical, but too autobiographical
  By on 1999-12-30
  A work of fiction should transport the reader beyond the world we perceive around us. When a writer of fiction fails to do this, he is merely recording his initial impressions which may be true but antithetical to fiction. Those initial impressions must be wrought into something almost unrecognizable, otherworldly if you like, and made to serve the structure of the novel. I must confess that there were aspects of Chang Rae-Lee's novel that I found deeply moving because of their familiarity (I'm Korean American), but speaking as a student of the novel form, I found the book to be a lyrical autobiography with a smattering of artifice (the stuff of fiction) to give it a flavor but not the taste of genuine fiction.
  
  
• a korean-american perspective
  By A367ZZVSTNCC0D on 2005-08-17
  let's set the stage. i am a wasp. i grew up in the midwest and have very limited involvement with asian ethnicities. i do however love reading ethnic novels in an effort to learn and understand other cultures. this is my 1st novel regarding first generation koreans in america.
  
  this book is about what it is like for this type of person growing up in america. yet it is a very american novel. where else could the protagonist marry a wasp woman and see how cultures like asian, black, and hispanic collide in an open society.
  
  harry park is born of immigrant parents who create a successful yet disappointing life in america. he is given all the opportunties of a middle class american. he marries a white woman and takes a job as a "researcher" who surreptitiously investigates people. things go along well until the tragic death of his son. then his world starts to unravel. his wife leaves him and he begins to flounder at his job. things begin to change when he is assigned to "research" a korean-american city counselman (kwang) who is a viable mayoral candidate. kwang, who becomes a father figure to park, has all the foibles of most people. his denoument is within his control, while at the same time beyond it. the other question is whether or not park is part of it.
  
  the story is exceptionally well written. i learned a great deal about a new perspective on life in america. the ending is somewhat disappointing but still satisfying.
  
  i recommend it for those who want to learn more being a korean-american.
  
  
• Would have worked better outside the "espionage" genre
  By AI8JGTAJNAUIW on 2006-05-26
  I'd like to give this novel more than 3 stars, but the unfortunate decision to have the main character be a Secret Agent/Native Informant guy really ruined it for me. Some reviewers claim that to make this criticism is to reveal oneself as a white person who just doesn't get it (I am indeed a white reviewer)--eg, the Secret Agent plot element is a metaphor for the invisibility that Asian-Americans feel as a minority group in the US. But before we explore metaphorical value and cultural commentary, let's ask, more plainly: does the espionage element work in terms of character and plot? I think it doesn't, and that this leads to a further weakness in the book's politics and mode of cultural criticism.
  
  Where character is concerned, I can compare Native Speaker with another cerebral political/espionage novel, Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men. Warren does a good job of having a first-person narrator who is a slimeball in a lot of ways, who's lost his moral bearings. By contrast, Chang-Rae Lee has a main character who is so sensitive, so highly moral, and so completely sympathetic that you never, ever believe that he would have the venal job he has. In fact, much of Native Speaker reads like a straightforward memoir, especially the account of Henry Park's childhood. In this case, Lee has set up a perfect paradox, in that the more the reader engages with the narrator in the "memoir" passages, the more competely unbelievable the espionage plot becomes.
  
  I also think the espionage element muddles the book plotwise, and in fact causes Lee to mishandle one of his most important themes, that of white power over and prejudice toward immigrants. Briefly, the "memoir" parts of the book concern Henry's relationship with his father, who is wealthy but lives a privatized, conformist life. As an adult Henry meets a father-surrogate, the politician John Kwang. Now, this story could have been told without the secret agent stuff. In fact, it could have been quite straightforward: a disillusioned young man, who's experienced marital troubles and has bitter memories of his father's social powerlessness, is drawn to a brilliant politician, who must defy the prejudice of mainstream white society. But again, the idea of an all-purpose spy organization that makes life hard for immigrants, and especially Asian-Americans, messes everything up. For example, perhaps Kwang's major way of establishing rapport with his constituents is to take the Korean-American tradition of the "ggeh"--where immigrants pool their money and withdraw from the fund as needed--and make it broader and multiracial, so that people can borrow money to send their kids to college, etc. I won't give away any "spoilers," but let's just say that the doings of the spy network, and the Queens, NY-based ggeh, end up being intertwined. At this point, I thought that Lee was juggling too many balls as an author: I wanted to hear more about John Kwang, and I was getting tired of annoying characters like Jack and Dennis Hoagland (the white spies).
  
  But, even more importantly, instead of NS making me more sympathetic to the troubles of immigrants, I ended up being somewhat disturbed by the book's politics. One gets the feeling that Kwang's neighborhood association would have done just fine, if it wasn't for the interference of a shadowy racist organization with links to the IRS, INS, and so on. Now, here's my question: doesn't the ggeh represent a multicultural version of libertarianism, which sees society as the sum of individual choices and voluntary associations and wishes to limit state action? Insofar as Henry Park (and, arguably, Lee himself) valorize the ggeh, how is this political outlook any different from that of white people in the midwest who argue that they've never really owed anything to the government, that they've done just fine with hard work and the help of their neighbors? In a way, Lee has written a politically reactionary book, which has a paranoid attitude toward government. Now, you might respond that "Lee is describing, not endorsing; the spy network represents the racist forces that people of color must deal with if they want to enter the public sphere." But the point is that Lee could have handled these racist forces differently. The spy network strikes me as a very heavy-handed, "conspiracy-theory" way of thinking about oppression, and the ggeh a very privatized, anti-statist model of social action. In any case, I think the book's politics are muddled, and that NS would have been sharper in terms of character, better-organized in terms of plot, and clearer in its political outlook without the espionage element.
  
  I certainly don't mean to say this is a bad book, and in fact it's become so canonical that people will go on buying it no matter what this-or-that reviewer thinks. All well and good. But I will say that if you're a fan of "intellectual" espionage in the vein of Warren's King's Men, Graham Greene, or John Le Carre, and you're drawn to this book because you've heard it creatively reworks the genre, be aware that the espionage element is *not* the book's strength. The descriptions of a Korean-American boyhood and adult New York life are excellent, but the "thriller" element almost kills the novel.
  
  
• yawn-a-thon
  By on 2000-10-04
  i read dis book when i done cannot sleep, mon. dis book so boring and dry, dis book a yawn-a-thon! and i liked de excerpt from he new book A Gesture Life dat i done read in Granta, mon. de characters zero engaging and de prose beyond-beyond bland and banal. don't go read dis book! you want read good book read book by Kazuo Ishiguro or William Boyd or Hanif Kureshi. dis book a sham! how it win big prize! only V.S. Naipaul write good book about immigantes and so.
  
  
• Never mind the "Korean-American Experience"...
  By AB5PRDA6AZLT6 on 2000-12-19
  It seems rather insulting to the author that so many reviewers insist upon discussing it as some sort of Korean-American cultural artifact, rather than considering it simply as a novel. Personally, I have nothing to say regarding whether it's an accurate portrayal of the "Korean-American Experience" (whatever that may mean to any given person), but I did enjoy Native Speaker as an entertaining and thought-provoking novel. Lee's writing is evocative and honest, and unlike many non-genre writers today, he actually tells a story with all those well-chosen words. The protagonist recounts the history of his relationship with his wife as events unfold in his career, but the two storylines seem to intertwine naturally, rather than jumping back and forth in a distracting way. In the end, it becomes clear that the separation between his professional life and his marriage is the cause of his problems in both.
  
  
• Lyrical
  By A3G48J33QMY07D on 2002-08-07
  Perhaps the highest compliment I could give this book is one that I already have in the title line: this book is lyrical. And like a good lyric it acts upon your imagination to produce visuals and emotions that last with you long after you have finished the book.

  I am a father and Lee touches on my deepest fears in this book and makes me emphatize with him, even though I am not Korean-American. And that is the beauty of the book, that because of its specificity, it becomes universal.

  I do not know if the Korean-American experience is truthfully recorded here, however I do believe that truth is present in the words. The truth of father, a husband, an employee, a minority, a human ... if you are interested in a beautifully-structured and well-written book on life, loss and love .. this is the book to read.
  
  

• Not the average cuppa joe.
  By ARVLM8440KQ1S on 2003-07-15
  A blend of subtle and broad strokes creating a richly textured prose in a unique and compelling novel. I enjoyed the layers and intricacies of the stories woven together to give protagonist Henry Park the profoundly human visage unearthed here. Lee uses a sensitive yet blunt observational style I found spine-tingling and poignant.

  For those KoAms here who thought the view of Korean immigrants stereotypical - hey, we're living it, man. Stereotypes are born of truths, painful though they may be. Look in the mirror, you'll find a lot more in common with Henry Park than you wish to admit, or you have yet to discover. Or are you just unmasking the stereotypical Korean schadenfreude in yourselves?
  Lee hits the nail on the head and strikes nerves in many ways with this admirable, thought-provoking book.
  
  

• From Out to In
  By A1U4FLZFAXEC91 on 2000-05-10
  In this spy novel / cultural expose, Lee attempts to share his feelings as a non-native speaker. He is able to brilliantly weave many different stories into a well-written novel that explores his feelings as an immigrant. Lee is able to show us Americans - or "Native Speakers" - how it feels to be labeled an outsider and some one that just cannot fit in. He carefully reveals through his well written prose the disappointment and shame that can flow through the minds of one that is shunned by the very people they are striving to become. In this novel Lee begins with Henry, the protagonist, reflecting on a list left by his wife which covered the things she had discovered he had become, or had always been. She stated "you are surreptitious, B+ student of life, illegal alien, emotional alien, Yellow peril: neo-American, stranger, follower, traitor, spy..." This list of traits is developed throughout the novel, and helps to reveal Henry's quest for identity. This quest for identity becomes a major motif as Henry represents the immigrants living in America struggling to become native speakers. Another symbol of the book was Lee being a spy. A spy, one that looks on others but is not seen by others, is a perfect symbol of the feelings of an outsider. Although some criticize him for his attempt at a spy novel, this clever detail helps the reader to see the feelings and thoughts of a non-native speaker. As the book closes Lee has discovered his true self. Through his quest to regain the love of his life - his wife - and his effort to succeed in his career, Henry discovers the true essence of living as a non-native speaker. This book will be intriguing to all that are open minded and are prepared to accept the truth as it is seen by an outside seeker.
  
  
• I really wanted to like it.
  By AW1B1VUMNFC51 on 2001-06-21
  I really wanted to like this book. I really did. I kept reading in the hopes that when it was over, I would discover a meaning that would redeem its lacklastuer storyline and writing. Something to scream out "eureka!" Perhaps the fact that I am Korean and wanted a book about what it feels to be 2nd generation to be great and wonderful (so I could recommend it to everyone I knew) made me want to like this book. However, I couldn't even finish reading this book. At some point, I found myself hating Henri Park and I had to stop.

  The major flaw of this book is that everything about Henri Park (the cold, success driven father, the silent and obedient mother, the "let's bring you out of your shell" wife,) is based on a stereotype. A fruit stand in NY city? The only thing else that could beat that would be a laundromat out in Flushing. God forbid that a Korean man actually shows his emotion! There was nothing intriguing in Henri Park's journey (what journey was he on anyway? Was he discovering his root? Was he mourning his dead son?) except for his occupation. He was so stereotypical that I couldn't see him as a unique person with his own feelings or thoughts.

  I was so disappointed.
  
  

• not recommended for Korean readers
  By AOTIQ7YM1779D on 2003-01-14
  As a second generation Korean-American, I am always longing for something to identify myself. Being proud of my korean culture and American culture i picked up this book hoping to find something that would attribute to my quest of an identity. Entitled Native Speaker, I was expecting a novel along the lines of a guy having a conflict between his American and Korean culture. However this is hardly the case. Henry Park, the protagonist of this novel, is portrayed as a spy against the korean culture. He works to undermine the work that has been done by Korean-American in America. Very difficult to identify with. In the novel he later begins to have a conflict with the underminging that he has been a part of and begins to regret the work that he has been participating in, but it's unpausible that a cold hearted soul who started working on a job like this would ever feel guilt about what he's done?
  however some non-korean seem to identify with it so if your not korean you may like it. Up to you to decide.
  
  
• I Was Soooooo Looking forward to This
  By A33VJHFQC9BRIT on 2004-06-22
  As it is, it's "serviceable" -- better, to be sure, than the relatively few other Asian-American stuff I've read, but I can't see what the hoopla is about. Now he is a good writer, in terms of his use of language -- though not quite "great" or "lyrical," I don't think -- and the premise is an interesting enough one, but I think the Asian-American existential angst feels rather strained after a few chapters. For a stone-faced fellow, the narrator/protagonist is sure given to long, almost-digressive musing! I couldn't wait for the "action" to start already -- and I know this isn't supposed to be some pulp fiction thriller -- whether that be his espionage, his crumbling marriage, etc. Just an inch above slightly disappointed is how I feel. I guess if I didn't see all those damned blurbs ("a page-turner," "thrilling," "winner of PEN," etc.) I would have been able to enjoy this more, but my expectations were whetted too high for the actual novel to come across as much more than two touches overrated. Again, the writing itself is good, but everything else just seems too unnecessarily "slow." I mean, all right, we get the Asian-American identity crisis stuff already -- can we get on with the rest of the story? And yeah, I check "Asian Pacific American" on the census. The book doesn't "pick up" until after page 200 -- everything before is mere expository prelude, and could have been worked in better, more elegantly. Also, I'm tired of writers who tell their stories too damned coyly: hints are given in drips and drabs as to very important things in the character's background. This kind of frigitdity is cheap suspense; this is a cheap and hack way of engendering suspense in the reader by limiting reader knowledge of really important background info, despite the first-person narration! As it is, I like it well enough, but, again, given the blurbs, I was expecting so much more. I guess I should've knew something was up when one of the blurbs called this an "Asian-American 'Invisible Man'"...! To sum up, my main "beef" with this book is that there too much slogging through precious and near-pretentious angst before we get to the actual meat, which is very interesting indeed.
  
  
• dark, fragmented, introspective, and brilliant
  By on 2000-02-11
  I read some of the past reviews about this book, and as expected there are criticisms about this work being fragmented and incohesive. My counter-point to all this is as follows: I think it is suppose to be that way. This work renders often the unexplored or unsaid in growing up and living in America as an Asian American.
  
  
• Pleasantly Surprised
  By A1FVTSCJ03C2BM on 2000-04-25
  I must begin by admitting that I did not come to this book of my own accord, and I cannot say it is one that I would have chosen of my own initiative. Fortunately, however, my experience with Chang Rae Lee's Native Speaker proved to be overwhelmingly positive. Native Speaker tells the story of Henry Park via Park's own first-person account detailing his life as a "spy." In what you may not recognize as standard `spy-novel' fare, Lee delves beyond the accounts of daily life to address the implications of Henry's occupation, his relationships both past and present, and his identity. The question: Who is Henry Park? Becomes a central theme, adding to the intrigue of the external narrative. The reader is given sufficient information to formulate what they believe to be Henry's identity, but at the same time are left with the requisite uncertainty to maintain their interest.

  Equally intriguing is the voice chosen by Lee. The language of the narrative is poetic in its lyricism. Lee develops the settings of the action with remarkable precision and clarity without allowing the language to detract from the action. Several parallel plots are skillfully interwoven, guiding the reader along and masterfully avoiding any confusion. Writing as an Asian-American, himself, Chang Rae Lee is comfortable addressing the questions surrounding the cultural identity of a minority without resorting to an allegorical tone. Lee does slip into trope, however, at times such as the attribution of messianic significance to Henry's bi-racial son. The reader is willing to forgive these rare occurrences as minor weaknesses within an otherwise extremely well-crafted novel.

  On the whole, Native Speaker is an artfully constructed work that addresses complicated issues within the framework of an engaging narrative. I highly recommend this book to any discerning reader wishing to be entertained.
  
  

• Identiy Journey
  By A1G552PZFGDZSD on 2001-05-07
  Chang-Rae Lee's novel Native Speaker utilizes an immigrant to portray the hardships of finding one's identity in a cultural world. True identity is one of a noble journey. The narrator Henry Park, a Korean American, accepts this quest. Henry Park is the stereotypical second generation son who doesn't know his place in the "New World" society. He spends most of the book searching for the truth. Along the way he experiences hardships that affect his journey. His wife, an American, initiates this journey by listing characteristics of him from her point of view. She leaves on a journey of her own, without him, to Europe. Henry's job as a spy symbolizes his mask in life and his hidden identity. He's task is to protect a politician who is well-liked among immigrants. The main theme in this novel is lost identity. Chang-Rae Lee's novel surfaces this common problem among Koreans in the American society. Henry's relationship with his father, mother, housekeeper, and wife all play significant roles in his quest. His relationship with his father is a typical one among first generation and second generations in a new country. The first generation is wedded to the ways of the "Old Country" and it is the second generation that forsakes them. This statement is obvious in Henry and his father's relationship. Henry wishes for his father to become assimilated into American society and "normal." Henry experiences this want of "fitting in" even from a young age. He is disillusioned throughout the whole book, unaware of what is developing around him. He at a point in the book views his cultural background as a burden unto himself and his life. Henry's family does not understand his burden. Henry doesn't realize the sacrifice his family made for him to live in a better place, to grow and become a successful man. His character is one that resembles a romantic hero. His love of nature and distrust of society is evident throughout the book. Lee uses many stylistic strategies to achieve his portrayal of lost identity. He commonly uses strong diction to reveal Henry's emotions and thoughts. Lee also uses many similes and metaphors to compare Henry's feelings and search for true self. Many motifs are used repeatedly throughout the book to reveal a layer of Henry's multi-layered character. A common motif found in the book is one of Hemingway's philosophy of NADA. This philosophy's characteristics are repeatedly found in Henry's actions. Chang-Rae's use of prose style helps the reader become easily involved in the plot and emotions of the characters. It evens achieves a sense of questioning of identity for the reader and their thoughts. Throughout the book Henry deals with the isolation, alienation, and loss of self identity to finally achieve a sense of identity in the end. He does not completely achieve it, yet he is few steps closer than before. I believe that Chang-Rae Lee's novel describes beautifully the struggle between two worlds and the journey. Overall, I liked this novel for I believe it was a realistic novel that deals with realistic problems that people face in today's society.
  
  
• Great Stuff
  By A26STBV7UB4YQV on 1999-11-22
  I can understand some of the ambivalence which surrounds the reception to this book; more often than not, people love it, but some really dislike enough of it to give it low ratings. While the author has very studied and elaborate style, which is actually beautiful at times, maybe people come to expect too much from the plot and the development of "Parky." The very graceful, "riddling" prose may make the development of the story seem unsatisfactory at times. At any rate, people seem intrigued or perplexed enough to have formed strong opinions about it.

  As for the story, I think it would have been too crass for it to have ended in any other way, given the length of the book and what a brooding and quietly melancholic character Henry is. I haven't read Lee's successive work, but I would probably need a break to take in some sunshine and laugh a bit before I delved into his world again.

  Mr. Lee's necessary explanation of why Henry became the man he is seems utterly convincing, drawing at length from his childhood and the contrasting influences of his family and his adopted country. Given this, it's probably difficult for people to accept the book as being anything other than a Korean-American experience novel - but though for me it somehow isn't; Henry's "sentimentalist," yet "emotional alien" character defies common logic (and yes I am Korean, though not Korean-American), and makes the reading of the man's thoughts via the narrative as intensely interesting as his manner is surreptitious and secretive. Someone elsewhere wrote that Lee's novels seem to be "more personal therapy than art," and it seems unlikely to me that Lee could borrow so deeply and richly from any other personality than his own.

  I'll certainly be looking foward to his future works (after a bit of a break, as I said), but his very unique and accomplished style makes it unfair for him to be bracketed as just another Korean -American writer; he should be allowed to stand on his own merits, and be appreciated as a storyteller of an different order, and not as a voice for Korean-Amercans. I imagine the scope of any ethnicity's experiences are too broad to be squeezed into the narrative voice of one author, so let's just appreciate his work for what it is, and not be disappointed that it isn't "definitive".
  
  

• Jumping paragraphs half way through...
  By A8QA7RYSVV75G on 2002-04-09
  I was very excited to read this book after learning that it could be the chosen one thousands of New Yorkers would read ....this coming spring.

  ...The first chapters are very interesting, Lee dissects everything in sight, from relationships, through the character's jobs, failures and dreams. Half way through the book I was still excited and enjoyed the crescendo and wondered where was I headed? Somewhere interesting and fulfilling I hoped. That's when the disappointment started to sink in. Mr. Lee opened the Pandora box of his talent when writing this book and like Indiana Jones found himself in a very dangerous situation where only the likes of Harrison Ford can escape alive.

  Page after page, while meandering from one plot to the other I felt dizzy and couldn't see the end of the book in sight. I was not is search of a punchline and loud cymbals to clap at the end - I am snob enough to think that I can grasp the multivariate messages of most writers- . I was in search of a coherent dismount that would honor the first half of Lee's routine. Alas, I didn't see this, what I saw was more of a crash-landing. Good effort but better luck next time.

  Maybe I missed something, but last night I caught myself reading just keywords and jumping entire paragraphs to the end in search for the key dialogues and interesting descriptions. Wishing that I had the patience and presence of mind to follow the unbearable rhythm of this tired and repetitive ode to pseudo-stoic double faced characters. Finally around midnight I finished this book. Thank God, do yourself a favor, don't read it. There are so many good books out there and BTW for New Yorkers? That's why Tom Wolfe wrote The Bonfire of Vanities.
  
  

• The Outsider
  By A298R9G7W69FSG on 2000-05-10
  In his adaptation of the modern spy novel, Chang Rae Lee exemplifies the life of a non-native speaker in the United States. Henry, the protagonist of the novel, has just been left by his wife and has also just failed a major project in his career. Henry's career is not that of normal people, he is, in fact, a spy. This choice of work becomes a symbol for the lives of immigrants. Lee is often criticized for not making the spy portion of the novel as believable as possible. This is not a problem because of the way he masterfully weaves together the different plots found within the novel. While telling of his troubles at work, he speaks of problems with his wife, father, and with society. These problems are the same faced by many immigrants, especially Korean Americans. Because he is a member of the 1.5 generation himself, Lee is able to show the feelings felt by others like him. These feelings become the main focus of the novel as Lee shows that immigrants are often seen but not recognized as normal people. Henry feels this way and the novel reveals the hardships found in the lives of people that are not native speakers of the language. The term "native speaker" comes to describe not only the spoken language, but also the very way that Americans live and act. Although this novel may seem lengthy to some it is well worth the time. The book helps to reveal the undeserved treatment that is often given to those that we see as different. It also helps to make the reader more accepting by showing how devastating just one unkind word can be.
  
  
• Reminds me of Charles Dickens
  By AO82YUV8IL3HZ on 1999-11-26
  Feeling that I experienced many times over during the course of reading this book was very similar to the feeling I got at the end of reading the Great Expectations, which is that I was overcome with emotion. And yes I am comparing Chang-rae Lee's talent to that of Charles Dickens. Being a Korean-American, I have hard time deciding whether I like this book because I am a Korean-American or bacause this is a great book. But one thing I can say for sure is that if you are a Korean-American and you ever had a slightest discomfort of being one, you must read this book simply because you will most likely enjoy it. You will find out you are not alone. Whether or not Chang-rae Lee is a "token" is totally irrelevant to me because he reached me and, I am sure, many others. Greatness, even if achieved only once, is enough in this short life.
  
  
• Interesting, but poorly written.
  By A3FXHB2L36JMIR on 1999-12-02
  Lee sets up this novel inventively by paralleling the qualities of a great spy, with the character traits of being Asian. Silence, restraint, and distance are common in Asians and therefore never warrant too much suspicion. However, it is the writing that lets this book down. Particularly coarse and unreadable are the sections of diaglogue of his white co-workers. Lee seems to overemphasize the vulgarness of their speech to force the reader to feel how foreigners must when they hear American English. Lee is also guilty of faultering into verbose meandering leading to no point, especially when trying to express emotions. Overall, the author seems to aim this novel at non-Asians by dissecting the Korean American pschye with concepts from pop culture.
  
  
• Haunting picture of immigrant striving
  By A31RNXQHD106YY on 1998-03-18
  The book shows the high psychic costs of "getting ahead" in America on three Korean Americans--the narrator (Henry) who is paid to engage in surveillance used against other Asian-Americans, his father who was trained as an engineer in Korea and built up produce stores in America, and the charismatic council member from Queens on whom Henry is spying.
  
  There is much affecting and effective observation of immigrant stoicism (not least that of the literally nameless housekeeper Henry's father hires) and some very beautifully supple prose. A little editing should have pared some passages that contribute nothing, should have established a time perspective (either remembered or ongoing), and might have encouraged a more satisfying ending. Still, the stories of these three intersecting lives are vivid and haunting and this first novel is a major achievment.
  
  

• No-No Boy
• A Gesture Life: A Novel
• The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
• The Namesake: A Novel
• Interpreter of Maladies