Native Speaker by Chang-rae Lee Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Native Speaker
Book Review: From Out to In
Summary: 4 Stars
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.Book Review: Great Stuff
Summary: 5 Stars
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".
Book Review: Henry Park is annoying, whiney, wimpy, immoral, tedious, effeminate
Summary: 2 Stars
I would agree with the reviews that Chang-Rae is a talented writer, and I enjoy his writing style, but I could barely stand his protagonist and narrator, Henry Park. I am not giving away the ending here, when I simply tell you that the dude is a jerk, and he's annoying, and he's wishy-washy effeminate, and I would like to punch people like him. Yes, there are many novels out there with imperfect, anti-hero, even untrustworthy narrators, but I'm pretty sure Chang-Rae feels warmth and sympathy for Henry Park and is trying to use him to expose his own issues with being Korean-American. I would hope one issue is not being an annoying, selfish moron. It felt like reading the logs of some Nazi concentration camp guard. Oh, I'm having problems at home, I don't understand my father, I don't really fit in here because I'm Austrian, and hang on a sec while I put another Jew in the oven. I have no sympathy for Henry Park. He seems to represent the worst stereoypes of Asian: confused, judgmental, whiney, effeminate, hypocritical, double-faced, untrustworthy, unexpressive, cold, wimpy. And all the other Koreans in the book are caricatures and stereotypes. Henry's wife is the only sympathetic character and you wonder what she finds in Henry except maybe a child-boy Asian stereotype.Book Review: Hum Drum and Ho Hum
Summary: 2 Stars
I hope the author is now over his psychological hangups because he could probably write a very nice book if he is. But this "Native Speaker" is a soggy loaf of white bread: a potentially good plot that's foiled, spoiled and soiled by lots of sad little culs de sac.
You know right from the beginning the books is going to be boring when the protagonist, a Korean-American male, meets up with a Caucasian female at a cocktail party, and when they sneak off to kiss they both can't get into it because of the racial difference. Come on! If you're not turned on by someone, don't try putting out.
Forget the kiss, forget the minor and major poignancies, forget this book. Read something truly exciting and multi-cultural, like "Tailor of Panama" by John le Carre. There's a plot that moves.
Book Review: I Was Soooooo Looking forward to This
Summary: 3 Stars
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.