Native Speaker by Chang-rae Lee Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Native Speaker
Book Review: I loved it
Summary: 5 Stars
A detective story, if you'd look plainly at it. If you'd look into it, you find a consipiracy. Then you think about the whole book. It's like an onion. You peel it off and find nothing in it. But if you'd taste those coverings... Immensely beautiful. And I truly loved it.Book Review: I really wanted to like it.
Summary: 2 Stars
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.
Book Review: Interesting, but poorly written.
Summary: 3 Stars
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.Book Review: It writes from an American perspective not Korean.
Summary: 1 Stars
I don't know when I read this book...maybe when it was first published and had the big hype. So it was long time ago.
I can't recall all the details of the plot.
But what I remember is that I was disappointed.
Those friends of mine who I identified as Koreans all said that they found this book very boring.
But Kor. Americans who did not have any Kor. culture in them said the book was amazing,
and so did the critics in America.
My point is that, in contrary to many critics' reviews,
this book is not about someone who stands between two cultures of Korea and US.
It is more about someone who is an American but looks Asian.
So the protagonist's identity crisis does not stem from the two conflicting cultures.
His inner crisis arises simply because of how he is looked at as an Asian in America.
If you are so-called Banana like the protagonist, you may have some common ground with him and might like this book.
I heard that the author's second book was about Korean War... I hope that he understands Korean culture one day and perhaps writes something differently.
Book Review: Jack of all trades, master of none. This is Henry Park.
Summary: 3 Stars
I really enjoyed the first half of this book. It seemed like the author was building questions about the main character, Henry Park in the mind of the reader. How disappointed to find that not to be the case entirely. I wanted to know, for example, why their son was named Mitt. The perspective regarding American and Korean views of interracial marriage was interesting. Park seemed almost too willing to try to be all things to all people. I enjoyed the way his childhood memories are sprinkled among present day activities. The dichotomy of his two worlds threaten to ruin his life