Chang-rae Lee

Franklin Hata, a Japanese man of Korean birth living in suburban New York, seems on the surface to be living a quiet and harmonious life, but actually he remains tormented by his wartime love for a Korean Comfort Woman. Reprint.

A Gesture Life

Karis Ryu

How is it possible to empathize this much with an old man who spent his whole life with a shadow over him, feeling like doom and bad luck to others, and just wanted to live a good life? There are elements of Doc/Franklin/Jiro/Hata's story, his struggle with identity (his name itself is fluid, ambiguous, hard to pin), his struggle with love and genuineness through his carefully composed life of "gestures" that ring painfully true. Hata lives at constant war, his will to live leading to a meticulously constructed life that is constantly at odds with the reality of imperfection around him, whether that is the (view spoiler)[Japanese atrocities on Korean women in World War II, Sunny's multiracial appearance juxtaposed with the ideal "Asian child", and Sunny's independence when Hata struggles to express and understand how to love others in his life (hide spoiler)]. It's a long, gradual book that relies on subtlety as its strength, and I highly recommend it as a contemplative way to spend Saturday mornings. :)

A Gesture Life

Reviews