Lee, the prize-winning author of “Native Speaker,” has created a kind of suspense story in which mysteries unravel slowly as we share Hata’s days. Agonizing memories of wartime’s “comfort women”–sex slaves for the Japanese Army–spurred him to adopt an Asian daughter. Yet he can’t open his heart to her, or acknowledge the reasons for the distance between them. Like “The Remains of the Day,” Kazuo Ishiguro’s harrowing portrait of repression with perfect manners, “A Gesture Life” is about what we lose when we lock up everything we have.
Lee guides us across this complicated terrain with-out a false step. By rights, “Life” should be depressing. But the writing is sure and convincing, the characters vivid and the war story unforgettable. By the end of this masterly novel, all we are is exhilarated.
Laura Shapiro
A Gesture Life.Chang-Rae Lee. (Riverhead) 288 pages. $23.95.
