Reviews

• 衝撃の慰安婦小説

  今まで読んだアジア系アメリカ文学で一番好きな作品です。 主人公Hataは人々から尊敬され、裕福な街で豪邸に住んでいる。一見幸せな日々を送っているようだが、彼には誰にも話すことのできない過去がある。 この作品のテーマは戦争と慰安婦。非常に重く暗い内容であるにも関わらず、先を読まずにはいられない。 主人公のHataは、WWⅡで慰安婦の"管理"をした経験を持つ。戦争時に出会った韓国人女性Kに恋をする。「戦争が終わったら、二人で旅行をしよう」と約束をしたり、お互いに自分の過去を語り合う。Hataは他の男から守るために、彼女を部屋のクローゼットに匿ったり、体を気づかっておにぎりを作ったりする。しかし彼はKが眠っている間にレイプしてしまう。Hataは愛しているからそのような行為をするのだが、後に彼女から体が欲しいだけでしょと言われる。それからKは処刑され、Hataは彼女を永遠に失う。 愛しているからとレイプをするのは身勝手で暴力としか思えない。さらに、幽霊のKの姿を見て自分のもとに戻ってきたと思うHataは自惚れも甚だしい。物語の最初は"いい人"として描かれているから好意的に読めるのだが、Kをレイプする場面からは印象が"最低な人"になる。それなのに、この主人公を完全には嫌いになれない。Kのことはともかく、彼自身も苦しんでいるから。戦時中は上司に従順でいなければいけず、慰安婦の"管理"を強いられ、戦争の歯車であったことへの罪悪感に苛まれる。すなわに、彼は加害者でもあり、被害者でもある。そのために自殺したいと願ったり、自分が災いを呼んでいるのではないかと自分を責める。何十年も経った現在も、戦時中のトラウマに襲われている。このような主人公を大嫌いになることはできない。 Hataには養女Sunnyがいるのだが、彼女はgesture lifeを送る父親に嫌悪する。また彼女は父親が自分を愛していない、自分がいない方がいいのではと思いながら日々を過ごす。高校生の頃に、二人は喧嘩をしてSunnyは家を出る。だが二人は完全に縁を切ったわけではなく、Hataが入院した際、匿名でSunnyから見舞状が届いたりする。後半では数十年ぶりに二人は再会し、溝を埋め始める。 HataとSunnyの話はHataとKの話と同じくらい強い印象を持つ。仲違いしていた二人だが、Sunnyが孫と遊ばせたり、父親を気遣ったりする場面は感動した。Sunnyに対しても自分勝手な意見を押し付けていたHataではあるが、彼女は過去の出来事を全て父親からの愛情であると受け入れ、父親を許す。子は無条件に親を愛するということに気づき、Hataも娘のために行動をとる。家を売却し、かつて開いていたお店と建物を買い戻し、Sunnyに譲る。彼自身は遠くに旅へ出ると決意して終わる。 ほとんどのページが陰気な出来事で占められているのに、そのことを忘れさせるようなエンディングで読後に爽快感がある。最後にHataが死ぬのではないかと思ったが、新たな人生を歩み始め、読んでよかったと感じる。この本に出会えたことを感謝する。

• It was perhaps a mistake to read A Gesture Life in one day, immersing myself so totally in the head of protagonist/narrator Doc Hata. His tragically flawed character and the attendant traumas in his life make for an intricately crafted narrative from which I admit I had to take many breathing breaks. But this narrative style, another testament to Lee's incredible capacity for expression, is not about punishing the reader. (By only a scattering of overpacked sentences and some fairly crucial editing mistakes was I ever bothered.) See, this book is not so much about action as reaction, and most importantly, introspection, an obsessive self-examination. It is about a man who has been an outsider on so many different levels, and as such, has been compelled to consider his every action and word, and whether he does or does not fit into his surroundings. This kind of careful living, this compulsive tiptoeing, is the source of many of the tragedies in this novel. Frustration that readers may feel from the seemingly overwrought writing style is actually empathy that they're sharing with some of the book's other figures who also respond to Hata's way of life. Indeed, it's frustrating and heart-rending to witness Hata beat himself up over his past. This novel, after all, is rife with painful truths that few would like to hear. Thankfully, as always, Lee's poetic sense of language, his skills at creating an entirely visceral set of characters (with telling dialog and physical description), unusual plot situations, and vivid setting -- all down to the most minute and vital details -- made the reading of the novel well worth the heartache and the ten consecutive hours I devoted to it. Many times, I was reminded of two other masterfully written novels, Philip Roth's American Pastoral (for the bewildering breach of a father's total devotion) and Stewart David Ikeda's What the Scarecrow Said (for the town that smacked of a whitewashed Establishment and for the persistent awareness of being an outsider). Like Native Speaker, A Gesture Life is a book that will stick with me for a long time and that I will be rereading several times.

• A man whose ordinariness is hiding a series of emotional complexities from his past.The book gives us Doc Hata,who narrates his life in a reserved and detached way.For me the book was a good read with much thought provoking subject matter.However l did find the general narrative a bit too sentimental and there was a little too much of this inward looking retrospection. Hata never seemed to actually live, but is a rather frozen in time..He was involved emotionally with four women,namely the comfort girl,his adopted daughter,Mrs Hinkley and Mary Burns,all of which he fails miserably to reach out to. Hata in fact was very frustrating to read about and with the constant sentimentality of the narrative l got mildly irritated but at the same time felt moved by it all.Conflicted is how l feel about the book

• This is one of those quiet, beautiful books that are easily overlooked. The protagonist is not easily or even necessarily likeable. Ashamed and haunted by his past he attempts to protect himself against pain by refusing to fully engage in life. He denies himself even the experience of happiness so as to escape the possibility of pain. To expose oneself to joy is to risk disaster. Danger lurks in the quiotic nature of emotions; only order is safe because it is predictable.Although it did win one prestigious award that I know of, I expected this book to win many more. Upon reflection I decided that it did ot achieve more popular acclaim because it requires reader involvement. This is not a quick, easy read. The reader must reach into herself so as to know and understand this man. It is well worth the effort.

• In a gesture life Lee adroitly explores a successful immigrant’s experience. First we get the surface look, the home our likable protagonist has created and a look at how he ran a successful business & raised an adopted daughter in a New Jersey suburb. Then toward the middle of the book we get a look at his backstory- adopted by a second family so that he could pursue his studies, the war he survived, his unrequited first love. All very compassionately drawn, we see a picture of a man who never really arrives emotionally at a sense of home, of true romantic love or, saddest of all, belonging. I was very inspired by the writing & the honest portrayal.

• I think this book has what all great novels embody for me; wonderfully engaging observations of the life's surfaces yet deeply probing into all its maze of beauty, ugliness, and ultimately disturbing in all its contradictions. He writes without judging the characters; only directs a beam of light to reveal its intricate tapestry. This novel transcends the Asian-American-Immigrant genre to encompass our universal human theme of being simply human. A compellingly profound statement about war and humanity. And he is a delight to read; the prose flows like a poetry.

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