Native Speaker

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Overview

In Native Speaker, author Chang-rae Lee introduces readers to Henry Park. Park has spent his entire life trying to become a true American&#151a native speaker. But even as the essence of his adopted country continues to elude him, his Korean heritage seems to drift further and further away.

Park's harsh Korean upbringing has taught him to hide his emotions, to remember everything he learns, and most of all to feel an overwhelming sense of alienation. In other words, it has shaped him as a natural spy.

But the very attributes that help him to excel in his profession put a strain on his marriage to his American wife ...

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More About This Book

Overview

In Native Speaker, author Chang-rae Lee introduces readers to Henry Park. Park has spent his entire life trying to become a true American&#151a native speaker. But even as the essence of his adopted country continues to elude him, his Korean heritage seems to drift further and further away.

Park's harsh Korean upbringing has taught him to hide his emotions, to remember everything he learns, and most of all to feel an overwhelming sense of alienation. In other words, it has shaped him as a natural spy.

But the very attributes that help him to excel in his profession put a strain on his marriage to his American wife and stand in the way of his coming to terms with his young son's death. When he is assigned to spy on a rising Korean-American politician, his very identity is tested, and he must figure out who he is amid not only the conflicts within himself but also within the ethnic and political tensions of the New York City streets.

Native Speaker is a story of cultural alienation. It is about fathers and sons, about the desire to connect with the world rather than stand apart from it, about loyalty and betrayal, about the alien in all of us and who we finally are.

Winner of the 1995 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Espionage acts as a metaphor for the uneasy relationship of Amerasians to American society in this eloquent, thought-provoking tale of a young Korean-American's struggle to conjoin the fragments of his personality in culturally diverse New York City. Raised in a family and culture valuing careful control of emotions and appearances, narrator Henry Park, son of a successful Korean-American grocer, works as an undercover operative for a vaguely sinister private intelligence agency. He and his ``American wife,'' Lelia, are estranged, partly as a result of Henry's stoical way of coping with the recent death of their young son. Henry is also having trouble at work, becoming emotionally attached to the people he should be investigating. Ruminating on his upbringing, he traces the path that has led to his present sorrow; as he infiltrates the staff of a popular Korean-American city councilman, he discovers the broader, societal context of the issues he has been grappling with personally. Writing in a precise yet freewheeling prose that takes us deep into Henry's head, first-novelist Lee packs this story, whose intrigue is well measured and compelling, with insights into both current political events and timeless questions of love, culture, family bonds and identity. This is an auspicious debut for Riverhead Books, Putnam's new division. First serial to Granta; QPB selection; audio rights to Brilliance; author tour. (Mar.)
Library Journal
Assigned to spy on a fellow Korean American, Henry Park faces an acute crisis of cultural conscience. LJ's reviewer found Henry a "wonderful, honest creation." (LJ 2/1/95)
More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews
From Barnes & Noble
A provocativenovel about Korean-American immigrant life and the self-discovery of one man, Henry Park, set against the turbulent background of NYC politics & ethnic tensions. "A serious, masterful, and wholly innovative twist on first-generation American fiction.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781573225311
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
  • Publication date: 3/28/1996
  • Edition description: Reprint
  • Pages: 368
  • Sales rank: 125,522
  • Product dimensions: 5.19 (w) x 8.02 (h) x 0.97 (d)

Meet the Author

Chang-rae Lee
Chang-rae Lee

Chang-rae Lee is the author of Native Speaker, winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for first fiction, A Gesture Life, and Aloft. Selected by The New Yorker as one of the twenty best writers under forty, Chang-rae Lee teaches writing at Princeton University.

Biography

Chang-rae Lee landed on the literary scene with Native Speaker, a detective story about much more than just another crime. Detective Henry Park grows too attached to those he investigates as he discovers the connection between broad social questions and his personal failings. Critics responded, and Lee's debut received a string of recognition, including a Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Biography/Critical Appreciation Everyone agrees that Chang-rae Lee is a writer to watch. His debut novel, Native Speaker, (1995) won the American Book Award and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. Plus, two literary cornerstones, The New Yorker and Granta, named him one of the twenty best American writers under forty.

Lee and his family emigrated from Seoul, South Korea to the United States in 1968. His family settled in Westchester, New York, and Lee eventually attended Yale and the University of Oregon, where he earned his M.F.A.

Native Speaker is a story about a Korean-American detective, Henry Park, whose investigative eye is eventually turned upon himself. The novel takes a challenging look at Park's effort reconcile his two cultures in an even larger culturally diverse setting, New York City. The language is simple, yet the reader is allowed a deep and intriguing look inside the head of the main character, the politics that affect him, and his struggles with love and cultures. The New York Times called Lee's debut "highly original," and the Literary Review raved, "... Native Speaker seems like a new kind of novel, the plainsong of unassimilated man, and in the murmur of his nascent voice is the soft clash of borders."

In 1999, Lee's second novel, A Gesture Life continued the themes of identity and assimilation. Lee wrote the novel over the course of four years, although it was originally about the experience of a Korean "comfort woman," forced to sexually service invading Japanese soldiers. Lee traveled to Korea and interviewed surviving comfort women, but two years into the novel, one of the characters, previously considered a minor one, captured Lee's imagination and wouldn't let go. Remarkably, Lee abandoned everything he had written except for one character -- Doc Hata.

Franklin "Doc" Hata is a reserved, older physician, Korean by birth, raised in Japan, and now living in New York City. Only after much needling by his daughter, Doc Hata begins to reveal his painful secrets: his time as a medic in the Japanese army during World War II, his love for one of the Korean comfort women, and the guilt that has kept him silent for most of his life. It's an unforgettable story, and The New York Times called the book "... a work of astonishing psychological acuity and compassion."

With the 2004 release of Lee's Aloft, once again, readers are treated to a portrait of a man in the throes of a reconciliation. Readers who expect Lee's novels to deal exclusively with Asian Americans will be pleasantly surprised to see the author flex his writing skills with the creation of Jerry Battle, the semi-retired head of a (mostly) white Long Island family. On the ground, Battle is inundated with family bickering, his upcoming 60th birthday, and the mystery surrounding his wife's death. Aloft in his small private plane, Battle escapes all of this, although only temporarily. His is the story of how to cope with responsibility -- to the past, and to the unknown.

Lee a writer and a teacher, as well as the director of the M.F.A. Program at Hunter College of City University in New York City. Those fortunate enough to be his students get to learn from the man who knows the stuff of human nature -- that the aftereffect of any act is the core of every great story, and that even the most conventional characters can bear the weight of unconventional story lines.

Good To Know

"If I weren't a writer," Lee reveals in our interview, "I'd probably be working in the food and/or wine business, perhaps running a wine or coffee bar -- or even an Asian noodle soup shop."
    1. Hometown:
      Princeton, New Jersey
    1. Date of Birth:
      July 29, 1965
    2. Place of Birth:
      Seoul, Korea
    1. Education:
      B.A. in English, Yale University, 1987; M.F.A. in Creative Writing, University of Oregon, 1993

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 14 )

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Sort by: Showing all of 14 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 17, 2004

    Native Speaker

    Chang-rae Lee has a gift for being able to capture people as they are, while using them to demonstrate entire cultures. The relationship between Lelia and Henry is not just one of wife and husband but represents the dynamic between American and Korean-American cultures. Lee's sudden jumps to different times and places can be confusing, but flawlessly captures the human mind's inability to remain in the present for any lenght of time.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 13, 2004

    Native Speaker

    We read Native Speaker as a text in The Literature of Immigration class at our college. Chang-rae Lee uses meticulous, deliberate diction. Native Speaker is captivating. It keeps the reader in suspense and engaged with the character of Henry or with the conflicts in the story. Lee also brings out the struggles of cultural awareness and acceptance. Characters are carefully crafted and constructed with multiple facets of their personalities which allows the reader to identify with their own conflicts. Native Speaker was well written with complex ideas and themes presented in a simple and concise manner. We highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to relate to the cultural differences and conflicts that arise for many immigrants while adjusting to a new country.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 17, 2004

    Native Speaker

    This book was based on a list of 17 traits written by Henry Park's wife to describe his personality. As you read this book, you begin to realize that every aspect in each scene throughout relates to one or more of Henry's assumed traits. Lee took a list and turned it into a book! Brilliant!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 17, 2004

    Native Speaker

    Chang-rae Lee's novel is a well constructed example of the modular, methodical thinking of a spy. As he recounts the detail of the events as they have transpired, he makes certain to leave out nothing and his recall is flawless. The process is painstakingly slow. But it is in these meticulous details that the story both evolves and eventually ensnares its readers. It is within this deconstruction that we become aware of the Korean/Asian culture and what Stew labels as Henry's 'circumspect' nature. This story is both intriguing and thought provoking, especially as you delve deeper into the mind of an immigrant, particularly one of Asian descent. This is an Asian perspective regarding Asians in America. It illustrates a desire to assimilate into an environment in which one continuously feels alien.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 5, 2010

    Relatable story, writing requires some patience.

    As an immigrant, this book was very relatable to me and the experience of being western and Asian at the same time. The plot was interesting, at times thrilling. The idea that people exist doing the work the character does is fascinating by itself. Overall a very interesting, generally well-written book. I did occasionally have to re-read sentences because the sentence ran on, or the phrasing was different. But was glad to have read this and learned a little more about myself.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 18, 2003

    Yay!

    I, as well as another persons I read, had to read this book for my honors 10 english class. Although, I loved this book. It was graphic, but it really gave the story an edge that I simply loved! Chang-Rae Lee is an excellent writer, in my opinion.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 11, 2001

    Heartbreaking Beauty

    This is the first book I've bought in a long, long time that has really touched me. There is such a beautiful simplicity in the language Mr. Lee uses, but the pain and alienation of his characters comes out just as clearly as if he were as wordy as Thomas Woolfe. This is a stellar accomplishment with the same far-reaching social implications of Elison's 'Invisible Man.' A masterwork from an important new voice.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 9, 2001

    Wonderful Book

    The book is wonderfully written. If you are a korean and was raised in a traditional family, you will be able to relate to what is said in the book. The book starts slow and ends quickly. A wonderful book to read.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 6, 2001

    Excellent for any serious readers!

    Mr. Lee's debut was successful. This is the story about the man who's in search of his true identity even though there is no intention or consciousness of his own. I guess this man is confused and has just begun to listen to his heart murmuring something to him, vaguely though. Even when I finished the last page of the volume, the story seemed never to be started yet. Rather, the man's journey is beginning at that moment. Great and a bit lighter pleasure for those who have enjoyed Kundera's works.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 14, 2000

    Confusing Book

    I had to read this book for school, and it was pretty graphic (I think) to have sophomores read in an english class (although it is honors). Some explicit sex scenes, and kindaof confusing plot.

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    Posted September 15, 2010

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    Posted November 27, 2010

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 7, 2008

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 26, 2010

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