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Title: Aloft by Chang-Rae Lee ISBN: 1-57322-263-1 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: 08 March, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.41 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: From Up Here Everything Looks Perfect
Comment: In "Aloft" Change-rae Lee has written a novel of family relationships and lack of communication. He has won numerous awards for his writing. The "New Yorker" selected Chang-rae Lee as one of the twenty best writers under forty.
Gerry Battle, father to Theresa and Jack, son of Pop and lover of Rita has avoided conflict, emotion, and any interaction that did not specifically relate to him his entire life.
This has gone unnoticed by him- he has just not observed any of the issues that are relevant to his family and in the end to himself. He tells the story of his life, giving the basic information of how he helped to build his family's construction business, the story of his marriage to Daisy, and his relationship with Rita. Gerry feels the best, the most free when he is flying his plane, not for his love of flying, but to get him out of the house. After his retirement, he sat around the house and made a mess- annoying Rita who went off to work every day. Finally out of desperation, she gave him a gift certificate for flying lessons. This awakened in Gerry a new love, an independence, he did not have to report to anyone or talk to anyone. Interestingly enough, Gerry, shows more emotion and love to the couple who own the plane that he buys, than he does with his family. A one time meeting, but he understands they are giving him an important part of their life. Something stirs inside of him.
After twenty years, Rita has finally had enough. There is something missing - Gerry does not give of himself - the emotion she needs is not there. She leaves Gerry. Into this morass enters Theresa and her boyfriend, Paul- they have announced their engagement. Gerry does not know that Theresa is pregnant and very ill. Jack has pushed the family business into bankruptcy, and Pop is not at all happy in the retirement settlement. Rita is gone, and Gerry is now faced with all the family problems. Will Gerry rise to the occasion; can he filter his emotions to meet the needs of his family?
This story is an example of today's generation. The lack of emotional connection, and the need to accomplish, leaving the children to grow up as best they can with all of the gadgets and toys at their disposal. The story of Gerry and his family leads us to examine our own relationships and our own family. Hopefully, we are able to disclose our feelings and needs with our loved ones, so we do not need to face our battles alone. Recommend heartily. prisrob
Rating: 5
Summary: Genius--even the sentences serve as metaphors
Comment: Without giving too much of the plot away, chang-rae Lee has written the 21st century American novel. Jerry Battle is the quintessential American male in today's suburbs. Partly out of place because he is not a blue blood, he is in a bind of trying to preserve or pass down his work ethic to his children, who have grown up comfortably because of battle's successes. Battle notices things society has said are politically incorrect, most notably people's races. Battle's grapples with himself, the ennui which he finds himself in, rita, his son and his besieged daughter, is presented in ways that oftentimes cuts right through in unexpected parts of the novel. To novice readers, this may seem incoherent. it is not. It is brilliantly placed -- as if to signal that beneath the potemkin calmness of the suburban life -- one cannot escape these problems.
More impressively, the book has been ridiculously criticized as having been written too smoothly. The prose is flawless--the novel is not as coherent as it should--these highbrow critics assert.
They are mistaken.
The genius of the novel is in its prose. By telling the embattled--and in the end a hopeful and optimistic--take of Jerry Battle--with sentences and paragraphs that are technically brilliant and flawless while still leaving something to be desired--or a bit of a troubling aftertaste--Chang-Rae lee shows us he is a brilliant wordsmith who used the medium and his prose to both serve as metaphors for the embattled jerry battles everywhere, facing external and internal turmoil beneath a facade of perfection.
The 21st century's Great Gatsby. I had never heard of this author before, but I am going to buy his other books.
Rating: 2
Summary: Definitely not his best
Comment: I bought this book for a long plane ride from Seattle to Berlin. The bookstore cashier raved about it, but when I asked him if he'd read it, he admitted that he hadn't, which goes to show you that once you are a famous writer, few people really bother to critique, or even read your work. Still, I admired Lee's Gesture Life enough to give this one a try. What a disappointment. The book is filled with basic writing flaws, the biggest being a lack of tension in the story. I'll try not to give the story away, but we learn something serious about Jerry's daughter and first wife. But Lee drops both aspects of the story, to ramble on and on about landscaping, past girlfriends, and co-workers. Perhaps he did this to show that avoidance is the way some people handle crises, but I found chunks of the book flat and forgetful. There are a couple of great moments, such as a chapter about Jerry's first wife, which was also published in The New Yorker. There is also a great scene involving a tennis match between two old rivals. But there aren't enough of these to outshine the dull passages.
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Title: Little Children by Tom Perrotta ISBN: 0312315716 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri ISBN: 0395927218 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Amateur Marriage: A Novel by ANNE TYLER ISBN: 1400042070 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 06 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: A Gesture Life by Chang-Rae Lee ISBN: 1573228281 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: 10 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee ISBN: 1573225312 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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