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A Gesture Life |
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 A Gesture Life byChang-rae Lee Riverhead Books 356 pages, 1999 ISBN 1573221465 Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart Chang-rae Lee’s second novel A Gesture Life reads more like a memoir than fiction. Franklin "Doc" Hata settled in upstate New York in 1963 because of Bedley Run’s resemblance to the coastal Japanese town where he was raised. He opened Sunny Medical Supply, a medical and surgical supply store that became an informal clinic of sorts. Trained as a medical officer for the Imperial Army during World War II, the townspeople considered Doc’s over-the-counter advice sage. Now retired, he has spent the last few years quietly enjoying his status as a respected elder of the community. A small house fire almost ends his life. The ever-persistent Liv Crawford, real estate person extraordinaire, saves him. After a few days in the hospital, he must decide if it is time to sell the house. There he must also confront decisions he has regretted and relished and face the relationships he has had over the years. A life-long bachelor, Doc was never one to seek the company of women. But it is those connections that he questions most. Readers learn the details of the entrepreneur’s life through a series of current episodes and a chain of flashbacks involving Kkutaeh, a comfort woman for the Japanese Army; his adopted daughter, Sunny; and a middle years companion, the late Mary Burns. The scenes with Kkutaeh and Mary are chronological and easy to follow, but Sunny’s adventures are chaotic and difficult to track. Doc has never understood why the teenage Sunny ran away. How did she become so distant and hateful? What did he do wrong? He thought he had given her everything. Why did the Japanese adoption agency give a single father a girl rather than a boy? He would have been better able to raise a son. He accidentally finds Sunny in the deteriorating neighboring community of Beddington and discovers that he is grandfather to six-year-old Thomas. This provides him with a renewed vigor for life. Sunny allows Doc a tenuous association with the boy. As the weeks pass, Sunny’s emotional distance erodes until she forgives Doc for whatever injustices that she perceived. Lee gives readers a view not only of life as a single parent, but of problems not often discussed when adoptive parents and children are unsuited for each other. Doc himself was an adopted child, Korean by ancestry and raised by Japanese parents. However, details are limited in how this shaped the man he has become. His World War II exploits and his attachment to Kkutaeh provide insights into Doc as a young man. These encounters also elucidate his older, gentler nature. Combine the acquired softness and the emotional distance of a middle-aged man trying to capture an intimate alliance and readers see Doc as a complex man, full of intricacies not easily defined. The tone and feel of A Gesture Life is like a life well-lived, full of contentment and anguish, rich in detail and significance. It is one of the finest novels I have read this year. |
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