It is unfortunate that "Native Speaker" is the likely choice for New York City's ad hoc citywide reading group, as The New York Times reported Feb. 19. I typically read 25+ novels a year, and last year this novel was the least interesting and most cliched I picked up. I forced myself to finish it.

"Native Speaker" is so very similar to Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities" in tone, attitude and description that it offers very little that is original and revealing. Wolfe's novel was deserving of its praise, but it does not follow that a book that apes Wolfe should also be lauded. Occasionally Lee's prose may indeed be "remarkable" as some reviewers have suggested, but more often his writing is flat, predictable and downright boring.

I am not a Korean American, but I live very near Manhattan's Koreatown, spend much time there, and I speak some Korean. I was eager to read this book given my interests, yet no book recently disappointed me as much as "Native Speaker" did.

If you read a great deal, you recognize that only a few books are truly profound and will be regarded as noteworthy among those written in a particular era. Having just finished "Native Speaker" I was both moved, and extremely impressed. This is clearly one of the distinguished books of this generation.

Chang Rae Lee is clearly a man of acute depth and insights, and he eloquently represents distinctly different cultures, and the angst, disillusionment, and metamorphisis arising from survival that affects immigrants. He also probes fundamental issues of family, loyalty, betrayal, and the question of what constitutes success. While he employs Korean, and Korean American prototypes, his themes and issues are fundamentally human, but perhaps distinctly American.

Furthermore, Lee is a superb wordsmith and a beautiful writer, with a masterful command of the English language, which he skillfully and artistically, employs to convey his complex tale and profound concepts.

I was motivated to read this book when I read that this was the book that had been recommended by many as that which diverse, fractious, and iconoclastic NYC should claim as it's own in the trend for each of the nation's cities to focus on a book to read. However, this is an important book for all Americans, as it trully speaks to the American experience. I noted one review compared it to Ellison's "Invisible Man". While I think that it stands alone, if I were to compare it with other American classics they would instead be Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" and Richard Wright's "Native Son". I am very pleased that I chose to read this book; it is noble, touching, and important.

i thought this was a wonderful book! beautiful prose, interesting characters, galloping plot. i comletely recommend it.

but what really horrifies me as i read these reviews is how many people seem to assume that because lee is korean american he has some sort of duty to write about "the" korean-american experience. as if there were such a thing! i've heard other non-white authors complaining of the same thing: that their work is pigeon-holed as "xx-american" and held up as representative of all "xx-american" experience. what a ridiculous idea.

and as for A Reader From New York's comment that the novel wasn't the revealing insight into Korean-American culture that s/he expected, as you seem not to have figured this one out yet, i must caution you against basing your expectations of reality on anything you read in "popular magazines".

Having lived in Asia for 14 years (Korea for 10 years), I am an avid reader of English language books by Asian authors.

However, I was disappointed in A Gesture Life. It was so bogged down in describing in detail the everyday emotions of the main character that is was quite boring at times. It certainly did not move fast enough to hold much of my interest.

As a single American who also adopted a Korean child (my son, when he was only 3 years old), I could empathize with Franklin Hata's frustrations in trying to overcome the barriers between he and Sunny. The experiences in that regard gave me insight to my own ongoing struggle to help my son adjust.

To be fair to Mr. Lee, the author, I believe I will read his first book, Native Speaker, and see if I will be more impressed.

Hata, the protagonist of Chang-Rae Lee's, A Gesture Life is a complex man. As the reader delves into the story of Hata as he retells his experiences in WWII and his present life, one can actually feel and see the emotions and troubles that Hata goes through.

It is rare for a book to be so well written, that opinions made about certain characters in the book can change by the end. Chand-Rae Lee is right on the money as more is revealed about Hata. As Hata's state of mind changes, the reader's goes along with it.

In the end of the book, Hata states: "Let me simply bear my flesh, and blood, and bones. I will fly a flag. Tomorrow when this house is alive and full, I will be outside looking in. I will be already on a walk someplace, in this town or the next one five thousand miles away. I will circle round and arrive again. Come almost home." Without having read the book, one would state . . ."Wow, how eloquently written." However once you read the book, the reader will be able to fully understand Hata and its' underlying meanings. Right on Hata!

I loved this book! By the second page I was in tears. The writing so beautiful and I wanted to know this sensitive, tender Japanese man. Hata is a proper immigrant attempting to conform and fit in his chosen community to live a life not just for himself but for his neighbors and townspeople. As with so many of us though our past shapes us and provides difficulties in love, friendships and families. Sooner or later the past must be confronted although Hata does not realize his past affects his ability to deeply care for others although he wants to and has the capabilities to do so but that oriental ability to share feelings and communicate provide an obstacle. One wants this man to find some happiness as he seems to bear so much sadness without ever feeling sorry for himself. He just continues on not really knowing what he can do or should do. Chan-Rae Lee's descriptions of the war and all the terrors so vivid I felt I was in the camp. Lee's ability to describe, to take us there reminds me much of Memoirs of a Geisha where I felt I was there as an insider viewing all. I ordered Native Life today. If it's half as good as Gesture of Life I'm in for a terrific read. Thank you Chang-Rae Lee.