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    Native Speaker
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    Native Speaker
    Unavailable
    Native Speaker
    Audiobook11 hours

    Native Speaker

    Written by Chang-rae Lee

    Narrated by David Colacci

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Narrator Henry Park, son of a Korean-American grocer, is an undercover operative for a vaguely sinister private intelligence agency. When he is assigned to spy on a rising Korean-American politician, Park finds his family, culture, and identity endangered by the secrets he uncovers.

    Swirled into the turbulent background of New York City politics and growing ethnic tensions, Park must come to terms with his American wife, Lelia, and the recent death of his young son while fighting an emotional attachment to the people he is investigating. A compelling intrigue builds while insights into current political events, love, culture, and family abound.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateAug 21, 2009
    ISBN9781423391487
    Unavailable
    Native Speaker
    Author

    Chang-rae Lee

    Chang-rae Lee (1965), nació en Corea del Sur y emigró a los Estados Unidos con su familia cuando tenía tres años. Su primera novela, En lengua materna, publicada en esta colección, fue premiada con el PEN Hemingway Award, el Oregon Book Award y el American Book Award, entre otros galardones, mientras que las revistas The New Yorker y Granta lo destacaron como uno de los más prometedores escritores del nuevo siglo.«Una novela vigorosa y poética que llega hasta la raíz de aquello en lo que indaga... Excelente» (Marcos Giralt Torrente, El País); «Escritura especialmente afilada y perturbadora» (Manuel Ollé, ABC). Con su segunda novela, Una vida de gestos, se consagró como una de las voces más originales y ambiciosas de la literatura norteamericana contemporánea: «La angustia y el esplendor de una prosa que fluye sin desmayo, apretada de significaciones y consoladora como el sueño de opio que trata de espantar el acoso de una pesadilla» (Juan Manuel de Prada, ABC); «Muchos críticos le han comparado a Kazuo Ishiguro. Un nuevo valor seguro en la literatura contemporánea» (Isabel Núñez, La Vanguardia). Desde las alturas es su tercera novela: «La primera novela suya que me engullo, y debo decir que, a partir de ahora, me cuento entre sus seguidores más fieles. Altísima temperatura literaria. La prosa, magnífica. A Lee le han comparado con Updike. Por derecho propio ya forma parte de la pléyade de los más grandes» (Jordi Llavina); «La cristalina prosa de un joven maestro» (Rodrigo Fresán, Página 12).

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    Reviews for Native Speaker

    4/5

    17 ratings11 reviews

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    • 1/5
      I didn't particularly like this novel.

      I was required to read it for my Asian American Literature class. We had some every interesting class discussions, talking about the use of language and the fact that Hnery uses language almost as a barrier.

      If you are interested in a (fake) autobiographical novel about a civilian spy, then you might like it. But it's not my kind of book.
    • 4/5
      Henry Park has an unusual job. This in itself might have been plenty to build a story about. But Chang-rae Lee's protagonist, a native-born Korean American, bares his soul and examines not only his unorthodox occupation but his private life itself, scrutinizing it to the utmost degree. The story haunts the reader by its sadness (childhood memories of being raised as a son of immigrants, a tragic event in adulthood, tag of war of feelings about the chosen occupation), recovering cautiously only by the very end, as if picking up the pieces..., gives ample food for thought on a number of issues, all the while revealing the author's unquestionable talent.
    • 4/5
      Henry Park, the son of a Korean grocer who lives in New York, is deserted suddenly by his Caucasian American wife. Reflecting back on his life and the events that led him to this situation, he considers the way deceit over his vocation has clouded his marriage. He reviews how his life had been when his dad was alive, when his son was alive, and the lack of understanding by his wife of his Korean culture. A pervading sense of something having gone wrong opens this book. The search for its cause and more details is the powerful driving force behind this intriguing first novel. Its finest characteristic, however, is the way in which the author expresses what it feels like to be an ethnic Korean growing up in America---the alienation, the anguish, the longing to be a necessary part of the wider culture. It addresses the dichotomy of two divergent cultures that must be embraced by the child of an American immigrant who strives to improve his station in life, the tension that exists between Asians and non-Asians who find themselves living and working side by side, and the intergenerational clash that often occurs between the immigrant generation and its children. NATIVE SPEAKER is an absorbing story and a welcome addition to any growing collection of Asian-American literature.
    • 3/5
      Story was great from an anthropological perspective, with lots on insight into Korean culture and assimilating into American life. The discussion of native English versus ESL speakers was revealing, with its insight into language and meaning. The author's rambling made some passages incomprehensible (better editing would have helped). Ultimately, the ending left too many questions unanswered.
    • 4/5
      The book is about a Korean-American man who works as a sort in undercover agent to infiltrate and report on business and political figures. It's his job to blend in, to talk softly, to worm out the secrets and the hidden crimes. He joins the campaign staff of a young Korean American politician, and learns about being part of America, and about being the outsider.The book is long and detailed about our hero's growing up in America with a father with an engineering degrees back in Korea who ran a Bodega and sold vegetables here and who clawed his way into middle class prosperity. We hear a lot of the father's memories. First generation bears some scars. There is a lot here about Fathers and Sons, and families and relationships and the writing is very good indeed; terse but at times deeply poetic. Beautifully drawn unforgettable characters. Looking in from outside looking out from inside. Playing the role being what is expected of you. It ends as a lot of books end -- with shattered illusions and sadness and loss. Beautiful book, at times meditative and slow and not a heck of a lot of plot. Go read it anyway.
    • 4/5
      Another of the "books-I-was-supposed-to-read-in-college", but this time for my Asian American literature course. This book follows the last case of Henry Park, a "B-student of life" (as described by his estranged wife) and also a spy. He works for a company that collects information on particular people. This firm uses different people with different immigrant backgrounds to get close to their marks. Henry got too involved with his last mark, so now he's set to shadow John Kwang, a Korean-American politician making a bid for the mayor of New York. Meanwhile, his wife (a speech therapist) and he try to make their marriage work after it fell apart with the death of their seven year old son, Mitt.

      This book is largely about discourse - the discourse between a man and wife; the discourse between parent and child; the common language and experiences shared by immigrants in a new country; and the lengths that immigrants go to in order to fit in. It's a very rich book with a lot of layers - again, would have been nice to discuss it with a class (suppose that was sort of the point). I really enjoyed reading it.

      Good quote:

      "I never felt comfortable with the phrase [I love you], had a deep trouble with it, all the ways it was said. You could say it in a celebratory sense. For corroboration. In gratitude. To get a point across, to instill guilt in your lover, to defend yourself. You said it after great deliberation, or when you felt reckless. You said it when you meant it and sometimes when you didn't. You somehow always said it when you had to." [p112-113]
    • 5/5
      "A good spy is but the secret writer of all things imminent."So says Henry Park, and he would know. (Henry being a spy, although I'd have to give a spoiler warning if I were to tell you exactly what kind.)Loved this novel for the beautiful prose, sparse dialogue, and richly (but not overly) drawn characters.
    • 4/5
      English is protagonist Henry Park's second language, but he (along with the author, who is Korean by birth) displays a masterful fluidity of the language. Henry is estranged from his Caucasian wife due in part to his emotional aloofness that was passed down by his taciturn father. How ironic that silence plays such an important role in a book featuring language...from his father's language of the fruit stand and cash register all the way to the language of social justice represented by the "money club" called a ggeh that redistributes funds based on need.Henry's wife, Lelia, is a speech therapist, and Henry is extremely cognizant of speaking perfect English after being stigmatized as the "gook" going to Remedial Speech class to learn his new language. Interesting to note that Mee-gook is the Korean word for America.Set in New York City, called the new Babel because the mix of languages from so many countries makes it difficult to distinguish among the immigrants, this is more than another book told from an immigrant's point of view. It's a book about family with its expectations and disappointments. It's about love that persists despite incredible odds against it. It's also a book of suspense resulting from Henry's surprising career choice.Here is where the book becomes too overreaching for me. I'm a bit skeptical that anyone of Henry Park's sensitivity would be drawn into undercover work. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll be vague and say that he just doesn't seem the type to lead a life of intrigue. In fact, Henry is in danger of failing as a spy -- just as the book falls short as a wanna-be spy thriller.Despite this flaw of "too much," Lee has created an auspicious first novel. As a reader of two more of his subsequent books, I can say that he fulfills the promise of this beautifully written debut.
    • 4/5
      An introspective book dealing in a seemingly authentic autobiographical style of Korean who has assimilated himself into American culture to the point of being culture-less, and finds a position as corporate spy which suits his complete assimilation. Chang-Rae Lee captures moments and thoughts. Although not his best work, it still makes for a good read.
    • 3/5
      in the midst of inconsistency and vauge/jumpy plot lines, the perfect sentence or paragraph appears. interesting and compelling perspectives of immigrants from the child of immigrants.
    • 3/5
      A work of fiction that has intertwined the challenges of being .5 immigrant.