About this title: Intricately plotted and emotionally riveting, "A Person of Interest" asks how far one man can run from his past, and explores the impact of scrutiny and suspicion in an age of terror.
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Description: Very Good. 0670018465 * HCDJ * SHIPPING WITHIN 24 HOURS! ** QUESTIONS ANSWERED QUICKLY ** THANKS ** EX LIBRARY BOOK** HARDCOVER BOOK WITH DUST JACKET. read more
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Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this item supports Pierce County libraries. Thriftbooks and PCL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. 0670018465 Condition: VERY GOOD. (Book may have one or a combination of the following characteristics: former library book, cover wear, name written inside cover, light underlining/highlighting, remainder mark, etc. Overall, the book is in solid shape. This is a blanket description. Please email us if you require a specific, detailed description of the book condition. We will typically respond within one week of your request). read more
Description: Good. 0670018465 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 2009-01-27
ISBN-13:9780143115021ISBN:0143115022
Description: New. Pre-release ARC book with different cover and publisher stickers. New, unread, unused & in perfect condition with no damaged or missing pages. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
Description: Fine. 0670018465 Excellent Condition First Edition Hard cover book with paper dust jacket cover! Clean pages, Dust jacket has no tears, mild shelf rubs, remainder dash, this book is Near NEW! Shop & Save With US. read more
Description: Like New. 2008-Hardcover-May contain minor shelf-wear. Otherwise, volume un-read and in "As-New" condition. -Used-Like New-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: Good. 2008-Hardcover----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: Good. 0143115022 Standard used condition-Same quality you would find in your local bookstore. This is a new unread book that received the above wear during its handling. Has remainder mark. read more
"Reading Susan Choi's novel American Woman made me anxious to read more. But if you are like me, approaching a second work by an author is a bit scary. Probably like a second date (though fortunately my long marriage makes that hard to remember) -- you hope those good "vibes" from the first date do not turn out to be misguided. Alas, second dates and second books are sometimes a disappointment.
Not so with Susan Choi's novels (I'm guessing the same with dates since she is married). A Person of Interest builds on the same model as American Woman where Choi adds a fictional side to a real life event. First it was the Patty Hearst story, and this time the Unabomber meets up with Wen Ho Lee who was falsely accused of espionage. But Choi is even less interested in tying into real life in this book than with American Woman. Choi's interest is in how the truth can appear to be a malleable substance, but in the end the truth appears as an objective source around which we all revolve.
I'm not sure Choi would buy into this thought, but that is how the book plays out. Her main character, Professor Lee, is an undistinguished math professor close to retiring from an undistinguished Midwest school when his "hotshot" colleague is killed by a mail bomb. Although slightly injured himself in the blast, Lee emerges as a "person of interest," as the FBI struggle to piece together the truth. As we watch this emerge we step back into Lee's graduate career, his two failed marriages, his estranged daughter, and his own sleeplike existence in life.
While the FBI try to make their theories work, and fail, Lee is brought into focus as someone who has tried to make life work the way he wants, and fails. The clearest example is the infant child his first wife has with her first husband, although she was soon after having an affair with Lee. He refuses to see this child as part of their existence and his wife allows the child to be taken by her ex-husband. Lee's reality is that the child does not exist, but of course the truth is the child does exist and Lee's attempt to alter reality fails miserably. In addition, like the FBI he cannot shake his own theory of the bombing when he discovers the person he is sure is the bomber has been dead for many years. When reality does not conform to our thinking, we try to ignore it. We attempt to define the truth, when in fact the challenge in life is to live with the truths we are faced with.
The FBI run into the same problem with handling a truth different than what they expect. Lee could work out so well as the Unabomber that they are desperate to make it work, despite the fact (truth) that Lee offers them little hope. In the end, even the Unabomber (here called the "Brain Bomber") is someone who attempts to alter reality in part by creating his own truths. This is not to imply that reality and truth are identical, but in this case the character's inability to face reality does correspond with their inability to handle truth.
It is not often I wish for more writing -- great writers are able to convey a great deal with minimum amount of exposition. However, Choi introduces some characters which would be interesting to hear more about as they interact with the story. The abandoned infant son reemerges with a new name (Mark) and the dawning realization that his past as told to him is not the truth (more examples of people, in this case Christians, trying to alter the truth and failing). He is introduced and she creates as strong storyline and character with him, but the sudden ending leaves more unanswered questions. The same goes for Lee's estranged daughter who appears on the last page with a wave of hello at the airport. But this need for more is not just a prurient interest in how these characters turn out. All of these characters are now on a search for truth and seeing more of that journey would be interesting.
Choi's characters are always well drawn and interesting, no matter what their role in the story. Her writing is quick moving, yet thoughtful. She manages to pull off a lot with little action, and she puts forward a great deal of information without falling back on soliloquies to pull it off. Plus, while her writing explores some big topics, she knows how to create a great storyline which pulls the reader in to stay.
She'll be on my campus reading in just a few weeks so I look forward to seeing what she has to say at her reading. I know I'll be moving on to another one of her novels soon."
"This was interesting because of the main character, a reticent mathematician who had immigrated from (Vietnam, I assume - she was cagey about this and kept calling him Asian, while careful to point out that he was not Chinese but from a people victimized by the Chinese.) He was really vivid and well drawn, which kept me going..the book sort of fell apart in the third act though, both with a chapter from the pov of an incidental character who felt more 'written', and then with the 'thriller' ending which reminded me too much of a bad TV movie script I read recently."
"This AIR finalist by a former Pulitzer Prize finalist begins with the fatal bombing of a mathematician's office at a midwestern university in a small college town. The story is told from the perspective (though not in the voice) of the Asian immigrant mathematician whose office is right next door & who is interviewed & investigated by the FBI as "a person of Interest," which leads him to be viewed by the community as a suspect. Despite the subject, this is no thriller; it's not even a page-turner. It is consumed with introspection, often in long, rambling, complex sentences that require rereading to untangle (Francine Prose writes in the NY Times that "Her long, complex sentences compel us to follow wherever they go, and to admire the quiet authority, at once soothing and gripping, with which they arrive there"). I can't imagine what book groups would talk about (though reviewers haven't had the same difficulty: a reviewer for the Washington Post says that "only the most pathologically overconfident person could read these flawless scenes without resonating to Lee's anxiety"). To me, if not to reviewers, this is mediocre, at best."
"This is a must read...Susan Choi is brilliant...one of the best contemporary writers I have encountered in a long time. Her character development is outstanding. And, her intricate plot intriguing. I am so impressed with her skill. This book explores issues of how limited one's privacy (particularly in the US) is and how complex our human flaws truly are...please read this book! I definitely agree with other Goodreads' reviewers that the most important component of this novel is not necessarily the plot (for example, solving the mystery of who the "Brain Bomber" is) but is actually, more delightfully, the character study of Lee, the book's protagonist...who is, as some have mentioned, not the easiest character to like, initially. As well Choi emphasizes the notion that innocent people often appear bizarre and guilty when accused wrongly. I loved this book. I plan on reading her other work as soon as I can get my hands on it!"
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