About this title: A retired Japanese pharmacist living in a small New York State town hears news of his long-estranged adopted daughter. He finds himself thinking of an old lover--now dead--and of his experiences in World War II, realizes how truly lonely he has made his life, and resolves to change things before it's too late.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Date Published: 09/1999
ISBN-13:9781573221467ISBN:1573221465
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 356 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Date Published: 09/1999
ISBN-13:9781573221467ISBN:1573221465
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Good, In good dust jacket. Signed by Author. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 356 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Date Published: 09/1999
ISBN-13:9781573221467ISBN:1573221465
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 356 p. Previous Owner's Inscription. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Riverhead Books/Penguin, New York, New York, U.S. A
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9781573228282ISBN:1573228281
Description: Very Good. From the back of the book: Talk magazine's Best Book of 1999. A Finalist for the New Yorker Book Award. A Gesture Life is the touching, mulitlayered rumination of an uneasy psyche. It is also a tragic, horrifying page-turner, whose evocation of wartime victims is unforgettable. 356 pgs. Very good condition, no crease on spine, light wear on cover. Appears unread. Each book we list is carefully inspected, thoughtfully packaged, and promptly shipped. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9781573221467ISBN:1573221465
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Description: Fine. Almost in new condition. Book shows only very slight signs of use. Cover and binding are undamaged and pages show minimal use. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. 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
"A touching book about a Japanese American merchant in suburban culture. He's generous, respected, & well liked without really getting too involved in other people's lives. The one exception is the Korean girl he adopts. As we learn more & more about his troubled past in disturbing flashbacks, he experiences difficulties that open him up to the world & people around him."
"A elderly Japanese man who lives in a well-to-do town in America, who is well-respected in his community and has had success in business, tells his story in a soft voice of philosophical rambling. It is the kind of story where nothing much happens and when things do happen they are ghastly - suddenly and arbitrarily grossly violent and disturbing. All is not as it seems: first of all he is not Japanese, he is Korean. He has relationship problems and abandonment issues. Lest you think I exaggerate, he says of himself, "in fact I feel I have not really been living anywhere or anytime, not for the future and not in the past and not at all of-the-moment, but rather in the lonely dream of an oblivion, the nothing-of-nothing drift from one pulse beat to the next, which is really the most bloodless marking-out, automatic and involuntary." This sentence, which is actually only part of a sentence, is typical of the writing in this book. I didn't like the book very much. The only value was to learn of the "comfort women", an appalling policy of the Japanese military to supply young virgins to the officers and enlisted men in order to stop the spread of venereal disease. But that was history."
"I think this isn't the kind of book you can read on an airplane with a 2 year old kicking the back of your seat. I'm sure it is actually a really really great book, but I couldn't get into it."
"A bit of a downer, but interesting exploration of the thinking of a man. The main character is hiding a lot from the reader, so it is a bit of a mystery, but I didn't really understand the man so it was hard to keep going at times. It was fascinating how removed from him his adopted daughter was, and I couldn't figure out if she had some detachment syndrome or if she detected something missing from her dad. Anyway, it was OK, but not one I would recommend."
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