Native Speaker

Written by Chang-rae Lee

Narrated by David Colacci

ONE OF THE ATLANTIC’S GREAT AMERICAN NOVELS OF THE PAST 100 YEARS

The debut novel from critically acclaimed and New York Times–bestselling author of On Such a Full Sea and My Year Abroad.

In Native Speaker, author Chang-rae Lee introduces readers to Henry Park. Park has spent his entire life trying to become a true American—a native speaker. But even as the essence of his adopted country continues to elude him, his Korean heritage seems to drift further and further away.

Park's harsh Korean upbringing has taught him to hide his emotions, to remember everything he learns, and most of all to feel an overwhelming sense of alienation. In other words, it has shaped him as a natural spy.

But the very attributes that help him to excel in his profession put a strain on his marriage to his American wife and stand in the way of his coming to terms with his young son's death. When he is assigned to spy on a rising Korean-American politician, his very identity is tested, and he must figure out who he is amid not only the conflicts within himself but also within the ethnic and political tensions of the New York City streets.

Native Speaker is a story of cultural alienation. It is about fathers and sons, about the desire to connect with the world rather than stand apart from it, about loyalty and betrayal, about the alien in all of us and who we finally are.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Apr 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9780593662717

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).

Reviews for Native Speaker

[ffortsa · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This first novel explores the experience of 'outsider' from both traditional and very specific points of view. The protagonist, John, is the son of Korean immigrants. While his father, who came from Korea with an engineering degree, was unable to practice in the U.S., he nevertheless provided well for his family in material ways, but was grimly and emotionally unresponsive to his son. John has had all the material advantages, and chooses (or is chosen for) a career as a sort of industrial spy, playing a role in each placement as he plays the role of American in the greater society. After an oddly disastrous assignment, he is reassigned to infiltrate the staff of a Korean American politician in Queens, N.Y., and has to confront his shifting identity, and that of others.

Complicating this, John and his non-Korean wife have lost a son to a freak accident, and their marriage is in trouble.

I found this novel totally fascinating, for its perspective on being the outsider, on being able to suss out the insider game, and on the cost of playing your life instead of living it authentically. Highly recommended.

[magicians_nephew · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[serenova_phoenix · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

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.

[squeakychu · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[clara53_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[sushitori · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[elleceetee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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]

[jiles2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[omame_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[bekahjohnston · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A work of fiction that has intertwined the challenges of being .5 immigrant.