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New York Times bestseller Aloft follows the life of a suburban, white, middle-class man during a time of family crisis. Jerry's favorite diversion is to take his small plane and fly solo over Long Island. When his daughter and her fiancé arrive from Oregon to announce their marriage plans Theresa's dangerous pregnancy, he thinks back over his life and begins to face his disengagement with it and with his relationships with others: with his deceased wife, the circumstances of whose death has never fully admitted to; with his former girlfriend, whom he still longs for; with his pregnant daughter, who refuses to address the cancer that is killing her; with his son, who is losing the family business; and with his father, who is in a nursing home. Aloft is a quiet yet intense study of family, the American dream, and the American character.
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Summary
Summary
A New York Times bestseller
One of the 2004 New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books for Fiction
Editorial Reviews
Editorial Reviews
“I appreciate a
writer who’s not overzealously committed to any one ideology or group, who
likes to confound expectations, and who feels expansive enough in his spirit
and ambitions to encompass not just his close kinsmen but the infamous Other.
With Aloft, Chang-rae Lee proves himself just such a writer…[A] master
craftsman.” —Washington Post
“Lee’s genius is this
confidential voice, full of cultural analysis, ironic asides, sexual candor,
and unconscious revelations, laced along through one breathless paragraph after
another in improbably extended sentences, perpetually buoyed by with and
insight. He’s perfectly captured the conflicted confidence of a man who knows
he can be a jerk but hopes that knowing that might win him consolation.” —Christian Science Monitor
“Lee is a master in
developing Battle’s narrative voice, one that is gentle, wistful, appealingly
befuddled. There is great humor in the novel as well…He has delivered an affecting
portrait of a man trying to define his place as a father, son, and lover in
America today.” —Boston Globe
“[A] majestic, moving
novel….The glossy flawlessness of Lee’s prose is itself a metaphor, a symbol of
the superficial perfection of America’s suburban splendor. Even though you can
barely see the fault lines and stress fractures just below the surface, somehow
it makes you feel them that much more keenly.” —Time
“The prose is
buoyant, as if, like Jerry, Lee himself feels liberated from the implacable
laws of gravity governing American society…Aloft
ends up as a homily in praise of gravity, though the ride that Lee provides
fulfills the continued promise of lift…Prose that rise to heights above merely
mundane sights and thoughts.” —Chicago Tribune
“Accomplished,
easygoing, gorgeously written…Like Richard Ford’s The Sportswriter or Richard Russo’s Straight Man, this wry, meditative novel relies entirely on Jerry’s
voice to bring alive a wide cast of characters.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Lee writes with
humor and acuity, swirling comic wit and subtlety into scenes so mundane and
yet so poignant that the heart sighs in recognition…In a series of deft moves
and touching, often droll moments, Lee links Jerry inextricably to his family.
He also lets Jerry speak directly to the reader, like some actor winking into
the camera, revealing the pretend to be all the more real.” —USA Today
“Slyly entertaining…Filled
with passage of revelation about who we are and what we are becoming.” —San Jose Mercury News
“Chang-rae Lee writes
about the complication of American life with a nuanced attention that is
awesome…Aloft unfolds like a little origami
box, each fold revealing yet another aspect of the complexities of aspirations,
avocations, and ethnicities as they coalesce in the life of one Long Island
family…Lee illumines Herry’s thoughts in the best Cheever-esque manner…In this
rich, tragicomic, and thoroughly engrossing novel of suburban American life,
Lee puts a masterful and poetic touch on the interstices of fragile emotional
lives.” —Baltimore Sun
“Lee is a spellbinder…When
it comes to emotion, Lee is pitch-perfect…[Lee] pulls us inside Jerry’s skin,
and we share in all his love and confusion and his fully realized humanity.” —Hartford Courant
“[An] astonishing
novel…Full of surprises, of emotional land mines…Chang-rae Lee designs
beautifully meandering sentences that capture and pull a reader to the most
unexpected of places…Simply getting lost in the author’s elegant and surprising
prose is pleasure enough, but Lee is also a gifted storyteller, able to create
scenes and images of profound emotional beauty…Stunning, full of vivid,
off-kilter details that both shock and resonate…The joy of Aloft is not only its brilliant depiction of a modern man’s
foundering attempt to keep his life perfectly manageable but also its deft
ability to conjure up the most vibrant of feelings from a narrator who claims
he has none. With this spectacular book, Chang-rae Lee proves himself one of
our most riveting and remarkable novelists.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“This is a story that
rises above the trials and tribulations of one family. It’s a book about a vast
slice of American society, its changing ethnicities and colors, its blurring of
urban-suburban life, its ethical and moral choices, and its seemingly inherent
optimism. In short, it’s a terrific book.” —Chicago Sun-Times
“Aloft is a traditional American novel in the best sense of the word
traditional—a compelling plot,
characters who change as the years pass, believable dialogue, a writing style
that never perplexes, and turns of phrase that illuminate humanity in new ways…Beguilingly
insightful.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“The novel captures
the ‘now’ and presents character that buzz with life…Lee invents narrators who,
like the natural-born storyteller at a good cocktail party, can’t help but draw
and keep a crowd…A fabulous storyteller.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer
“In Aloft, [Lee] proves that he can evoke
the desires and disappointments of the suburban territory mapped by Cheever,
Yates, and Updike with similar artistry and compassion.” —Miami Herald
“Affecting [and]
richly ruminative…Lee presents us with a well-crafted, beguiling study of an
insider looking for an out…By turns drolly incisive and elegiac, penetrating
and poignant, Aloft, though a
departure for Lee…is as provocative as it is evocative. Wonderfully
curmudgeonly at times, the novel is peppered throughout with keen social
observations…[A] hot ticket of a novel.” —San Diego Union-Tribune
“Part of what makes
the novel so successful is that Lee isn’t intent on blowing sunshine at us when
we know life brings its share of bad weather. He succeeds in portraying the
emotional growth of a man in terms that fit his character and culture…Aloft views suburban American life
through the universal prism of a family growing up and growing old together. Without
loop-the-loops or skywriting, Lee brings us quietly down to earth, engaging us
in ‘the mystery ad majesty of out brief living.’” —Rocky Mountain News
“Lee applies his
remarkable storytelling skills to create a monstrous first-person narrator…A
masterly portrait of a disaffected personality.” —Library Journal
“Lee’s poetic prose
sits well in the mouth of this aging Italian-American whose sentences turn
unexpected corners…Jerry’s humble and skeptical voice and Lee’s genuine
compassion for his compromised characters make for a truly moving story about modern
family.” —Publishers Weekly
Author
Author Bio: Chang-rae Lee
Chang-rae Lee is the author of Native Speaker, a Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award winner for first fiction, A Gesture Life, and Aloft. Selected by the New Yorker as
one of the twenty best writers under forty, he teaches writing at Princeton.
Titles by Author
Details
Details
| Available Formats : | Digital Download, CD, MP3 CD |
| Category: | Fiction |
| Runtime: | 11.15 |
| Audience: | Adult |
| Language: | English |
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