Native Speaker was a tough book to get into, but once I got past the first few chapters I started to almost enjoy reading it. Henry had a lot of points that he made that I really had to think about to fully understand, and I like that in a book. Something that makes you think instead of just reading to get it over with.
Throughout the book, Henry kept making references that seemed like he didn’t want to be asian. Which connected to alot of the other canonical books with identity. It was also very interesting to see how Lelia’s character reacted to her son’s death, and Henry. Lelia was a characted that added so much to the book with being awkward. I found her to be an awkward character because she led Henry on when they first met in making him think that she was very interested in him, and didn’t mind that he was asian. But when Lelia left Henry, she handed him a list, and on the list was basically things she didn’t like about him and sure enough, something about his ethnicity was on it.
Mitt’s death was an interesting turning point for the book. It showed a lot about both pf the characters, and what they are really like. Henry was sorry that he was half asian, and Lelia was sorry that she wasn’t watching him and that he died. Both the characters felt as if it was their fault and that they could have done something about it, but it had nothing to do with either of them doing something wrong, it was accidental. I actually really liked this book, and it sort of had alot of lessons in it.
April 25, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Yeah, now that you bring it up, Lelia may seem to be slighted by Henry because she shows more emotion, yet at the same time that list was incredibly hurtful. She is also the one who runs away from the marriage. Although a lot of Henry’s and Leli’a reactions make a lot more sense once we find out more about their parents and Mitt.
April 26, 2007 at 7:14 am
I agree with you about the book being hard to start reading and then really easy to get in to. I like how you pointed out that they both felt as if it was there fault that Mitt died, I think that is an important part when thinking about character roles. You made a good point about how Henry felt about being Asian. You don’t really think about people not liking who they are or at least to the extent that he does. I feel like a lot more people these days are more comfortable with who they are and where they came from, but I guess maybe I’m wrong. I feel like there are alot more people out there who feel like Henry and don’t know who they are and we don’t even realize it.