Items related to Aloft (Wheeler Large Print Book Series)

Aloft (Wheeler Large Print Book Series) - Hardcover

 
9781587246777: Aloft (Wheeler Large Print Book Series)
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
A visit from his daughter and her fiancâe from Oregon prompts Jerry Battle to reassess his life, his relationships, and his disengagement from those around him, as he reflects on his success and his love of flying solo.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
Chang-Rae Lee, named by The New Yorker as one of its 20 writers for the 21st century, has confirmed his place in that company with Aloft, a masterful treatment of a man coming to terms with his own disaffection. In two previous novels, Native Speaker and A Gesture Life, Lee, a Korean-American, writes of lives being not what they seem: in the first, the protagonist is an undercover agent; in the second, the two halves of Franklin Hata's life never quite come together. Both novels won numerous awards, including Best First Novel, the Hemingway PEN Award, the American Book Award and the Asian-American Literary Award, among others. In Aloft, Lee revisits alienation, a fractured family, mixed heritage and the quest for identity.

Jerry Battle, 59-year-old widower and father of two, retired from the family business--the unmistakably earthbound Battle Brothers Brick and Mortar--buys a small plane because "From up here, a half mile above the Earth, everything looks perfect to me." All is not well below. Jerry knows it, saying "the recurring fantasy of my life...is one of perfect continuous travel, this unending hop from one point to another, the pleasures found not in the singular marvels of any destination but in the constancy of serial arrivals and departures, and the comforting companion knowledge that you'll never quite get intimate enough for any trouble to start brewing". His view from aloft saves him from the gritty reality of the detritus of life--and from life itself.

This high-flyer must come to earth, however, when he finds that his daughter is newly pregnant, diagnosed with cancer and refusing treatment; his son, who is running the company, has piled up so much debt that bankruptcy is imminent; and his father has gone missing from his assisted living facility. Jerry can no longer say, with impunity, "Jerry Battle hereby declines the Real". Lee takes us on great side trips into the pleasures of food and recreational sex, his wife Daisy's death and his longtime lover Rita's almost endless patience. He weaves long, Miltonic sentences that start in one place and end up miles away--flights of fancy--trailing clouds of insight and poignancy. With Aloft Lee just keeps getting better. --Valerie Ryan, Amazon.com

Review:
'The prose Lee writes is elliptical, riddling, poetic - beautifully made.' The New Yorker

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherWheeler Pub Inc
  • Publication date2004
  • ISBN 10 1587246775
  • ISBN 13 9781587246777
  • BindingHardcover
  • Number of pages495
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781594480706: Aloft

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9781594480706
Publisher: Riverhead Books, 2005
Softcover

  • 9781573222631: Aloft

    Riverh..., 2004
    Hardcover

  • 9780747572480: Aloft

    Blooms..., 2005
    Softcover

  • 9780965901994: Aloft

    Blooms..., 2004
    Softcover

  • 9780747572404: Aloft

    Blooms..., 2004
    Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Chang-rae Lee
Published by Wheeler Publishing (2004)
ISBN 10: 1587246775 ISBN 13: 9781587246777
New Hardcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
The Book Spot
(Sioux Falls, SD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # Abebooks403783

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 52.20
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds