A review by synoptic_view
Native Speaker by Chang-rae Lee

This novel covers an extraordinary amount of ground. It is a political thriller, a domestic drama, a multigenerational immigration story, a spy novel, a portrait of New York City, and more. So many different pieces get packed in, and they work surprisingly well together.

At its core, the novel deals with the complex thoughts about identity of a second-generation (Census definition) Korean-American named Henry Park. Henry's immigrant father owned grocery stores in New York, and their relationship provides the basis for many of Henry's thoughts about what it means to be of one culture or another. As a young adult, Henry works for a roughly sketched political/economic espionage firm that specializes in gaining the confidence of other recent American immigrants, providing further opportunity to discuss the immigrant experience. NYC plays an important role throughout--bringing different immigrant groups into contact and conflict and setting the stage for the political race that much of the plot deals with.

Finally, as the title suggests, the book also focuses on language--particularly the way that many immigrants in the story carefully polish their English to hide traces of the native language while occasionally slipping and letting accents emerge. This is reflected in the writing of the book itself. It veers from poetic lyricism to totally standard "airport fiction" to dialogue written in dialect. Like much else in the story, I wanted this choice to be elaborated on even more.