Aust, US, Canada: migrant & native experiences; Films: My Year Abroad: A Novel eBook : Lee, Chang-rae: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store

My Year Abroad: A Novel eBook : Lee, Chang-rae: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store

My Year Abroad: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Chang-rae Lee (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3.9 out of 5 stars 556 ratings

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INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“A manifesto to happiness—the one found when you stop running from who you are.” –New York Times Book Review

“An extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements—and this is a book that moves…My Year Abroad is a wild ride—a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia.” – Vogue

From the award-winning author of Native Speaker and On Such a Full Sea, an exuberant, provocative story about a young American life transformed by an unusual Asian adventure – and about the human capacities for pleasure, pain, and connection.

Tiller is an average American college student with a good heart but minimal aspirations. Pong Lou is a larger-than-life, wildly creative Chinese American entrepreneur who sees something intriguing in Tiller beyond his bored exterior and takes him under his wing. When Pong brings him along on a boisterous trip across Asia, Tiller is catapulted from ordinary young man to talented protégé, and pulled into a series of ever more extreme and eye-opening experiences that transform his view of the world, of Pong, and of himself.

In the breathtaking, “precise, elliptical prose” that Chang-rae Lee is known for (The New York Times), the narrative alternates between Tiller’s outlandish, mind-boggling year with Pong and the strange, riveting, emotionally complex domestic life that follows it, as Tiller processes what happened to him abroad and what it means for his future. Rich with commentary on Western attitudes, Eastern stereotypes, capitalism, global trade, mental health, parenthood, mentorship, and more, My Year Abroad is also an exploration of the surprising effects of cultural immersion—on a young American in Asia, on a Chinese man in America, and on an unlikely couple hiding out in the suburbs. Tinged at once with humor and darkness, electric with its accumulating surprises and suspense, My Year Abroad is a novel that only Chang-rae Lee could have written, and one that will be read and discussed for years to come.

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Print length

491 pages

Language

English

Publisher

Riverhead Books

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Product description

Review

Praise for My Year Abroad

"A wild tale that moves coolly between satire and thriller . . . . Lee tells a story of what it means to be plucked from darkness into the light of recognition, and in doing so, explores the fundamental human desires to be seen and to love." --The Washington Post

"A wild-ride picaresque, wisecracking, funny, ambitious, full of sex and danger." --The New York Times Book Review

"Exuberant . . . Lee's writing style, as usual, is alive with wit and satiric social commentary... boisterous and fun." --NPR, Fresh Air

"My Year Abroad is an extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the sentence, symphonic across its many movements--and this is a book that moves. . . . My Year Abroad is a wild ride--a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman, and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia." --Vogue.com

"A moving saga about family and loss, embedded in what reads like a romp. Ultimately, Lee has succeeded in creating that rare type of novel, one which is both sneakily profound and a blast to read." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Dickens meets globalism in this new work from one of our most celebrated writers." --OprahDaily.com

"Chang-rae Lee's new global adventure is his most essentially American novel. . . . Long preoccupied with the ways identity holds people back, Lee now seems to want to write about how those things open us up, for good or ill." --Los Angeles Times

"Chang-rae Lee's propulsive dark comedy re-creates a Dantean descent into a globalism teetering on disaster. . . . a pulse-raising page-turner, with dazzling moments and a Saunders-esque riot of marketing gimmicks and junk food." --Star Tribune

"Reading My Year Abroad feels like watching a master juggler at work; Lee, the author of five other novels, highlights his accomplished literary skills within this kaleidoscopic, dynamic narrative." --Electric Literature

"A syncopated surprise, with an ending that will be sure to leave you texting all your friends." --NYMag.com/Vulture

"Chang-rae Lee's latest novel is about much more than a wild adventure abroad. . . . It's an energetic but tender exploration of cultural immersion, ambition and pleasure that takes many unexpected turns." --Time.com

"Equal parts insightful, suspenseful and darkly funny." --PureWow

"Tinged with dark humor and rich with commentary." --Fortune.com

"A riotously funny, bizarre, brilliant novel." --Medium

"Chang-rae Lee's electric new novel has the kind of kinetic energy that makes reading it feel like a full body experience, leaving you wondering and in awe of where exactly it will take you next. . . . a virtuosic, wildly original book--one that cements Lee's status as one of the most exciting writers working today." --Refinery29

"By turns dark, humorous and almost sneakily insightful." --GoodHousekeeping.com

"My Year Abroad is a strange and stirring amalgam: a tender novel about business, ambition, and appetite. With great generosity, and in a searching, democratic spirit, Chang-rae Lee describes the enticements, mirages, pleasures and catastrophes that attend not only the pursuit of wealth but the pursuit of happiness in all its forms, romantic, domestic, and, yes, gustatory. In Pong Lou, he has given American literature a character who deserves his place among other tragic dreamers, from Gatsby to J.R." --Jeffrey Eugenides, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Middlesex

For a quarter century now, from book to book, [Chang-rae Lee] has explored the ever-urgent themes of alienation, assimilation, and identity with unmatched assurance and acuity. He has redefined not only what it means to be American, but the fabric of the Great American Novel itself. --Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies

"My Year Abroad is a novel of astonishing wit and wisdom and scope, a globe-spanning story about those powerful first youthful encounters with love and evil and heartbreak and beauty. It's also, by the way, enormously fun to read. Chang-rae Lee is, clearly, a master." --Nathan Hill, The New York Times-bestselling author of The Nix

"[A] wildly inventive comic novel . . . Chang-rae Lee has written a surprising, spirited, keenly observed novel, full of the crazy and the profound." --BookPage, (starred review)

"Lee is supreme, and this high-velocity, shocking, and wise novel, avidly promoted, is emitting an irresistible magnetic force." --Booklist, (starred review)

"Lee is masterful from passage to passage. . . . A sage study in how readily we're undone by our appetites. --Kirkus Reviews

This literary whirlwind has Lee running on all cylinders. --Publishers Weekly, (starred review) --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Book Description

Large print edition --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Chang-rae Lee is the author of Native Speaker, winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for first fiction, as well as My Year Abroad, On Such a Full Sea, A Gesture Life, Aloft, and The Surrendered, winner of the Dayton Peace Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A 2021 winner of the Award of Merit for the Novel from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Chang-rae Lee teaches writing at Stanford University. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08HL86V91

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Riverhead Books (2 February 2021)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

File size ‏ : ‎ 3368 KB

Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported

Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled

X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Print length ‏ : ‎ 491 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 126,772 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)

91 in Asian American Literature

131 in Asian-American Literature

303 in Satire (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews: 3.9 out of 5 stars 556 ratings

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Top reviews

Top reviews from Australia

There are 0 reviews and 10 ratings from Australia

Top reviews from other countries

William Connors

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, preposterous story

Reviewed in Germany on 4 June 2021

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An amazing story, but rather preposterous. The main character has very slight Korean ancestry, and I would guess that Mr. Lee feels just as removed from his native Korea. In fact, the book deals more with Chinese in the US and China, and the only references to Korea are noodle dish and some Chinese-Koreans with thug-like looks. The main character Tiller, although while claiming mediocrity, is actually endowed with substantial skills whether using his two semesters of Mandarin, as a singer, and in bed with ladies. I suspect that his name has a meaning or maybe several: till the earth, to strive and cultivate or maybe he just has his hand in the till. His benefactor, Pong, which means an intimate friend in Cantonese slang, takes him on a strange journey that requires quite a stretch of the imagination. Not sure why he does this, although many details remain unwritten (e.g., how Tiller wound up where he did). Pong is your typical hard-working Asian immigrant with his rags-to-riches story and his “brilliant” parents with their downfall during the Cultural Revolution in China (a story that we have heard all too often and not sure why it is included). The book if full of erudite references, which sometimes seem like showing off Tiller’s (the author’s) intellectual acumen, but maybe they just make the book more interesting. There are words in Mandarin such as “feng” (crazy), but also ones in Cantonese such as “gweilo” for foreigner (but gwei is actually the word for devil, i.e., foreign devils). One man apparently speaks approx. 20 languages, including the five most important Chinese dialects and Finnish, which is the most difficult language in the world along with its related Hungarian. This and many other things in the book are not very realistic, but that’s not the point: it is all very entertaining.

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Spring

1.0 out of 5 stars Obsolete

Reviewed in Germany on 9 March 2021

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Boring, redundant. Does not even compare to "Native Speaker".

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carilynp

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny, twisted, crazy, and a wonderful protagonist

Reviewed in the United States on 10 February 2021

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I cracked this book wide open and could not stop laughing. Then some sinister stuff set in and I was a bit freaked out. While I had a strong urge to pull in the reins, I was simultaneously greedier for more.

20-year-old Tiller is stuck. In his small east coast college town having grown up motherless with a dad who is nice enough, but they are just two ships barely crossing in the daytime. We meet him in the Hong Kong airport on his way back from what is clearly some sort of random trip when he runs into a single mother and her son who are out of sorts and out of money. Destination New Jersey, all three of them, where they end up together.

Tiller and his new compatriots Val and Victor Jr. create the most unusual life together, which includes – a home in an off-grid suburb, perfect for the witness protection program which she happens to be in, little Veej (the kid’s nickname) is homeschooled, and they are sustained by a bottomless ATM card.

Things get weird. Like off the rails. There isn’t much background about Val, but we sure do go back in time about where Tiller has been, and it is like falling into a deep, slimy, dark cave that you want to shout at him to get the heck out of. It all starts with a man named Pong, a wealthy, charismatic Chinese entrepreneur who lures him into his world and machinations. Don’t even try to guess what transpires because unless you have met Chang-rae and had an intimate discussion with him about his book, there is no way you could begin to imagine. No spoilers here from me and I couldn’t attempt to explain it, even if I were on hallucinogens. Simply put gambling, karaoke, men’s clubs, fine dining and cheap eats, pain and pleasure. And lots of travel.

I love Tiller. He is funny and observant. He is kind and introspective and will break your heart because his was broken.

You will figure out that there are some deep similarities between the characters. Tiller’s mother was not in his life, he is drawn to a man whom he hopes will lead him in the right direction, more than college can, more than his own father seems to be able to. Val’s husband’s absence has changed the course of her life and as a result, made a profound impact on her son’s.

Tiller and Val both encountered trouble of no fault of their own. I don’t expect you to follow all of this. That’s why Chang-rae wrote the book and I didn’t.

MY YEAR ABROAD is no exchange program. It is like a trip to a carnival gone bad but with a chance for redemption with some interesting characters who don’t turn out to be what you expect at all. And they will keep you laughing. You just need to be able to stomach some twisted stuff. I have faith in you. I’m here for this book.

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25 people found this helpful

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Homer

1.0 out of 5 stars And they call this litarature?

Reviewed in the United States on 18 February 2021

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This is not a novel at all. Instead, this is someone who is trying to show how totally cool he is by hitting every "cool" cultural reference they can. As long as the "author" can demonstrate how hip and with it he is, it doesn't really seem to matter what the story is. Don't waste your time.

And Stanford University thinks this guy is good enough to teach creative writing?!?

By the way: the Pulitzer Prize is nothing short of a popularity contest. It has nothing to do with writing quality, it has more to do with how much the various institutions have put into getting their candidate to win. Clearly, Stanford wasn't all that invested on getting him to win (which makes me have maybe the tiniest little respect for the place.)

Save your money. Buy a book that is worth reading.

11 people found this helpful

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Matt M

2.0 out of 5 stars No real point or payoff to this one.

Reviewed in the United States on 10 March 2021

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I don’t know what to say about this book other than it meanders. The first 100 pages make you think there is going to be a big reveal and you keep reading to see what that is. It never really happens though. The main character is abandoned by his mother at a young age and has a very superficial relationship with his father. When he meets Pong a seemingly successful Chinese American businessman who takes him under his wing and to China on a trip the protagonist is clearly searching for something more than an apprenticeship. He becomes very attached to Pong and looks up to him in many ways.

This is only one half of the story however. The other half is about the main characters time with his girlfriend whom for various reasons in in the witness protection program. He lives with her and her son. The deeper meaning of this part of the story is superficial at best. Honesty it was hard to take this story line seriously after a while. Without any spoilers I will say this: the writing is witty and interesting. However, there are times when the story is not believable and you simply end up questioning why you want to read to the end. I wound up finishing it but considered giving up.

I gave this two stars because of the quality of the writing not for the plot or the character development. Both of which are lacking. This is an easy but long book that I am not sure I can recommend you spend your valuable reading time on. I really wanted to like this. I really did. It just didn’t work for me.

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7 people found this helpful

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Wednesday, November 17, 2021

My Year Abroad: A Novel eBook : Lee, Chang-rae: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store

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