53 pages • 1 hour read
Chang-rae LeeA Gesture Life
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-3
Chapter 1 Summary
The novel opens on the protagonist reflecting on the 30 years he has lived in the picturesque Bedley Run, 50 minutes north of New York City. Franklin Hata moved to the originally desolate Bedleyville in 1963 because it reminded him of the small city in Japan where he grew up. Known as good Doc Hata, he deeply appreciates the sentiment. Though Hata expected to be mistreated because of his race, the people of Bedley Run make an effort to welcome him.
Despite his nickname, Hata is not a physician. He simply ran a medical supply store in town, where many customers would ask him questions due to his friendly, experienced, and knowledgeable demeanor. People claim he too keenly seeks approval, and Hata reflects on the difficulty of understanding why people conduct their lives in a certain way, and in considering one’s own past without bias. Hata recently sold his store, Sunny Medical Supply, to a young New York City couple that has no experience in the business. He visits the store often to help its new owners, the Hickeys, learn the trade. At first, the Hickeys appreciate his visits, during which Hata practically runs the store. After some time, Mr. Hickey asks him to let them run the business themselves.
Three years pass, and on a morning walk, Hata finds the store’s display unchanged. He acknowledges the difficulty of making an interesting display for such a store but recalls how pleasing the storefront looked when he owned it. He steps into the empty, dwindling store, and the Hickeys begin discussing their finances and their son’s health condition. Mr. Hickey asks Hata what he wants and if Hata’s good friend from the bank told him to stop by. Mr. Hickey goes on to mention that the store is being foreclosed—it is worth a fraction of what they bought it for. Mrs. Hickey is embarrassed, but Hata understands from experience that even when a person behaves shockingly, it is best to try to “understand what is actual and essential to a person, and what is by indication anomalous, a momentary lapse that is better forgotten than considered time and time again, to little avail” (11).
As Hata leaves the store, Mrs. Hickey invites Hata to visit their son at the hospital and hands him a box of pictures she found in the attic. She asks about the beautiful young girl in them. Hata lies that Sunny was here for studies and went back to Japan. Back at home, Hata wanders to the room where Sunny once lived. He remembers the tedious process of clearing the room once full of wall hangings and filling hundreds of tack holes.
Chapter 2 Summary
Hata’s house—a two-story Tudor revival—is a special property in Bedley Run. Realtors regularly ask him to consider putting it up for sale. Olivia “Liv” Crawford, an enthusiastic realtor, calls Hata to reason with him about the impracticality of a retired man living in such a high-maintenance house. Hata says it’s not for sale and wonders where he would go if he sold it, as he doesn’t have any hobbies. Some ask why he doesn’t return to Japan, which he doesn’t miss as much as he once did. He does, however, miss the golf trips he took with medical supply wholesalers—he enjoyed being with fellow businessmen and took comfort in their surprising warmth. He remembers meeting a Japanese man who owned a store like his. Though he thought they would have plenty to discuss due to their similar age, race, and occupation, there was an unexpected awkwardness he later attributes to the “sudden and unmistakable sense of not fitting in” (19).
Hata admits he is near selling his house—he feels strangely disturbed by the “happy blend of familiarity and hominess and what must be belonging” (21). He heads to his pool to swim laps as he does every morning. Hata remembers one of Sunny’s novels, where a man swims in every pool in town before returning to his home locked up and deserted. He ponders its morals—the side notes suggest it is a metaphorical passage through life’s seasons. Hata feels such stories complicate rather than settle questions at hand, when one wishes to be enlightened by clear answers. Hata suddenly feels he is not swimming in his own pool, but someplace else. When his chest buckles, he leaves the pool and starts a fire rather than his usual shower.
Hata is burning old documents when he finds pictures of Sunny and the house’s renovations. He remembers how much Sunny hated the house—when he first brought her home, she cried and would not let him touch her. Hata spent years renovating the house and remembers cutting his hand while working on Sunny’s bathroom. When Sunny asked to help, he told her to open the doors and practice his favorite piece on the piano. He didn’t allow Sunny to help with chores, wanting her to focus on her studies and piano. Though she played beautifully, she never reached perfection and eventually stopped. Her quitting led to bad feelings and distance between the pair. When they spoke again, Sunny asked him to sell the piano: “you like having it around for what it says. About me. How I’ve failed” (30), and that she has failed her “good poppa who’s loved and respected by all” (31).
The phone interrupts Hata’s flashback—it’s Liv asking to meet Hata for lunch. The rug suddenly catches on fire, and Hata is enthralled by how controlled the fire is. Liv hears the smoke alarm as Hata falls to his knees.
Chapter 3 Summary
When Hata is admitted in the hospital, he is pleased to be surrounded by old friends and colleagues. Liv saved Hata from the fire and is overseeing repairs. Renny Banerjee—who once dated Liv—remembers a woman named Mary Burns that Hata used to date. Hata informs Renny that Mary died from liver cancer a year ago as he reminisces on their relationship. He hadn’t seen Mary in the end and learned of her sickness by chance during her final days. He wishes he had visited Mary once to comfort her and remembers when they first met. Mary was his neighbor and approached him while he gardened. Mary took interest in his gardening and spoke to Hata with familiarity. Though he didn’t wish to think about relationships, they were drawn to each other immediately. Mary shares later that she was surprised at her attraction to an Oriental man, and that he was “gentle-seeming, and charming” (51).
Hata had also begun speaking to Sunny about the possibility of having a mother but had failed to locate a suitable woman through old friends in Japan. Despite their unexpected attraction, Hata was concerned about the nature of their relationship and didn’t realize that Sunny did not need a woman in her life. Still, Mary made great efforts to connect with Sunny as a mother figure. She would take her shopping and help her with homework. However, Sunny always disappeared into her room upon their return as if she “was serving her sentence with [Mary] for the afternoon hours, and when [they] got home, she was released.” (54). Sunny’s coldness was barely perceptible—she was never unkind or complaining and seemed happy. Sunny never felt at home in Bedley Run, in their home, or even with Hata. When she first arrived at Kennedy airport, young Sunny had ignored Hata as she clutched her bag tightly and carried it to the car herself.
Mary never gave up on Sunny, reasoning that Sunny was just a girl and needed a woman in her life, even if she didn’t love Mary. Hata reminisces on one of the last times Mary spent with Hata before their relationship fell apart. Mary was to be a chaperone for Sunny at a teen dance, and Sunny requested that Hata not accompany them. Though Sunny reasoned that she doesn’t want two parent figures present, Hata notices her shape-forming dress and realized why she asked him to stay home. Mary confronts Hata for treating Sunny like a grown woman, acting guilty and obligated to do as she wished as if he once hurt her. As always, Hata immediately assented, which frustrated Mary. They left the topic as it was, and Hata realized that Mary held onto things more gravely than he ever did.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
A Gesture Life is narrated in the first-person perspective of the protagonist, Franklin Hata. Serving as a heavily opinionated lens into the story, Hata analyzes his place in Bedley Run with a tone of equanimity, though he explores the idea of why a person lives in the way that they do. He acknowledges the opinionated nature of viewing one’s own past: “It’s no secret that the past proves a most unstable mirror, typically too severe and flattering all at once, and never as truth-reflecting as people would like to believe” (5).
Hata’s actions are characterized by a deep desire to be accepted by others—he goes out of his way to do favors for others simply to build his reputation. He clings to his reputation by insisting on helping his old store’s new owners run it, interfering with their dealings. He enjoys being in the company of fellow businessmen not out of true friendship but because their willing company is a testament that they accept him. Though Japanese, he never fully explores or expresses any notion of feeling out of place, and he expresses clear discomfort when he meets with another Japanese American. At first, the awkwardness in their interaction makes Hata believe that they simply do not want to offend each other by making the other feel less Japanese or American. It is not until later retrospection that Hata realizes the feelings of awkwardness came from the two being the only Japanese in the crowd at the convention, and when faced with each other, the deeply buried notion of not fitting in becomes all the clearer.
When taking his daily swim, Hata reflects on the deeper meaning of a novel he once read, where a man swims through neighbor’s pools and finds his home locked up and deserted upon return. To Hata, the story seems to represent a quest or journey of spiritual disillusionment, and the man either is attempting to “free himself from the realities of his fallen station” (22), or even making a metaphorical fitful passage through the seasons of life. Such thoughts seem to confuse rather than answer questions, and Hata suddenly feels as though he is not swimming in his own pool and is someplace else, which causes him to swallow water and stop swimming. It is as though Hata himself is entering a new phase of his life, where the comforts of the life he has built is disrupted, both by the selling of his store, the real estate agents pestering him to sell his precious home, and feeling all too comfortable in Bedley Run.
Hata introduces his adopted daughter, Sunny, in bits and pieces, starting with Mrs. Hickey finding an old box of her pictures in Sunny Medical Supply. The relationship between Hata and Sunny seems cold and distant—rather than allowing his daughter to help with chores, he wishes for her to only play the piano, study, and read. There is a disciplined nature to their interactions, and the negative feelings brought about by Sunny quitting the piano pushes her to sarcastically call him “Doc”. Though he seems to appreciate when residents of Bedley Run call him by this nickname, Sunny uses the name in a derogative manner, mocking his desperate longing to maintain his reputation.
Through his relationships with others, it is clear that Hata keeps a distance from those he loves the most. Even when meeting Mary Burns, whom he seems to have loved, he keeps a distance and analyzes their relationship for the sake of Sunny having a mother figure. When looking back at her death, he simply wishes he could have seen her at the end in order to give her words of comfort—an odd sentiment on the death of a loved one. Hata doesn’t seem to have strong emotions about anything, living a half-hearted life of assenting to and pleasing all those around him.
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