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a scrupulous observer

Contents Edited and Designed by Ji Eun Seo

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a scrupulous observer

Changrae Lee

Lee was born on July 29, 1965, in Seoul, South Korea, the son of Young Yong Lee and his wife, Inja. Young Yong Lee had attended medical school in Korea, and went to the United States when Lee was a toddler for additional training to become a psychiatrist.

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After Young Yong Lee established himself in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he brought his family to the United States, including his wife, Lee, and Lee’s older sister, Eunei. Lee was three years old when he immigrated to the United States.

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Lee’s parents wanted him to assimilate to his new country and to that end, would only speak to him in Korean at home so that Changrae would learn English without a Korean accent. His mother did not learn English right away, and though she had a full life in Korea, she did not have as much of one in the United States. She pushed her son to do better.

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As child, Lee inhabited both cultures and languages. He did not speak in kindergarten, but linked English and Korean in his head.

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His family was greatly involved with a Korean Presbyterian church in Flushing, New York, where he got to be around other Korean kids. By the time he was ten years old, Lee translated for his mother when she had to deal with English-speaking people. He also was an avid reader as a child.

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writers are essentially wonderful readers. They understand how literature happens, not because they wrote it, because they have read it. –Changrae Lee

Princeton University, Office of Communications

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writers are essentially wonderful readers. They understand how literature happens, not because they wrote it, because they have read it. –Changrae Lee

Princeton University, Office of Communications

Lee did not always take the expected route for Korean-American children, which tends more toward law and medicine, according to Charles McGrath of the New York Times. He applied for admission to and was accepted at Phillips Exeter Academy, a high-profile East Coast prep school. After graduating from Exeter, Lee entered Yale University in 1983. He majored in English, and while he wrote short stories on his own time, he did not show them to anyone.

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When Lee graduated in 1987, he found a job working as an equities analyst on Wall Street at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, an investment bank. As in college, he wrote fiction on the side. He soon realized that his job was not fulfilling and that he wanted to write full time. Lee was also inspired by his roommate and friend from prep school, Brooks Hansen, who was working as a novelist. Lee soon quit his job at the investment bank to work on a novel.

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In 1995, Lee published his first novel, Native Speaker, a complex book with many plots and themes. At its center was the character Henry Park, a young Korean American who works for a private surveillance company as a spy for hire. Park has self-identity issues, and has recently suffered from personal tragedies. Park’s young son died unexpectedly and his wife, a white woman who works as a speech therapist, has left him at the beginning of the novel. Before she departed, she gave him a list of his faults, including his emotional distance.

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Henry Park is an appropriate person to tell the story.He’s an outsider, he is looking at this in the position that we might look at it.–Changrae Lee Princeton University, Office of Communications

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Henry Park is an appropriate person to tell the story.He’s an outsider, he is looking at this in the position that we might look at it.

Park also reflects on his father, an immigrant to the United States who works as a grocer, and the values he imparted to his son. Park does not fit fully into the culture of his father’s world nor that of mainstream America, and disavows who he is. He must confront his conflict and pain in the two cultures. Despite these problems, Lee’s character is a good observer, especially about language and its power.

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SourcesChang-rae Lee, Native Speaker Riverheadbooks, New York: 1995 Forest of Trees Publishing, Seoul, South Korea: 2003 Encyclopedia of World Biography New York Times Video: Princeton University, Office of Communications

CreditThis book is printed in Steinberg Studio at Washington University in St. Louis on December 2011. Typefaces used include Meta Serif, Meta Roman, Adobe Myungjo Std. The book bound, cover designed, and contents edited by Ji Eun Seo.