Aloft

De: Chang-rae Lee

Narrado por: Don Leslie

Aloft offers a reexamination of the American dream from the inside out. Jerry Battle's favorite diversion is to fly his small plane solo, slipping away for quick flights over his Long Island home or to the coastal towns of New England. Then a family crisis occurs, and Jerry finds he must face his disengagement in his relationships: with his deceased wife, whose death he has never fully accepted; with his former girlfriend, whom he still longs for; with his daughter, who refuses to address the disease that threatens her life; with his son, who is in danger of losing the family business; and with his father, whom he has placed in a nursing home.

A haunting, lyrical, indelible portrait of an ordinary man and his family, Aloft illuminates in an utterly fresh way what it means to be a father, husband, son, and lover. Chang-rae Lee's most mature, fully developed work to date, it is nothing less than a piercing and profound study of the American character.

©2004 Chang-rae Lee (P)2004 Highbridge Company

Reseñas de la Crítica

"A truly moving story about a modern family." (Publishers Weekly)
"A fine and very moving performance." (Kirkus Reviews)
"The prose Chang-rae Lee writes is elliptical, riddling, poetic...beautifully made." (The New Yorker)

family redfined

If, you like me, think that your family falls under the current "dysfunctional" classification, then this is a book to give you hope and belief that, even though you may fall far from the american "norm", it is love that binds us together, and in the end somehow,triumphs over all our short comings and imperfections.
It did start out slow for me, but stay with it...it grabbed my heart somewhere, and still hasn't let it go.
I don't know that if I had "read" it , I would have experienced the same outcome, as the reader for me became Jerry Battle, telling his story, that I think, connects us to our own...

Russo without Laughs

I read this because somebody told me he was like Richard Russo and he is, amazingly so--but without the essential Russo ingredient of humour. A contemporary tale of regular east coast working folks who have complicated family relations and rich internal lives. Oh, do they ever. You'll never look at a landscaper again without wondering if he's having a Cartesian debate with himself or daydreaming of the sun setting over the Great Wall. The internal monolgues do go on. A big, generally satisfying novel with a bittersweet aftertaste.

A masterpiece and a perfect depiction of Italian Americans

Beautifully written, filled with compelling characters, and astonishingly true to life, Aloft is easily one of the best novels I have ever read. It perfectly captures Long Island culture, and is more the middle-class, suburban “greater NYC” I grew up in than the NY of any other highly regarded East Coast narrative. These are certainly the most believable and least cartoony Italians I’ve seen in fiction, at least in recent memory. Indeed, Aloft makes the overrated TV series The Sopranos look trivial and workmanlike in comparison, The book’s intergenerational conflict hits close to home and the “romance among the Boomers” storylines is effective. Perhaps best of all, the novel’s condemnation of contemporary suburban life is spot-on and welcome in its mercilessness. This novel is as engrossing as an airport potboiler and as brilliant as the best works of modern American literature.

boring

Tried multiple times to get interested in the main character or anyone else in this book but was unable. Found my mind wandering and unable to get into this story despite multiple re-listenings to the same passages. A mediocre novel.

Not what I expected

After reading several favorable reviews, I was looking forward to hearing this book. I was so disappointed, I didn't even finish it. I could not care less about what happened to the ranting,self-absorbed main character. The reader was probably appropriate for this character but, after a while, I got tired of the continual yammering and started tuning him out. He was like a tiresome relative who never shuts up. I was happy to ditch him and move on to something else.