About this Item
1st Printing. Signed. 343 pages. Published in 2004. The author's third novel. Now considered a contemporary classic. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Chang-rae Lee's "Aloft". His unblinking vision of the American Dream. "Set on affluent Long Island, it follows the life of a suburban, upper-middle-class man during a time of family crisis. Jerry Battle's favorite diversion is to fly his small plane over the neighboring towns and villages. Hence the title. When his daughter and her fiance arrive from Oregon to announce their marriage plans, he looks back on his life and faces his disengagement with it, his urge to fly solo, and the people he loves" (Publisher's blurb). Like many writers of his generation as well as those (like Amy Tan) who came before him, Chang-rae Lee's subject until now has been the Asian-American immigrant experience. What has always set his work apart is its serene, meditative beauty, as if he were reflecting as thoughtfully as he possibly could, on the paradoxes, the dilemmas, and the inevitable pain of the uprooted and transplanted individual. With "Aloft", he "broadens his range and proves himself a Master Storyteller, able to observe his character's flaws and celebrate his humanity" (The New Yorker Magazine). An absolute "must-have" title for Chang-rae Lee collectors. This copy is very prominently and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the title page by Chang-rae Lee. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. Chang-rae Lee's signature on this copy is one of the most beautiful we have ever seen. It comes with a pristine copy of the lovely 2015 Chicago Humanities Festival Souvenir Material during which event his signature was obtained. This title is a contemporary classic. This is the one of few such signed copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. A scarce signed copy thus. Selected by The New Yorker Magazine as one of the "Twenty Writers for the 21st Century". One of the most brilliant American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER CHANG-RAE LEE TITLES IN OUR CATALOG) ISBN 1573222631. Seller Inventory # 20070
Bibliographic Details
Title: ALOFT - Scarce Fine Copy of The First ...
Publisher: New York City, NY: Riverhead Books, 2004
Publication Date: 2004
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
Signed: Signed by Author
Edition: 1st Edition.
About this title
Jerry Battle, 59-year-old widower and father of two, retired from the family business--the unmistakably earthbound Battle Brothers Brick and Mortar--buys a small airplane because "From up here, a half mile above the Earth, everything looks perfect to me." All is not well below. Jerry knows it, saying
...the recurring fantasy of my life... is one of perfect continuous travel, this unending hop from one point to another, the pleasures found not in the singular marvels of any destination but in the constancy of serial arrivals and departures, and the comforting companion knowledge that you’ll never quite get intimate enough for any trouble to start brewing.
His view from aloft saves him from the gritty reality of the detritus of life--and from life itself.
This high-flyer must come to earth, however, when he finds that his daughter is newly pregnant, diagnosed with cancer, and refusing treatment; his son, who is running the company, has piled up enough debt that bankruptcy is imminent; and his father has gone missing from his assisted living facility. Jerry can no longer say, with impunity, "Jerry Battle hereby declines the Real." Lee takes us on great side trips into the pleasures of food and recreational sex; his wife Daisy's death; his longtime lover Rita's almost endless patience, weaving long, Miltonic sentences that start in one place and end up miles away--flights of fancy--trailing clouds of insight and poignancy. With Aloft Lee just keeps getting better. --Valerie Ryan
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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