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Country Of Origin
A Novel
by Don Lee
An American girl disappears on the dark side of Tokyo, a world of hostess clubs and corruption, racism, and conformity. [W. W. Norton & Company]
W. W. Norton & Company, 352 pages
07/2004
$24.95
ISBN: 0393058123
Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Booklist Frank Sennett
Lee expertly weaves a tiny new pleasure into every page, from fascinating forays into Japanese culture to wry lines in the vein of "People don't have affairs to get out of their marriages. They have them to prolong them." [1 May 2004, p.1546]
Publishers Weekly
Sharply observed, at turns trenchantly funny and heartbreakingly sad, this novel could be the breakout book for Lee.
The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Margaret Cannon
The fact that Lee has successfully incorporated a mystery plot into a highly literary novel about race, memory and origin makes this book even more remarkable.
Boston Globe Roberta Silman
But beneath the surface of this novel are those nagging and eternal questions: How deep the desire to belong really is, how vulnerable the mixed-race individual feels as soon as he realizes what he is, and how that vulnerability affects all kinds of choices.
Chicago Tribune Alan Cheuse
Don Lee has made a plain-spoken novel about origins and destinations that succeeds rather effectively in dramatizing all sorts of questions about where we have come from and where we are going. [20 June 2004, p.C3]
Entertainment Weekly Rebecca Ascher-Walsh
An elegant and haunting debut. Like many good stories, it hinges on a taut plot and then widens in concentric circles to become a novel of ideas.
Kirkus Reviews
First-novelist Lee, the longtime editor of "Ploughshares," leaves no fingerprints: his cool, precise prose captures his characters without overexplaining them.
Library Journal Edward Keane
What makes Lee's work so satisfying is that while the mystery is used as a frame to support issues of race, exploitation, and identity, the narrative as a whole doesn't collapse under the weight of this literary ambition. [1 Feb 2004, p.124]
Los Angeles Times Ben Ehrenreich
Country of Origin too often reads more like an anthropological report or a travel feature about the exotic Japanese than like a novel of ideas...In the end, you're less enlightened or challenged than amused and baffled, shaking your head with Hurley at how flat-out foreign foreigners can be.
The New York Times Book Review Tessa Hadley
The unraveling plot isn't built with the right degree of ingenious tight fit. The few surprises aren't surprising or convincing enough; the final twist in Lisa's search for her roots, a nice curiosity in itself, doesn't feel adequately momentous to carry, as it must, the emotional weight of our loss and our discovery.
San Francisco Chronicle Amy Kroin
Underpinning the social commentary are the basic elements of the dime-store thriller; the resulting amalgam is a labored contrast to Lee's earlier work.
 The average user rating for this book is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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