A Gesture Life — Vocabulary
Chang-rae Lee
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He treated the same man soon thereafter in the infirmary, in fact saving his life with some quick surgical work in relieving the building pressure of blood on the brain.†p.160.9alternate pages29 more

Two other men were to remain as sentries.†p.176.1alternate pages16 more

People heed my words.†p.95.6alternate pages9 more

Typically, officers would have the privilege of spending hours and sometimes whole evenings with a woman, but in this instance a special rationing had been instituted.†p.110.7alternate pages9 more

I appreciated her gentle, laconic manner and understanding mien toward my youth and naivety.†p.111.4alternate pages6 more

No doubt pristine and purchaser-ready.†p.67.7alternate pages5 more

Indeed, I have long felt that I ought to place my energies toward the reckoning of what stands in the here and now, especially given my ever-dwindling years, and so this is what I shall do.†p.5.4alternate pages6 more

I had tried to convince Sunny of all this, for it seemed certainly wrong for a young girl to know only a single adult, especially so if it was a man, but always she was vehemently against the idea, crying and going on whenever I persisted.†p.51.9alternate pages6 more

"It looks better than it is," she says somberly.p.215.1alternate pages5 more

I was walking down the wide, ornately papered hallway.†p.110.1alternate pages3 more

My initial impulse is to tell Veronica how she's absolutely right, how in this world (or the one we've made) beauty is the scantest blessing, and how, despite the appearance of ever-bestowed glory and celebration, it is mostly malice and misery that are returned to the bearer.†p.70.1alternate pages3 more

The doctor waited and then hit him again, and again the man fell down and then got back up to his feet, this time more tentatively.p.264.9alternate pages5 more

She escorts me instead to the automatic doors, and we make tentative plans again, contingent upon this and that, all of it contigent still upon Patrick and Patrick alone, and the sad and peculiar notion of waiting for a heart.p.127.3alternate pages5 more

And for that moment I would have gladly gone there, or anywhere, for there was nothing but an immaculate calm in my heart.p.49.3alternate pages1 more

…every last tint and scent of offending smoke steam-cleaned from the carpets, from the drapes, from the antiqued upholstery of the chairs, the place in showcase, immaculate, pristine and classic condition, appearing just as though I have not lived there every day for the last thirty years of my life.p.119.2alternate pages1 more

We were in my bedroom, and her spirit was ebullient with the clear light of the morning.†p.70.3alternate pages4 more

When I tried to examine the abrasion more closely she shook me off, her hands raised diffidently in that long-familiar gesture of hers, as if my closeness were an unbearable weight.†p.91.9alternate pages3 more

She wasn't as tall as the officer but her presence was remarkably severe and stolid and it didn't seem as though she were yielding any room.†p.86.2alternate pages3 more

There is an almost caustic discomfort in my lower chest and then down my right arm and right leg, what feels like lines of internal burns that sharply prickle and itch and ache.p.68.1alternate pages1 more

I say mercifully because it was never my nature to harbor such thoughts, which have always been near-caustic to me, but in respect to the doctor a vital, searing charge was propelling me, an ashen, bitter hate whose taste I no longer abhorred.p.263.3alternate pages1 more